boostednoob

I'd like to address all of your bombastic remarks, but everyone else has picked you apart pretty well, so I'll just address the comment about short range urban transportation being a "solved" problem.

I disagree. The bicycle is not the complete solution. compared to a board. Their actually huge. you rarely see a cubical that you could fit a bike in and most businesses don't have showers after your sweating bike ride to work. I think a board/public transit solution is a huge step.

1) Choosing your house or apartment: If you could board a couple miles to any type of public transit stop this decision really opens up. I emphasize ANY public transit stop. Some buses can only hold 2 bikes, and have you ever lugged your bike onto Caltrain. They really haven't learned anything from Europe about ergonomics of a train stop. Sometimes you have to lug your bike up 4 feet of stairs onto one of those trains. The board is light and small and EVERYONE on the bus or train could have one. And think how it open your transit schedule planing to choose from stops in a couple mile radius. The rent you can save from this decision will pay for your board. 2) Cubical space: How sweet is it that you could park your board next to your desk? I'm totally getting one of those hooks from the kickstarter video. 3) No sweat: Sure, I guess you could get a (massive) electric bike, but frankly who wants an electric bike? Not cool. The zero sweat solution to your commute would be one of these boards. I'm sure you and your colleagues would prefer if your didn't sit in meetings covered in and smelling of sweat from your morning ride. You'll have to get the exercise somewhere else.

I totally agree. If you run into something on either vehicle it's going to hurt. If you aren't wearing a helmet, you could really get hurt. It is pretty apparent with the behavior of typical commuter boarders vs. bicyclists that they know which is safer. Most cyclists on streets actually don't wear helmets. Most boarders do.

With regards to breaking when you don't have a rock, curb, door in your face...You can program anti-lock braking into an electronically controlled breaking system. If you have enough understanding of the friction of the rider to the board and the boarder is experienced enough to know how position themselves during braking, that system should win as it can avoid skidding. Regarding experience level: on a bike it takes some experience not to just use the front brake only and drop your head on the pavement.

Until we see some stats about which group actually sustains more serious injuries, commuter bicyclists or commuter boosted boarders, the jury is still out.

Reread the statement you are commenting on. The reason that you don't want to ride this board in the rain is inherent to longboarding, not to electronics. It is entirely possible to design the mechanical enclosures of electronics to withstand rain, it is simply a design choice. If people shouldn't be longboarding in the rain, why design for it?