The following appeared in a letter to the editor of the Balmer Island Gazette."The population on Balmer Island doubles during the summer months. During the summer, then, the town council of Balmer Island should decrease the maximum number of moped rentals

In the preceding statement, the author claims that the decreasing of moped accident will occur when the Town of Balmer Island decreases the maximum number of moped rentals allowed at each of the island's six moped and bicycle rental companies from 50 per day to 30 per day. Though his claim may well have merit, the author presents a poorly reasoned argument, based on several questionable premise and assumptions, and based solely on the evidence the author offers; we cannot accept his argument as valid.

The primary issue with the author’s reasoning lies in his unsubstantiated premises. He assumes that the decreasing the moped rentals will help to decrease the moped accidents. Even though, the city traffic law could be one reason of these accidents. We don’t know what ages are allowed to ride moped, there isn’t a regulation about using the helmet or not, and the places that are determined especially for riding the moped. Furthermore, the author assumes that cutting off the number of moped rentals in Balmer will succeed as same as in the town of Torseau. Although, we don’t have any information about the Torseau town’s population or regulation so we can’t have accurate comparisons between them and to assume that they have the same issues. The author’s premise, the basis for his argument, lack any legitimate evidentiary support and render his conclusion unacceptable.

In addition, the author makes several assumptions and didn’t provide any study about the expectations. The author mentions that the population on Balmer Island doubles during the summer months which means it is a tourist’s site and an attractive place for people in the summer time. If we decrease the number of moped rental, it might affect the tourist number in the city and of course it will have bad results on the city income.

While the author does have several key issues in his argument’s premise and assumptions that is not to say that the entire argument is without the base. The city could have more regulation about the age of riders and their protection. Also, if the author could share more information about the other city which had a successful experiment, we can adapt it.

In sum, the author’s illogical argument is based on unsupported premises and in substantiated assumptions that render his conclusion invalid. It is not guaranteed that the decreasing the number of the moped rental for the company, will help in decreasing the summertime accidents involving mopeds and pedestrians. If the author truly hopes to change his reader’s minds on the issue, he would have to largely restructure his argument, fix his flaws in his logic, and provide evidentiary support. Without these things, his poorly reasoned argument will likely convince few people.