There's a guy I see every now and then who rides a recumbent here in Lynchburg, VA.
I think that it looks kinda goofy but I don't know his reasons for riding it. It's kinda hard to erase the image of how a bike is "supposed to" look.
And yeah, there's the image of how to stay up, why do they need a papasan chair (j/k), etc... people just aren't familiar with them.