Congrats on the new bike, coopman!
From checking at Sheldon Brown's
gear calculator, 44/22 for that bike's tire size would be 51.9 gear inches. 44/20 would be 57.1 gear inches and 44/18 would be 63.4 gear inches.
I know that on my 7 speed Schwinn cruiser that I prefer to pedal in 5th gear, which is 70.2 gear inches. But that can be hard for me in a strong head wind. Knowing how I shift down to 4th (62.8 gear inches) for some headwinds, I'd probably pick 60 to 65 gear inches if that bike was a single speed.
Which means the rear sprocket on that Electra would get changed to an 18 (63.4 gear inches)
if I were to own it. That should give a 20+% increase in forward speed for the same pedaling rpm.
By the way, the Electra's 44/22 is the equivalent of 2nd gear on my 7-speed Schwinn. Since it is flat here, 2nd gear never gets used.