Daystrom Institute

Well the whole franchise has issues with away mission equipment. They just beam down in their pajama uniforms, when they carry a phaser and a tricorder it's already a lot.

There's no point asking questions like this. Star Trek has routinely featured technology that is so powerful that it's world-breaking, and then promptly ignored it. The greatest modern example is the spore drive from discovery, but TNG has several as well.

Also in Stargate they apparently forgot cars exist

Interesting, for me unless I am riding a road bike with a really heads down sitting posture, I find leisurely bicycling around to be a fantastic way to see explore a place and notice things (as long as the place is bike friendly.. which in the US.....). Far more than getting around by car.

I can't go very fast even on my (small/cheap) ebike and have definitely noticed (even with not-the-best-eyesight) plants/animals, flooding, nearby infrastructure/locations, smells etc. on the trail. I wouldn't say 15kmh is "barreling" and is my average comfortable speed. Slowing down or stopping to walking around a bit is also incredibly easy (and a thing already you stop to rest/drink/eat anyways), but you can still make up for lost time if needed.

In the context of a show, I could see a lot of angles to this. From somebody remembering something they briefly saw to 1 person in a group investigating something (staying behind, rushing ahead, taking a sample etc), also successfully evading chases and camp-y rock ambushes.

Personally I'd also say that biking long distances just seems easier than walking/hiking. Maybe mechanical advantage (esp. w/derailleur) or the speed, maybe health issues, or maybe there's just something about the feel of it that's boring/taxing to me. I can't imagine walking 20 km but is something I've done a few times on my weak ebike.

I mean once you have flight/hovering vehicles than practically the only transportation that doesn’t make obsolete is a bicycle for transporting someone a mile or two daily from their spaceship to a residence or wherever.

How is using a bicycle clumsy? I mean I get if people don’t like bicycles but honestly a bicycle is just fun to cruise around on, they are the opposite of clumsy.

They could just take bmx bikes and beam down right into the action though, maybe even in the middle of a sweet handlebar spin. Are you going to tell me you don’t want to see bmx star trek action?

I am so tired of sci-fi futuristic cities that just replicate a highway in the sky complete with crazy stressful traffic and all. It is kind of embarrassing how big of a flaw this is for sci-fi art when a fundamental aspect of the genre is the attempt to gaze far into real and unreal futures.

It will definitely be a meme in the future that post apocalyptic US movies from the late 20th and early 21st century always have a protagonist driving around some kind of badass exotic car (?!?) that probably gets horrendous gas mileage even if you could get the gas... There is no food, medicine, water or even much oil but everybody is still driving the coolest car they can.

Meanwhile, if you raided a run of the mill bike store you could outfit probably a hundred or more people with easy to repair transportation that could transport them 40 miles in a day if need be.

Idk, I hope those future memes make fun of us good at least.

(I give the newest mad max a pass on this though since the cars are purposefully over the top and lots of people have dirt bikes at least)

hahaha yup good comparison

Because bicycling is pleasant af, why walk when you can glide? Yeah, you can just teleport everywhere but that is kind of something you can say about everything in star trek.

We love hoverbikes!