>>1835505I'm starting to think that kick scooters might be even better than bicycles.
Kick scooters take up almost no space on a sidewalk, their handlebars are very narrow, so even if they're not allowed on sidewalks a lot of jurisdictions don't care. Some places even forbid you from riding skateboards and scooters in the streets, they mandate you use the sidewalks. Times are definitely changing from when skateboards were banned on 99% of all sidewalks nationwide.
What I like about kick scooters is they're cheap and effective. A good one will be $50 to $250 max, and the better companies like Razor / Goped / Xootr all have a robust parts catalog so you can repair them. So your cost to entry is low, and the longevity of the platform should be huge.
Now, I acknowledge that kick scooters are not suitable for super long distance travel, that's a given. But anything between 3 to 5 miles is pretty effortless, and larger trips are definitely possible. I do 11 miles on my Razor pretty easily, and the terrain is very hilly, lots of 3% grades.
Do you guys remember that article that made the rounds on the internet? "A man who walks 17 miles to and from work has been gifted a bike and is now studying to get his driver's license after receiving $26,000 in donations to buy a car."
I bet you a whole dollar that poor bastard's new bicycle gets stolen. And I bet you another whole dollar that his car gets impounded after he fails to pay registration fees, insurance, etc. For his situation I don't think either a bicycle or a car are the right options. He's obviously poor as fuck. I think a kick scooter would have made the most sense for him. I average 6mph in hilly terrain on my kick scooter. The dude from the article lives in Oklahoma. All the articles show the whole area to be flat as fuck. He should easily be able to manage 10mph+ on a kick scooter on the sidewalks. So the 8.5 mile ride into work would only take 50 minutes or so.
