TheScooterScoop

(A line of Vespas stands outside the Vespa SoHo store on Crosby Street.)

New York City – Manhattan news: “The most important part of Ehron Sidel’s job as a mortgage banker for HSBC is face time with the client. And since Sidel, 24, ditched mass transit for scooter-commuting about two months ago – his clients and friends have been seeing his face a lot more.

Before he bought a Vespa LX in early November, Sidel spent hours each day waiting on subway platforms, waiting on crowded trains or waiting in bumper-to-bumper traffic in the backseat of a cab in the course of his daily trips to meet with business associates.

Not anymore.

‘The scooter has literally increased my productivity,’ he said. ‘I used to do maybe two appointments a day and now I do at least four.’

And last week’s transit strike? No sweat, Sidel said.”