Salsbury advertised the safety features of the Motor Glide - like "Can't exceed the speed limit but can keep up with traffic." Dealers pushed the safety aspects of the Motor Glide even further, with some calling it "absolutely safe."

Reality was somewhat different, however. With relatively small tires, a Motor Glide was especially prone to tossing the owner off the scooter when the front tire hit a big pothole or crevice in the road. And the small size of the Motor Glide made it difficult for drivers of cars to see the scooter when pulling out of a parking space or changing lanes. Accidents happened, some of them quite bad, as the sampling of newspaper accounts below shows.

The states were still sorting out whether and how to license the driving of motor vehicles when Motor Glides hit the market in the mid-1930s. Not all states licensed drivers, and not many people were licensed in states that did require a driver's licensed. Thus, many Motor Glide riders were unlicensed, and the Motor Glide rental places often rented scooters to unlicensed kids and adults. But the scooter makers likely lost many sales as the states declared that scooters were like cars and motorcycles, and required riders to have a driver's license. Boys under the age of 16 were a very big market for scooters, and sales of scooters to underage boys likely went down VERY significantly as the states adopted minimum age requirements to get a license.