Today, as the Texas Transportation
Institute (TTI) issues its biannual "Urban Mobility Report," Piaggio USA is reaching out via public relations to four-wheel drivers, encouraging them to switch to scooters to reduce traffic congestion
and pollution and to save money on gasoline.
Paolo Timoni, President and CEO of Piaggio Group Americas, tells Marketing Daily that he finds it odd that, although scooter
usage around the world has risen, "somehow only in North America is the usage of two wheels very limited. For the past three, four years, we have tried to encourage the [TTI] to learn about scooters,
to consider them as a solution."
When the last study was released in 2007, it found Americans are wasting a collective $78 billion and an average 40 hours a year sitting in traffic, per Piaggio,
maker of the Vespa scooter.
advertisement
advertisement
While governments and engineers work out plans for improvements to infrastructure that will cost billions of taxpayer dollars and take years to complete, Piaggio
thinks scooters are the immediate answer. It cites congestion pricing that was put into effect in London a few years ago. "Congestion delays were reduced 30% while two-wheel usage actually
increased," it said.
Timoni says Piaggio is investing in print ads in such trade publications as Scooter and Cycle World, which would almost seem like preaching to the choir. "The
size of our market here is small so that certain type of [other] media is too global in scope for our kind of activities," he says.
The idea of America becoming a Scooter Nation is taking hold,
Piaggio asserts. In dozens of cities across the nation, including Atlanta, Columbus, San Francisco, Denver, Seattle and Austin, Texas, local and state governments have launched and supported scooter
commuter campaigns in an effort to increase two-wheeled awareness and decrease congestion. Additionally, municipalities, college campuses and shopping centers far and wide are becoming more
scooter-friendly and installing "scooter-only" parking.
Today, says Timoni, "is a moment in the media debate of these issue. For us, it is a good time to remind people how we fit into the
picture."