'IT' is coming -- and it's legal on sidewalks

Seattle Post-Intelligencer ^ | March 18, 2002 | JANE HADLEY

[pt17]

If these Segways are supposed to be so safe and so impossible to tip over, what the heck is the crash helmet for?

Insurance premium reduction? Satisfying safety nazis? Fashion statement? Backup for gyro failure? Sidewalk rage? What? :-)

[Post Toasties]

Looks like Kastama's bill needs to be quashed soonest, so that legislators who are not too infatuated with the Segway to see its problems can consider sensible restrictions on its usage.

[scottiewottie]

Actually Jobs is a Corporate Welfare Whore veteran. He will effectively grease the palms of liberals and conservatives. Proof is this stupid law in the first place, just another check off the list.

Next? Condolezza Rice on one saying, "Zero Emissions! What can you do about my dog?"

Simple.

[SamAdams76]

Perhaps in your haste to pretend you have a point you've forgotten that people must share the public places (like sidewalks) with others, and they very well might choose not to have their already over crowded sidewalks cluttered with fast heavy large objects that pose a distinct and identifiable hazard to people around them.

Sounds like what those Chicken Little's were saying at the turn of the century when the motor vehicle was invented. They were horrified that these "confounded motorized contraptions" would be allowed on our public ways and did everything they could to ban them.

The Segways don't pose a threat to me. I just think people look goofy riding them.

[Post Toasties]

Kastama steered a bill through the Legislature that classifies the Segway as "having all the rights and duties of a pedestrian." Under the new legislation, the Segway is neither a motor vehicle nor a motorcycle, does not require a license to operate and can operate on sidewalks and in streets.

I see deaths in traffic with these things which are neither fast enough to get out of the way of automobiles nor narrow enough to share a lane with them.

[pt17]

Basically what we have in Segway is something too wide and fast to be safely used on the sidewalks and too wide and slow to be safely used in the street

There you go again, dis, making decisions on what's too big, too fast, to slow etc. etc. before it's even given a chance. Please don't run for an elected office.

[discostu]

Difference is they were full of crap. The car mixed pretty well with horses, early models went about the same speed as the horse. Also note that eventually, as the horse phased out and cars got faster, we had to completely change how streets work, including the most important invention: the stop light.

Segways are too wide to fit in bike lanes and too slow to mix with traffic (anybody that's ever been stuck behind on RV in the city knows what I'm talking about here). They're too wide to mix with pedestrian traffic and too fast to be safe during the inevitable collision with unarmored pedestrians. The one thing Jobs got right was that if these became big we would have to reinvent the city much like the car necessitated. But unlike the car these things pose an immediate hazard.

Wait until some dip runs into you on one of these things. I think you'll have a problem with it then.

[Post Toasties]

Sam Adams76 will no doubt gladly bear any barked shins or fractured ankles in the name of 'progress'.

[discostu]

Here's what you do. First, look at the damn thing. Notice that it's roughly twice as wide as a person on both lateral axis. Now look at their own spec that says these tings can go 10 MPH. Now go downtown tomorrow at noon and look at the density of foot traffic on the sidewalks. Then come back and honestly tell me you have no reservations or concerns about mising these things with that traffic.

God gave us the ability to draw logical conclussions from available evidence for a reason. Use it.

[river rat]

I agree..
They're called sidewalks for a reason!

Any town or city that permits these motorized vehicles on the sidewalk - will be sued out of existence after the first few walkers are injured or killed.

People that try to equate these vehicles to wheelchairs, or bikes - aren't thinking clearly.

If these "ITs" are to be utilized -- they should be restricted to bike lanes, or speeded up enough to use the surface streets.

At present -- the device is neither fish nor fowl... Wrong for the sidewalks - and too slow for the streets.
Semper Fi

[Post Toasties]

Maybe this is how the Left hopes to eliminate urban gas powered vehicles - slow down traffic to a crawl by permitting Segways to choke the thoroughfares.

[discostu]

Just so long as the riders of these things don't mind what's going to happen when they run into me then we have common ground.

The technology behind these things is really cool. And they're cute toys. They might even have a useful application but I haven't figured one out yet (had a couple of ideas but there's always big drawbacks). But what they are NOT is a good idea to put en mas on the sidewalks of the country, not anyplace that gets any serious foot traffic, and the places that don't probably won't be too interested in these things.

I think there's a large group of people that have been snowed by the gee whiz factor. They think these things are just too cool to suck. Unfortunately all the coolness is under the hood, and the hood itself is the source of the sucking. Oh well. Given the time between announcement and shipping there's a good chance these things will be the fad that never was.

[waterstraat]

$3000 is a bit too high.

[pt17]

God gave us the ability to draw logical conclussions from available evidence for a reason. Use it

There you go again, dis, telling me what to do. Anyway, how many people are injured in crowded airline terminals by those big, wide electric carts?

[Post Toasties]

Their operators are trained to always give pedestrians the right of way. You can't expect that from some cell phone using oaf on a Segway who's late for an appointment.

[dead]

They might even have a useful application but I haven't figured one out yet...

Drunken jousting contests in bar parking lots.

[discostu]

Sorry if requesting that you use your God given ability to think is too tall an order. Better not tell you to take a deep breath in this on...

But those big electric carts in airports and grocery stores are slow. The best ones make a fast walk, most are lucky to not get lapped by todlers on all fours. On top of that they're there for cripples that can't manage the walk, Segway is there for goobers that don't want to walk (the wheel chair he made that uses the same technology is a different story, you stand on Segway, anybody that can drive it can walk on their own).

Just another apples and oranges comparison.

[Post Toasties]

Speaking of these things at night in traffic - where's their damned running lights?

[discostu]

Fun purposes don't count. I figure these things will race real cool and will probably be yet another semi-pro layer on NASCAR within a few years. I think the frame design has a very chariot like feel, which gives some other interesting ideas (think wheel knives).

They might make a cool addition to blocking sleds too. Give it a little oomph on the initial impact.

But something useful... just can't think of it.