The Bicycle Car
 

Saw this on Craigslist:
http://houston.craigslist.org/bik/542708701.html

I remember seeing one of these about 1980 on my college campus. I was impressed at the time with how pointless it was. Too wide to get out of the way, too slow to go with traffic, even on 20 mph campus roads. I can see it being an attraction for the kids, though. Anyone know anything about these, who made 'em, etc? (I know there's been a bunch of velomobiles through the years, but they are scarce in the US!)

I've seen things like that on the beach bike paths in southern California. As you said, too heavy, too wide, too slow.

A local store rents them to people to travel the bike trail along the lake in Milwaukee. Mostly to tourist who are visiting and want to ride in pairs in a leisurely fashion.

It's a cool thing to do for less physically fit persons.

Other than that, I can't see a use for them.

Side-by-side two seaters, probably.

But modern velomobiles can be surprisingly fast, especially single seaters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velomobile