It's seems like the "getting to the station takes ten minutes" problem is easily solved with things like the Segway, if people could be expected to actually ride them.
Since I sometimes commute by Caltrain, I have been very interested in this "last mile or two" transportation problem.
A remarkable number of engineer/entrepreneurs have sprung up attempting to offer devices that solve it. Here are some highlights of what I've found:
Segway: easy to ride and reasonably fast, but expensive, and worse, much too heavy (100 lb) to pick up and take on a train.
YikeBike folding electric bicycle: looks not too hard to ride; a little slow, perhaps, at 15 mph. A technological marvel (anti-lock brakes!) but correspondingly expensive ($2000 for the 31 lb model, $3800 for the 24 lb carbon fiber model).
Trikke EV: a very creative design. Looks fun to ride, but a little heavy for this purpose (38 - 46 lb depending on model) and not particularly fast (13 - 16 mph).
Metroboard electric skateboard: reasonably fast (20 mph) and extremely light (~20 lbs depending on model). I have one of these and it's an impressive piece of engineering and fun to ride, but it does require substantial athleticism and, uh, a certain risk tolerance. Not a mass market product.
If those aren't exotic enough for you, a number of people are working on self-balancing electric unicycles (!!).
If we're talking about a "last mile or two" what's wrong with a conventional bicycle? These other things seem to be needlessly expensive and complex solutions to that problem.
The big problem with all of these though is they are all unpleasant in inclement weather and cold temperatures.
Conventional bicycles are bulkier than these other solutions, making them harder to carry onto whatever mass transit one is using. On Caltrain, for example, bicycles are restricted to a special car at one end of the train. On other systems like BART, bicycles aren't even allowed on many trains.
The other problem with conventional bicycles is that it's hard to go very far without getting sweaty -- depending on the weather, of course, and one's patience for riding slowly. It's nice to have power assist.
Folding bicycles can be compact enough to carry on any mass transit conveyance. The Metroboard is certainly quite compact and portable. Not sure about the Trikke.
I'd get a cheapo used bike and lock it at the station. Bike racks/poles are everywhere; personally, I think people carrying their Inspector Gadget $2000 foldabikes on the train are overestimating the utility of taking the same bike everywhere. As for getting sweaty, this is just the last mile we're talking about--if you get worked up on a 10 minute bike ride it's time for more exercise!
I think weather can be more of a perceived problem than an actual one, sometimes.
I ride a bike here in northern England. For two short rides of about 15-20 minutes each way, the chances of being rained on are pretty small; maybe ten times in a year? If you had a folding bike, then ten taxi rides on wet days might be a worthwhile yearly penalty.
Then leave a bike at the last two miles, go to any railway station in the UK and you will see thousands of bikes left for the last part of the journey.
Reminds me of the Gyro-X, a gyroscopic car someone built in 1967. I still remember reading about how the car could be made to stay perfectly vertical in turns, or even lean outward.
I think that problem is better solved socially than through engineering. Walking two times ten minutes every day will not harm anybody who is fit enough to travel by public transport. On the contrary, it would be a contribution to the fight against obesity. So, we should strife to promote this as a _free_ way to work on one's health.
Yes, the climate may be harsh at times, but that Segway will have trouble in a foot of snow or in a monsoon, too.
