Electric skateboards and beyond: testing the commute of the future

Americans could soon witness a revolution in public transportation infrastructure. In New York alone, a new subway line is nearly ready to open, and plans are afoot for a new Penn Station and Port Authority Bus Terminal. President-elect Donald Trump has proposed spending heavily on infrastructure, "which will become, by the way, second to none" - though details on exactly how are scarce.

But one glaring issue remains: How do people get to and from transit hubs - the first and last legs of a commute? "Many places were only built to be reached by car," said Adie Tomer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program. In places where owning a car isn't practical, this is as much of a problem as it ever was.

America has 50 bike-share programs now, but few span beyond the densest parts of cities. In short, we are left to hack our commutes.

Thankfully, there are gadgets. A crowd of companies is beginning to offer solutions, ranging from the wildly impractical to the so-crazy-it-just-may-work. I decided to take a few for a whirl.

But should you choose to do the same, you should probably check whether the gadget is legal where you live - whether you're trying to bring it on the bus, ride it in a bike lane, or just use it at all. Regulations vary widely, and I'd prefer that you not get arrested or ticketed.

• The $1,499 OneWheel is exactly what the name implies: a single wheel, flanked by platforms for a rider's feet and stabilized by inertia sensors. To ride, simply step on, lean forward slightly, and off you go. The OneWheel will cruise at up to 15 miles per hour, has a range of about seven miles, and recharges in 20 minutes. The single wheel is big enough to handle most obstacles, from potholes to small curbs. It will even cruise over grass and dirt. Riding is fairly easy, especially if you have experience with other board sports.

The OneWheel was clearly designed with fun in mind, not commuting. Plus, it's heavy - almost 25 pounds - and awkward to carry on a bus or train. But if you're a snowboarder stuck in an office job, you might be willing to lug it around for those few moments of freedom at the beginning and end of your day.

• If one wheel isn't enough, perhaps you'd prefer four. Starting at $999, the Boosted Board is a bamboo longboard capable of cruising at 18 to 22 mph for up to 14 miles, depending on the model. The battery recharges at a rate of one mile of range per minute of charge, so it's nearly always ready to roll.

The board was conceived with short journeys in mind. As a graduate student in robotics at Stanford University, Boosted Boards co-founder and chief executive officer Sanjay Dastoor found there were places he wouldn't go because they were both too far to walk yet too close to justify taking the time to unlock, ride, and relock a bike. "The board was designed to maximize the time you're spending moving productively toward your destination," he said. "Walk outside, put it down, take your trip, pick it up, and go inside."

Riding the Boosted Board is laughably easy. You control the single motor or dual electric motors via a wireless remote. Push the controller's wheel forward with your thumb to move forward, push it back to go in reverse or activate the brakes, which, in turn, charge the battery. Everything about the Boosted Board seems solid. It feels like a beautifully made tool, not a toy.

The board is fast enough to keep up with traffic on crowded city streets, perfect for carving clean arcs around slower-moving cars or just holding a steady line if you find a clean section of a bike lane. The turning radius, however, is not great. Redirecting 90 degrees requires a bit of foresight, but it's a small price to pay for the stiffness and stability of the board.

• Razor Inc., a company best known for children's scooters, recently found an opportunity with former children: Its coming line of products will have wheels and platforms large enough to handle adult riders thumping over potholes.

Unfortunately, the new line wasn't quite ready for testing, so Razor gamely sent over its E300, a $269 electric scooter that will go 15 mph for up to 40 minutes, with the rider just standing, not scooting. The model I got my hands on features a deck as wide as a longboard, bump-absorbing pneumatic tires, a twist-grip throttle, and a front brake.

In three days of testing, I never felt that I had achieved the promised speed, and the throttle took some getting used to. There was no way to roll on the power slowly; it was either on or off. During a particularly cold day, the machine died after just 3.5 miles. Winter takes a toll on Teslas, too, but they have battery charge indicators, which are sorely needed on the E300. As I resorted to kicking the thing home, I managed to smack my foot on the rear of the extra-wide frame several times.

The truth is, each of these gadgets seems more gimmick than solution. For commuters who can't stand walking, the dream of the not-so-distant future would be fleets of small autonomous vehicles capable of shuttling passengers short distances between transit hubs and their ultimate destinations. Car-sharing networks like Car2Go and ZipCar are already giving us a glimpse of that future.

Uber, meanwhile, sees profit in extending the reach of public transit. It has forged partnerships with nearly two dozen transit agencies, city governments, and housing developers in order better to link homes and hubs. As part of a trial this summer, for example, riders on the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority received 40 percent off Uber rides that began or ended at select rail stations.

Lyft, in turn, is integrating its services into mobile ticketing systems so people can buy a train ticket and a Lyft ride at the same time. Eventually, "the differences between these services will blur for customers," said Emily Castor, director of transportation policy at Lyft. "Transportation will become seamless." Google and Apple Maps are leading the charge when it comes to this sort of integration, allowing people to book rides in the same place they go to get directions in the first place.

Lyft co-founder John Zimmer believes private car ownership "will all but end" in major U.S. cities by 2025. "Cities of the future must be built around people, not vehicles," he wrote in a recent blog post.

The future sounds great. But for now, we have to make do with the vehicles, be they big, expensive ones or little, quirky ones that test our balance-and sometimes our pride.