If you ever ride in one, perhaps then you'll learn you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about here. Vision in my velo is not limited. It is a head out design and I have full awareness of traffic around me. In fact I have fuller awareness than in my car because I can hear traffic as well as see it approaching.

You are very visible to cars. Velomobiles are uncommon and very well noticed. I am more likely to cause an accident I'm not involved in, from people slowing down to check me out, than I am to actually be involved in one.

The way you handle a group of bikes traveling at 15mph in a velo is to pass them just like you would in a car.

Many people who use velomobiles, like myself, do so for daily commutes. I have been riding trikes and bikes on roads with and without bike lanes for seven years now. The only accident I ever had with a car happened when he pulled into a crosswalk for which I had the walk sign. I've yet to have a collision while traveling on the road with cars.

But it could reduce your reliance on a car and allow you to make a lot of trips you would otherwise use a car for. In my case, my wife and I share a car. We both work and I bike commute. So most days I take a bike or trike, rainy days I take the velomobile. In addition many of the trips we take to the grocery or the local mall we do by two bikes rather than a car. When children come along we'll add trailers and then tag-alongs to the mix (which my velo will pull a trailer as well).

I think many families could remove one car from the equation by bike and/or velomobile commuting. The velomobile, being faster in general, and especially an e-assit one, greatly extends the range at which human powered commuting becomes possible.

Actually velomobiles have been gaining popularity year over year and more manufacturers have been arriving on the scene. The Quest, which is one of the oldest tried and true designs, has been upping production every year for a number of years now. They publish how many they build on their website: http://www.velomobiel.nl/orderboek/index.php#productie They also licensed the design to Blue Velo in Toronto who makes them for the North American market.

Velo manufacturers used to have waits of several months to over a year. Only in the past couple years have the waits on average gotten down to around 5 months or so. My particular velo took about 7 months to get to me from when I first started contacting the US dealer.

I agree, figuring out how to lock it is a hassle. But it's also about 90 pounds with gear that isn't easy to walk off with and where exactly would you fence it? A theif would be putting a big "I stole this" sign on himself if he ever took it out for a ride. That's assuming he even knew how to operate it, which while not hard, isn't something you just jump in, and ride away with.

Side winds are not a significant issue. Yes they can affect the velo, however it is a trike and not so prone to tipping over.

My velomobile is the most visible vehicle on the road. Routinely at stop lights, when the light changes, I'll hear honking across the intersection as I begin to pedal through. This is often because the cars across the way in the front of the line are too busy looking at me to notice that light has changed.

The only places in which I'm concerned about height are parking lots where speeds there are slow anyway. A number of velos are equipped with horns. I know several velo riders who use air zounds which are quite loud.

Many sports cars are just as low or in a few cases lower than a velomobile.

Who shot first is the difference between murder and self defense. Order of actions do matter.

So what I'm hearing is you're an arrogant engineer.

Every bit of feedback I've ever sent them has gotten implemented. When first using the GOG downloader I sent them feedback that it's annoying I had to queue individual bonus content pieces one at a time. Few months later they updated and now you can add all bonus content for a game in one click. Later I gave the feedback that for any Dosbox based games they should have Mac versions. Lo and behold, today my purchase of Syndicate I can now download for Mac as well.

GOG rules!

This! The walk lights across 156th make me want to tear my hair out. They take forever to change.

Do you also find yourself wandering into other lanes because you don't see the traffic markings on the road? After all, they're pretty low, being as they're flat with the pavement. I've never understood claims that a recumbent is harder or too low to be seen. On any of my recumbents I am always passed with much greater margins of safety than on my uprights. In addition, the height I'm at with the recumbent bikes is still higher than most sports cars and in addition puts my face at eye level with the majority of cars.

Actually moving against traffic on the sidewalk is the MOST dangerous way a bike can travel. Cars pulling out from side streets to make right turns do not see these cyclists. Riding in the road on the right side of the street is the actually safest. Even riding on the sidewalk going the correct direction is more dangerous for a cyclist than being in the road. Again, because people pull out of side streets and driveways and don't check the sidewalk, yet they always check the road.

This! I fucking abhor those buttons. What a useless backwards change that makes it harder to distinguish the things you care about. I've gotten mostly used to it. But it doesn't change the fact it was a very poor change on their part.

Please mod parent up!

Excellent. I'm glad you find your drive relaxing. From your statement of 70mph and 40min I definitely got the impression that was not the case, like you drove fast to get it over quick. I definitely agree 40min free sailing is much preferable to 30min in gridlock. And whatever city you lived in, sounds like I'd move the hell out of as well.

On both of my short wheel base recumbents, I am at eye level with most traffic. The only exception would be larger trucks and SUVs, and that's only if I'm very close to them. From even a short distance away I can see the driver and generally see that he or she is aware of me or not.

On my tadpole trikes and velomobile, which are most definitely not at car eye level, it actually works to my advantage when being passed. Most drivers don't want to be responsible for killing me any more than I want to be killed by them. That means, when passing me, they give me a much wider berth that on any of my bikes, either upright or recumbent. Because they can't see exactly how far away I am from their door when I'm beside them, I rarely have a driver try to "squeeze by" in an unsafe manner.

I have not tried a recumbent low racer, so I'm not sure how I would feel on one in traffic. They lack the width of a trike that tends to get noticed and discourages close passing. And many them are lower than even most tadpole trikes. So, not quite sure I'd feel safe on a low racer. But again, haven't tried one, so don't know how I'd really feel out there in the world on one. I thought I'd feel unsafe on my velomobile without a flag. However, I've discovered that's my most noticed vehicle of the bunch. It's probably more likely to cause an accident I won't be involved in than to actually put me in danger (I once had a woman stop driving on a two lane road next to me to take my picture on a hill climb).

Add one from the Northwest. I love my Brompton. We're waiting on one to arrive for my wife.