IT wouldn't be all that useful where I live because we're very spread out and because of weather. I live about 12 miles from my work. If I tried to ride IT to work, it'd take about an hour while exposed to the elements. That's assuming I didn't end up as a hood ornament on someone's SUV during the trip (never a safe assumption here). Last week, it was about 3 degrees F when I drove to work in my heated car. The trip only took about 25 minutes in comfort verses an hour freezing my butt off on an IT. Nope, I don't see myself buying one of these things anytime soon.

However, the machine could be very useful for people who live and work in urban areas like the downtown regions Kamen describes. Driving a car and parking is both time consuming and expensive in those areas. Whenever I think of a special purpose machine like this, I think of the trip my wife and I took to San Francisco last summer. Driving there while doing the tourist do-dah was a pain and parking was even worse. If the machine could handle the hills, I can see it being very popular as a tourist runabout. I would've gladly rented a couple of them while we were there.