Bicycles that fold are everywhere these days, helping commuters with complex bike/bus/subway commutes. An MIT group just brought the folding bike concept to a new level with a folding electric motor scooter. The small white scooters are battery powered and use only 150 parts, compared over 1,000 in a typical gas-powered model.

While we could imagine scooting to work, folding the bike and bringing it upstairs to charge, the bike's inventors have other ideas. They'd like their scooters to be used as part of a one-way rental system, similar to one that exists in Paris for bicycles. You swipe your credit card at a local scooter-charging station, scoot to your destination, and when you're done return it to any charger location in the city. It's a good solution if you're in a pinch (and reminds us of Zipcar), but we hope that the bikes will be for sale as well.

Smart Cities via Gizmodo