I realized my world was divided into: places I could walk to, places I could bike to, and places I could drive to.
Where I live (downtown Palo Alto), driving is a hassle because of traffic and parking. Driving is annoying, boring, frustrating, life-wasting... basically I hate driving and use it only as a last resort.
Walking is great, but it's slow. It's really time-consuming to walk anywhere beyond a few blocks.
Biking is pretty fast, but still a bit of a hassle because I have to bring a heavy U-lock and worry about my bike. "Where is my bike and is it OK?" is always in the back of my head, which makes it harder to enjoy whatever I'm doing. Also biking doesn't leave any hands free to carry things.
Now I have a Boosted Board with a 6-mile range. For any trip under 3 miles, it is:
* Faster than walking, biking, or driving.
* More fun.
* No extra hassle, nothing to worry about.
* Leaves 2 hands free to carry stuff like groceries.
So it's opened up this whole 3 mile radius of things around me that I previously wouldn't go to. Now these places feel like they're at my fingertips. It feels like my world got smaller.
Is it really faster than biking? How?
I imagine braking on this thing is not as good as on bike--harder to control stability, also smaller surface contact area. If you cannot stop fast, you cannot afford to go fast...
On a bike I can usually blend into city traffic, draft large vehicles, weave through traffic jams, or hop on to sidewalk. Doing the same with longboard would require serious skill (and be probably less safe), I think.
I have a Metroboard, and definitely feel less safe on it than I would on a bike at the same speed. The big problem is the relatively short wheelbase -- it's not hard to go over the front of the thing when braking. The Metroboard controller is pretty smart and applies braking force gradually, to give you time to lean back -- but that means stopping distances are longer.
On the whole, I thought it a rather wooly way to go 2 miles from my house to the Caltrain. For trips around 1 mile or less I think it would make a lot of sense.
Yes, it's really faster than biking. I average 12mph on the boosted board. I know because I use a GPS app on my iphone to monitor my rides. This is unfortunately necessary because my prototype board does not have a battery gauge, so I need some idea of how much battery I have left.
I also weave through traffic. I don't know how to evaluate whether it's more or less safe than doing the same thing on a bike or motorcycle, but it doesn't feel any less safe.
12mph average is respectable, now this gets interesting...
As for comparing safety, one could
1) compare time to stop with different brake types, on different surfaces, in a straight, in a corner
2) gather statistics on traffic accidents and injuries
Have you actually tried carrying a motorized longboard? I did. They ARE bulky. That's what actually stopping me from riding a board to do my groceries. And I wouldn't even consider riding it to the office.
But, who knows, maybe these guys will be able to make a board that is not ridiculously bulky. [Make a lighter 10 lbs version, with 5 miles range, and I'm yours. Even for 1k.]
I've seen a good number of people bringing longboards into coffee shops and places like that. I'd imagine it would be harder to bring it into a fancier establishment, though.
