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Segway was supposed to change the world. Two decades later, it just might

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Re: Segway was supposed to change the world. Two decades later, it just might

#61

Post by m4x »

goatlover wrote: post #29
notlion wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal electric vehicles are completely symbiotic with public transit, that's why they're called "last mile" vehicles; because you take mass transit to within a mile or two, and then hop on your scooter, e-board, EUC to go the rest of the way.

Wouldn’t walking or cycling be healthier?

I enjoy walking and cycling, but not for my commute. It takes an hour to walk vs. 20 mins to cycle or scoot. If I cycle I arrive unavoidably sweaty. My scooter is fantastic for commuting. When I want to walk, I go to the lake with my wife.

Re: Segway was supposed to change the world. Two decades later, it just might

#62

Post by m4x »

Retric wrote: post #5
Svexav wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You expect a high speed train station outside your front door? Awfully optimistic of you.

Little need for high speed rail when you’re talking about daily commuting. Personally may last five apartments have all been in short as in under five minute walking distance of a subway, that’s the advantage of living in high density areas.

If you live, work and shop within five minutes of subways then you have no real use for a scooter. That isn't the case for most people, however. We can't all move to the big city.

Re: Segway was supposed to change the world. Two decades later, it just might

#63

Post by m4x »

cauldron wrote: post #25
briandear wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ride my EcoReco electric scooter from Mountain View to Cupertino every day. It’s great and I don’t have to wait on buses. Are you going to spend billions to run a train from Mountain View to Cupertino? In the meantime, I have a heck of a fun commute.

It's dangerous, weather matters.

... and yet scooters (and bikes) still work brilliantly for briandear, myself and thousands of other people - and at a much lower cost than driving a vehicle or installing rail.

Re: Segway was supposed to change the world. Two decades later, it just might

#64

Post by m4x »

ehnto wrote: post #17
xapata wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars aren't the only way of getting to "the last mile." Closing the last mile has been public transit systems' problem for a long time. Cars changed the world. If scooters change the way people think about public transit and distance within cities, it could very well change how people consider where to live and how to organize cities.

I think you may have misunderstood. I want cars gone. But the public transit system isn't good enough in many if not most places to warrant that, regardless of the last mile, so we should fix that first. Fixing that would change the world (incrementally). Scooters have been around for literally decades, even electric scooters have been around for a while. Changing people to accept a bit of physical effort to get to t…

How would you fix public transport though?

Public transport is terrible in my city, but it's really because the population is too low to support anything better rather than because of any particular problem with the service. There's no fix, except to somehow increase population density by a factor of five.

Any proposed improvements are likely to take years or decades to complete, too. Meanwhile you can stop driving and start scooting tomorrow.

It's also worth noting that scooters are great for much more than just the last mile. I commute 20 km per day on my scooter.

Re: Segway was supposed to change the world. Two decades later, it just might

#65

Post by m4x »

davidmr wrote: post #33
village-idiot wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Replacing the car for last mile transit is world changing, if it happens.

Other than for people with limited mobility, can you help me understand why people think this is so? To me, it seems like evolution solved this problem for us when we became bipedal. It’s entirely possible (even likely) that I could just be a crank, but I genuinely don’t see the point of scooter rentals for healthy, sufficiently mobile people.

I can commute by foot (which takes slightly over an hour), by bike (which takes 20 mins but leaves me noticeably sweaty), or by scooter which takes 20 mins and has no downsides. In practice, if I can't scoot then I drive a car because wasting 80+ mins a day or arriving everywhere sweaty just doesn't cut it for me. Buying a scooter has revolutionised my commute.

Re: Segway was supposed to change the world. Two decades later, it just might

#66

Post by Retric »

m4x wrote: post #62
Retric wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Little need for high speed rail when you’re talking about daily commuting. Personally may last five apartments have all been in short as in under five minute walking distance of a subway, that’s the advantage of living in high density areas.

If you live, work and shop within five minutes of subways then you have no real use for a scooter. That isn't the case for most people, however. We can't all move to the big city.

That’s a fair point, but they are also rather useless in the ultra low density country or extreme urban sprawl. They are really only extremely spread out US style cities. Where, cars are almost useless, but you can’t really walk to everything useful.

Re: Segway was supposed to change the world. Two decades later, it just might

#67

Post by Retric »

all2 wrote: post #31
Retric wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Little need for high speed rail when you’re talking about daily commuting. Personally may last five apartments have all been in short as in under five minute walking distance of a subway, that’s the advantage of living in high density areas.

High speed rail would allow people who live in Milwaukee and Madison to commute to Chicago, and vice versa. What is a 3 hour drive would become a 45 minute commute, which is reasonable considering the distance. Cost of living drops off as you leave metro areas. Like another responder to your comment noted: people pay for convenience. I'd say cost is a disadvantage of living in a high-density area.

High speed rail can’t do multiple quick stops. So, you can get to a city’s center with it, but acceleration and deceleration times plus station time means you are stuck with subways for in city use. You can’t use high speed rail and and a subway system to move very far and still have a 45 minuet commute.

So, now you need to live near HSR and your job also needs to be next to HSR in order for that trip to work.

Re: Segway was supposed to change the world. Two decades later, it just might

#68

Post by cimmanom »

davidmr wrote: post #33
village-idiot wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Replacing the car for last mile transit is world changing, if it happens.

Other than for people with limited mobility, can you help me understand why people think this is so? To me, it seems like evolution solved this problem for us when we became bipedal. It’s entirely possible (even likely) that I could just be a crank, but I genuinely don’t see the point of scooter rentals for healthy, sufficiently mobile people.

Speed. When that last mile is actually a mile and half, a 9-mph scooter will let you travel it from the train station in 10 min, which is reasonable in terms of time; whereas a half hour walk on top of your train commute time probably isn’t. It makes not driving much more viable in some situations.

Re: Segway was supposed to change the world. Two decades later, it just might

#69

Post by cimmanom »

goatlover wrote: post #29
notlion wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal electric vehicles are completely symbiotic with public transit, that's why they're called "last mile" vehicles; because you take mass transit to within a mile or two, and then hop on your scooter, e-board, EUC to go the rest of the way.

Wouldn’t walking or cycling be healthier?

It’s faster than walking. And just try cycling in a skirt suit.
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