I live in Seattle, it's cold and rainy all year long (more or less). I still prefer using my bike over a car (though I have no problem with small car that replaces big car.)
I also live in Seattle, bike to work three days a week, and don't mind biking in the rain and cold.
Even so, I think mobility vehicles like this are excellent and should absolutely be part of our transportation systems. Sometimes you:
* Have a disability that prevents you from biking.
* Need to pick something up from the store that won't fit in your paniers.
* Want to bring a passenger who doesn't bike.
* Need to bring a small child who can't bike or doesn't have the endurance.
* Need to carry something you can't get wet and won't fit in your panniers.
* Are going somewhere nice and need to arrive without your hair and clothing discheveled.
* Won't have a safe place to park a bike.
* Need to leave something with your vehicle and want to be able to lock it away.
There is a reason cars are so popular. They are amazingly useful and convenient. I dislike arguments against cars because so many of them try to downplay the benefits as if car consumers are idiots. The benefits are real and profound. The problem with cars isn't that they aren't as great as people think they are. It's that the externalities often don't make the benefits worth it.
Any vehicle that can give you many of those same benefits while reducing those externalities should be applauded.
Thank you so much for posting this sane response. As the spouse of someone who can't walk due to a disability (and also can't move themselves in a wheelchair), reading these discussions where people assume everyone is young, able-bodied, and lives in great weather gets really tiresome. It often feels like they're intentionally not arguing in good faith because some of the points are so obviously incorrect.
I don't think that's an assumption (it's certainly not one for me). Bikes are great, most folks could use bikes. Some folks cannot, and we should ensure our spaces are available to all of us.
And I deal with a similar issue in my own life -- not due to a disability, but due to another form of discrimination. Believe me, I'm well aware that spaces aren't designed for everyone. If I gave the impression that bikes were the only or universal option, then of course I apologize!
Of course. I explicitly tried to say this -- bikes are fantastic, small cars like this are ok too (though, building for cars carries a lot of externalities with it).
You are weird. I am a born-and-raised PNW resident and a very small proportion of the population can tolerate having to wear a rain suit to bike home from work or go to the grocery store for 6-8 months of the year.
Do the napkin math on how many of the residents (don't forget children and old people) in your neighborhood bike year round vs. the number who use a car daily. Being on a bike seeing the few other people who bike in the rain is a form of availability bias.
