By JOSEPH KELLARD and ALEX COSTELLO
"I'm about the only person in town happy about gas prices," Marshak said.
Marshak opened his shop, at 112 Austin Blvd., in June 2006, and sold 15 mopeds that year. He sold 85 in 2007. In February, before gas hit $4 a gallon, he noticed that more people were buying his scooters, and already this year he has sold 135.
"My sales have gone up unbelievably all over," he said. "The sales all over the United States, my Internet sales, my regular sales out of our showroom have gone up tremendously."
Marshak said that while his friends who own scooter showrooms in Queens ran out of stock, he predicted the rise in sales and planned accordingly. "I have stockpiles of scooters in my warehouse," he said.
Marshak's scooters start at $1,300 and go as high as $5,000. Their top speeds range from 30 to 80 mph, most of them get between 80 and 100 miles to the gallon, and insurance can run as low as $50 a year. "It's cost-effective when you think about what gas and insurance cost," he said.
John Hanechak of Island Park bought a scooter from Marshak in October and uses it to shop for food, commute to the train station, and head to Long Beach and to East Rockaway, where he docks his boat. Hanechak said it seemed like a more sensible option given the increase in gas prices. "It just didn't make sense to keep using the car," he said. "As long as the ground is dry and it's not very windy and it's over 40, 45 [degrees], I ride it."
Mike Puma, an NYPD detective who lives on the Oceanside-Baldwin border, bought a scooter last month to get to and from the train station, but on weekends he rides it to the West End beaches in Long Beach. Puma's moped goes 100 miles on $5 worth of gas. "When I went to register it," he said, "the woman at the DMV said that she's registering more scooters than cars right now."
While the state Department of Motor Vehicles was unable to provide statistics on the number of mopeds registered so far in 2008, its data shows that Nassau County had 687 registered mopeds in 2007, the third-highest county total in the state, behind Suffolk (1,069) and Erie (741).
It was in Italy, where scooters are much more prevalent, that Claudio Balestra first started riding one. He has been riding his scooter from his Island Park home for three years now. Balestra takes it to work in Deer Park. "They're practical and convenient," he said. "I fill up for $8."
Cosmo Donato, a general contractor who lives and works in Long Beach, bought a scooter from Marshak last year to do routine estimates and minor jobs instead of burning gas in his work truck. "Especially from June to September, there's no place to park," Donato said. "So to go see a customer by truck is ridiculous. It doesn't make sense."
Donato also hops on his moped when he needs to buy small items that are easy to carry, and on weekends he rides it to Island Park, where he keeps his boat. The moped gets 80 miles to the gallon and costs him $75 a year in insurance.
Marshak said that many Long Beach residents, from the West End to the canals, have bought mopeds from him to ride to the train stations in Long Beach and Island Park each morning. He has approached both the Village of Island Park and the City of Long Beach to encourage them to install scooter racks at the stations. "You can fit three scooters in a regular automobile-sized parking spot," he said. "It'd be no problem."
West End resident Susan Hilberer said she has noticed that more delivery businesses and residents in her neighborhood are using scooters. Hilberer is now on her third moped, having bought her first a few years ago from Black Ice, a shop on West Beech Street that has since closed, in order to avoid having to park her PT Cruiser. "But it was so much fun to drive, I started taking it everywhere," said Hilberer, who rides her to Waldbaum's on Park Avenue, to Roosevelt Field and even as far as Montauk. Its speedometer tops out at 50, and she gets 80 miles out of $6 in gas.
Does she ever drive her car anymore? "Yes, for long trips and car-pooling," Hilberer said. "But if it means losing my parking space on the weekend, I'm not driving it."
Eddie Oliveria of Harbor Isle traded in his motorcycle for a scooter because he got "too old" for the Goldwing. While he gets about 60 miles to the gallon on his scooter, he bought it mostly because he loves the feeling he gets riding it. "I drive it all over," Oliveria said. "I take it to the city, I take it to Westbury, to Costco. It's got a lot of storage room. There's always a spot to park. And the insurance is $95 a year."
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000, ext. 213.
