City officials and residents have conflicting attitudes toward electric scooter. And in many places, its regulation still falls into gray areas.

Why people love electric scooters

Boosted, a startup founded in 2012 that debuted with its flagship electric skateboards, is a newcomer to the market. The company touts its latest product Boosted Rev, which started shipping last month, has “vehicle-grade durability.”

Its E-scooter electric scooter has a top speed of 24 mph, can go up to 22 miles on a single charge and has three brakes, including an electronic one, according to the company. It costs $1,599, compared with Segway and Xiaomi’s scooters that range from $400 to $800.

“We've adopted a lot of the fire safety and impact and durability standards from the automotive industry for electric cars and adopted them to the standards we've built,” said Boosted’s CEO Jeff Russakow, who compared the company’s approach in electric scooters to Tesla's.

Own or share? What's next?

Fang said there might be markets for both buying and sharing. But to accommodate the electric scooter ATV and other micro-mobility options, cities need better infrastructure, he said, such as enough bike lanes, which are ideal for scooter riders who might feel unsafe riding with cars that go 25 to 40 miles per hour on main roads but would endanger pedestrians on sidewalks.

Cities are adapting fast though, Zarif argued. “It's getting there. I mean, think of it as when the first car got in the road over a hundred years ago,” he said. “The roads weren't built for the cars, but eventually they started building the right infrastructure."

Is riding an electric bike good exercise, or just convenient transportation?

It can, if you ride right, according to a pragmatic new study comparing the physiological effects of e-bikes and standard road bicycles during a simulated commute. The study, which involved riders new to e-cycling, found that most could complete their commutes faster and with less effort on electric bicycle than standard bicycles, while elevating their breathing and heart rates enough to get a meaningful workout.

But the benefits varied and depended, to some extent, on how people’s bikes were adjusted and how they adjusted to the bikes. The findings have particular relevance at the moment, as pandemic restrictions loosen and offices reopen, and many of us consider options other than packed trains to move ourselves from our homes to elsewhere.

UK-based White Motorcycle Concepts has revealed the WMC250EV — a new, all-electric motorbike that aims to claim an EV land speed record by hitting 250 MPH with ease.

Its creator, Robert White, thinks it’ll hit 250 MPH because of some very clever aerodynamic attributes, namely the huge gaping hole that falls right in the center of the bike. Looking like an air tunnel, the “V-Air” duct encourages air to be pushed through the gap rather than around the bike like conventional motors. This design reduces drag by up to 70 percent which, again, makes the bike incredibly slippery so that it can pierce through the air at speed.