One thing I, as a racing-type cyclist, suffered from was the feeling that it was somehow “unfair” that people would have assistance cycling, but it's really an entirely different beast: there's cycling, and then there's transportation by means of a bicycle. By all means love your bicycles – I like mine very much – but pedelecs don't really detract anything from you.
A pedelec won't make people lazier, it enables them to use their bike loaded heavier, in worse conditions[1] and with less effort which is important if they aren't terribly fit or don't want to sweat on their way to work. This translates to more people riding. I'd argue that there's enough exercise involved to actually get direct health gains, but even assuming there's not, we still get the benefit of fewer cars on the roads and a better environment for cycling when drivers and politicians are forced to really pay attention to it (it may shock you to know that in many places in the EU, while certainly better than most of the US, cycling life still is a bit dangerous and inconvenient).
[1] The weather in the winter here is such that bike commutes take 50-200% more time than in the summer even when you work twice as hard. I know a few people who run an electric in the winter: the result is that they get to ride at an effort level comparable to that in the summer.
And while I would not pay the exorbitant price for this thing, I would gladly pay a significant amount of money for a modern folding bike. Say, with a carbon fiber frame instead of a steel one.
Bicycles can hardly be considered an old technology. While Da Vinci had already sketched some designs in the late 15th century [1], the first prototypes could not be built before the early 19th century.
The first recognizable version of the current chain-driven models was only produced in 1885. [2]
The chain-driven bicycle is not as simple as it looks.
[1] http://www.ltolman.org/davinci.htm [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycles
The 'driving force' for bicycles has stayed virtually the same (human muscles), but the transmissions and layouts have been improved steadily. Only the advent of hybrid electric-and-muscle driven e-bikes can be seen as an actual revolution in cycling technology.
There have got to be hundreds.
Traffic lights and air brakes, 1868
Four-stroke internal combustion engine, 1876
toilet paper, 1880
Rayon, 1884
Steam turbine, 1884
Gas-powered automobile and motorcycle, 1885
dish-washer, Coca-cola (is that an invention?), 1886
radar, contact lenses, 1887
AC motor/transformer, 1888
cordite, 1889
escalator, 1891
zipper, 1893
Vs the first pedal-equipped bicycle, developed by Pierre Michaux, Pierre Lallement and the Olivier brothers in the 1860s.
Pretty much anything. Of course some of these methods are still in use today, depending on where you look.
Some people don't have showering facilities at work, or do not want to carry a change of clothes with them. An electric bike is less likely to produce a stinky cyclist.
Don't want to get sweaty? Just use your gears and slow down. You don't run to the corner store, you walk. Likewise with cycling to work - it's easy to travel at a comfortable pace that won't leave you sweaty or out of breath.
Personally, I ride slowly to work, and fast back.
The enhanced pedaling makes you stronger not just faster. That means less sweating.
Where is the point in cycling if you don't have to use your own muscles to ride?
Because sometimes you have the energy and sometimes you don't. Sometimes you're ok with sweating and sometimes you aren't. Some days are 100F degrees and some are 60F. Maybe you're not strong enough to maintain your speed up a hill by your house but you're ok for the rest of the trip. It might lower that one part of the trip from "too hard" to "doable" and it's one more person getting more exercise and driving less.
It's good if everyone bikes more but the whole point of a commuter bike is that the exercise part is secondary. First is getting from point A to point B daily and conveniently.
Puerto Rico just announced proposed penalties for these modded bikes, which seem a bit harsh: http://www.elnuevodia.com/noticia_noticias_politica-879951.h...
In the case of the vehicle in the article, it is transportation.
For instance, I live in the Puget Sound area, across from Seattle. If I were to get a job in Seattle, my commute would consist of driving my car to the ferry terminal, paying something like $15 for transportation for me an my car to Seattle, then driving on to work. Reverse the process to come home. $30 in ferry fees for the day.
With a device like the one in the article, that could be changed to driving my car to the free park-and-ride lot near the Ferry terminal, riding the bike to the terminal, folding it up and going on as a walk-on. In Seattle, I could then unfold the bike and head on to work. Reverse the process to come home. The ferry fee for walk-on passengers is $7 in one of the directions, and free in the other direction.
In under a year, the $23 per day saved in ferry fares would pay for the bike.
A regular bike would simply not work for me for this. The hills in Seattle would be too much for me.
I would do the same, if only we'd have a decent shower at our workplace, so that I won't smell all day after a bike-ride from home. Nevertheless, I can't wait for this winter to be finally over so that I can take my bike for photo-taking rides outside the city I live in. (if it matters, I'm a fellow (East-)European whose city doesn't have that many bike-lines, but it doesn't matter anyway, cause I've first ridden a bike on a national road at age 12, so nothing scares me :) ).
As a matter of fact, bicycles are one of the oldest and most refined technologies available to us. They are marvelously efficient, they are light and versatile. Adding an electric motor and battery makes them heavy, limits your range and decreases the amount of control you have over the bike. Which is nice for, say, elderly people.
And maybe you are American and you don't know this, but many European countries have excellent biking routes everywhere and cars actually brake for cyclists. All that talk about cycling being dangerous is mainly an American problem. In most other countries, bikes are actually a lot safer than cars for the simple reason that they don't go as fast.
I think bicycles are plain fun. I ride my bicycle to work whenever I can. I love my bicycles. All three of them!