Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/12/cityq-a-four-wheeled-midpoint-between-bike-and-car.html
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Might be good for golf-cart communities. 
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We’re only a few steps (ha) away from Flintstones technology.
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Removing the chains isn’t as good as it sounds. Chain drive is 98% efficient. Pedal powered electric drive train efficiency is around 60% at best.
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2018: back injury pinched my spinal cord between the 3rd and 4th lumbar, which is the nerve that controls your right foot. No more driving for me! But damn, I need to get to work and back and it’s 4 miles to the nearest bus.
E-bike saved my life. That thing will flatten hills. Pickup truck and SUV drivers tended to be the biggest problem since they would honk and yell “get on the sidewalk!”. Then go back into their shell when I was stopped at a red light staring at them. Cowards.
You can do 20mph on those things without even thinking. Just make sure it stays charged because they ain’t an Italian race bike; we’re talking serious weight and if you don’t have the motor going you’re in for a serious work-out.
More e-bikes and bike lanes!
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I’ll wait for an amphibious version. I need something that is the midpoint between bike, car, and boat. And maybe helicopter.
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I bet you’re the kind of person that wishes sporks came with a serrated edge.
No luck on the helicopter there.
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Ka-Bar makes a spork with a knife in the handle, while the bowl of the spoon is a bit too small the knife part is super stabby and I highly recommend.
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I was about to post that, along with a pic of the one I carry in my pocket. Glad I read the rest of the comments first! 
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I don’t mind it. Cycling and walking gain safety in numbers, so anything that shifts away from bigass cars & trucks is a good thing. I’m hoping that ebikes etc are a gateway drug for real change in that respect.
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Remove the pedals and it looks like a more elegant and usable version of a mobility scooter. I have friends who could get in and out of one of these but do not have the mobility to pedal.
(And if the angled split-screen video on the CityQ site is an example of a coming trend in corporate marketing videos, they can just fuck right off and stop it right now!)
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But why wait when you can just build one yourself, like I did:
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That looks interesting. However, the large windscreen without any wipers (I can’t see one at least) means that it will be unusable during a rainy night - reflections of headlights in raindrops on the windscreen will make it impossible for the driver to see anything. If you wear glasses, you will know what I am speaking of.
I’ve been meaning for some time to report a big story about this chimerical trend in micromobility—I need to get off my butt and do it.
When you do, make sure you also cover velomobiles - these aerodynamically enclosed cycles allow speeds not usually associated with bikes, and so allow to do commutes of 20km (one-way) and more in a reasonable amount of time. Most modern velomobiles avoid a large windscreen due to the problem mentioned above. There is a comprehensive knowledge base on velomobiles, written in a crowd effort by people who ride velomobiles every day.
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These do look of relevance to the issue at hand. But for many (in the UK, at least) they will be too reminiscent of the Sinclair C5 problem. Too low to feel safe. And that was many years before SUVs and crossovers were a thing. Today, it would feel even worse, given the height of so many ‘normal’ cars on the road.
I suspect it is a similar reason that means recumbent trikes haven’t really caught on, despite being ergonomically better for many who would find standard bicycles too hard (the less fit/more infirm in general, who could pedal, but prefer to sit/lie and not have to balance).
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There is (was?) an annual amphibious human-powered vehicle race/parade in Oakland:
A lot of the entries were pretty silly and didn’t float very well. Fun to watch though!
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I started cycling an ebike to work three years ago, initially because my fitness wasn’t great at the time and was worried about not making the full ~20km to work. Since then I’ve done about 13,000km on it, with enough actual exercise involved that I’m fitter than I have been for years.
Luckily we live 400 metres from the off-road paths that head to the CBD so at least 85% of the ride is either on trails or separated bike lanes. That being said, we do have the same hating-on-cyclists thing happening so that last 15% is never much fun.
Still, one decision I’ve never regretted.
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YAHPV – yet another human-powered vehicle. I wonder how it would fare in the next La Vuelta de Bisbee.
BTW recumbent and semi-'bent bikes have been banned from competition for close to a century because too fast. We’ve ridden our BikeE’s to work and travel, no problem.
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