Oh, I know all about those scooters. I think you're comparing apples and oranges though. You have to balance the scooters, and they are not really "friendly" to older people or folks with health problems...MS say. Segways are much more oriented to that market.
Another point of difference is the wheels. The small wheels on the scooters are easily turned with even small irregularities. The result could be a thrown rider or collision with a pedestrian.
Segways really strong point though is the reaction. A scooter has to be driven, while a Segway operates to very small inputs from the rider, almost as if it was reading your mind. You "wish" it to go forward and it does. Because of that a Segway will intermix with pedestrian traffic much better. That is why I believe Segways should be allowed on sidewalks in most areas.
Sadly here in PA we can't even ride the scooters on the sidewalk (legally). They have to be licensed and insured as motor vehicles and run in traffic on the street. We don't see too many of them, LOL.
On the other hand I could see a Segway blending in much easier with no need for all the red tape.
As to the cost I'm actually beginning to think it's pretty much OK. At 100-500 bucks kidz are more likely to grab a scooter and careen carelessly through pedestrian traffic. However the cost of a Segway pretty much rules out - but admittedly does not eliminate - a simlar situation. Scooters are more for kidz, Segways are more for adults.
prisoner6
I'm not comparing apples and oranges at all, I'm comparing Nissans to wannabe limos. A scooter is a scooter is a scooter. The Segway might be a more feature rich scooter but that doesn't make it not a scooter. The only real question is do the extra features justify the 10x price tag, so far the market doesn't seem to think so.
Given that other scooters are narrower than the human shoulder (meaning they don't add lateral space to your footprint) and the Segway isn't you'd have a muh better chance of blending the razor-style into pedestrian traffic than a Segway.
The problem with the cost is it limits sales. Segway is being marketed as a mode of transportation (Segway Human Transport... the initials of SHT really helps remind us that there weren't enough voices in those meetings). Now your marketshare that's looking for a scooter as a primary or even secondary mode of transportation are basically people looking to move up from bikes but not all the way up to cars. So they're looking for something inbetween the $200 - $400 of a bike and the $4000 - $6000 for a used car. Ooops, Segway is $5000, priced right out of the market, our shopper can use that same money and get something with a roof, passenger room and trunk space. Sure it's not a fancy car, but on those cold PA January mornings that heater will be the big winner in the decision matrix. To effectively compete it's got to get the price down to hundreds, thousands simply will not cut it, and isn't.