Scooter Taxis in Paris

My friend Ms aawaters on the NY Scooter Club Forum found this interesting tid bit in the Wall Street Journal today:

This morning's Wall Street Journal reports on the Parisian company Citybird, a taxi service that relies on select Piaggio and Suzuki scooters.

"A quick analysis also indicated that large motorcycles were too big to squeeze through traffic jams and too costly to operate. Instead, they selected top-of-the-line Piaggio and Suzuki motorscooters, which are cushier than the compact and classic Vespa. The models use about half the fuel of a large motorcycle and offer lots of storage space for bags. And the partners figured that for most trips, it wouldn't matter that scooters don't move as fast as motorcycles."

Citybird's target customers are an upscale crowd. The main appeal: guaranteed punctuality and significantly shorter trips. During rush hour, Citybird promises it can slash the travel time between central Paris and the airport from around 90 minutes to 30 minutes.

Comments

[Joe Grant]

I've scanned the article and posted a link to it on my blog (I should add that I am a subscriber, although it still is sort of cheesy to do this!).

www.theducatikid.blogspot.com

Cheers!