The Segway: A Pedestrian Friend or Foe?

Kudos to NYBC for taking the time to work out this recommendation. More kudos for having the courage to recommend a solution that allows bicyclists, pedestrians, and segway users to be partners, not opponents.

The Segway is a Vehicle and belongs in the street and not on the sidewalks with pedestrians.

As seems to be approaching consensus, I think the Segway is best compared to a bicycle--but we should acknowledge that bicycles themselves are and always have been the middle child in the US. This may be especially glaring here in Manhattan, where the cyclist is absolutely welcome nowhere, but it was true in my midwestern college town as well--cyclists, drivers and pedestrians formed a scissors-paper-stone of mutual hatred.

We've never made any real allowance for bicycles. Cyclists risk their lives in auto traffic and are obtrusive among pedestrians, and bike paths are far too few. The advent of the Segway, bringing comparable mobility to a new market of far less athletic people, only re-emphasizes that neglect in our city planning.

But none of this is a surprise. The Segway was designed with a mind to challenging the way we plan our towns, kowtowing to cars so thoroughly that pedestrians are sometimes unable to cross a highway for miles in either direction, and our commercial centers have substantially dissipated, replaced all too often by unholy Wal-Mart monopolies somewhere car's-reach away from the downtown areas originally zoned for business.

Of course the makers of the Segway know that their invention doesn't fit the plan. They're out to change the plan. Ultimately, this new beast is meant to displace cars, not pedestrians. But until those bike paths proliferate, until towns are made accessible without cars, the Segway will be at a bit of a loss despite its perfectly viable design and intent.

I might hazard that the push to allow the Segway on the sidewalk is an effort to give it some room to get established, so that the more difficult, and bitterly defended, concessions from automotive privelege can be won later on.

I agree with marcus Wigan: it's about a spectrum between walking and the largest, fastest imaginable form of ground transportation. (Let's leave out air, space, and water travel for now.) I've never even seen a segway, much less ridden one, but I have a feeling that segway represents exactly the kind of extension of our senses and powers that we find irresistible. If that's true, the segway will have constituents as passionate as bicyclists. We shouldn't fight one another. We should join forces to find the right place for light, quick, no-combustion vehicles. And it's not the sidewalks. Legislation or no, segways will never be accepted on sidewalks for the reasons stated by others.

Here in Toronto it's aggressive pimply teenagers, whose moms have always told them to stay off the roads on their bikes, that pedestrians have to worry about. You know the type I mean: boys, mostly. Kids who're saving allowance for a car to soup up, and kids who should know better but ride on the sidewalks anyway, maybe even enjoying the scare they evoke now and then as they brush past an elderly shopper or a parent pushing a stroller. Now into that mix add overweight cops and postal employees, too lazy to heft their lard without a machine to help out, unaware of their own ridiculous appearance. Atlanta everywhere!

Wheeled machines (I don't mean wheelchairs) belong on the road, pure and simple. The exception is a parent accompanying a cycling child, or the odd (altogether too common in some part of the United Suburbs of America) road that has traffic too fast and too close for cyclist safety, and no pedestrians because there's "nothing within walking distance."

Cyclists I know have a saying: if you have to ride on the sidewalk, pretend you're riding in someone's living room. The mistake is in thinking the sidewalk is solely a conduit for pedestrians, the way the road is a conduit for cars and bicycles. The sidewalk, as Enrique Penalosa has so clearly demonstrated in Bogota, is more like a park than it is like a road. It's a place for socializing, a mediating space between private and public. It's a slow place.

I'm in favour of the Segway's mass adoption, if it means fewer toxic cars and less need for parking lots in our cities--but I'm worried when I see that 20 U.S. states have passed legislation allowing it on the sidewalk. If it's "allowed" on the sidewalk, that's tantamount to saying it's "banned" from the road. And at 12 miles per hour, the road is where it belongs, next to bikes and in-line skaters (and other vehicles).

America is an over-regulated society, yet it has a larger share of disorderly conduct and crime than most civilized countries on Earth. Let us relax and give this marvelous invention a chance. DO NOT REGULATE IT. LET IT BE. If necessary, the smart type of regulation will come on time as Americans gain experience with the device. Any alternative to the automobile, which is currently threatening life and human existence in this planet, ought to be embraced with kindness, openess and cheerfulness.

This is just great. As if it wasn't tough enough to walk in America already, now you have to worry about getting run down by one of these things. We already have a problem with incomplete sidewalk networks, too-narrow sidewalks, unwalkable dendritic street layouts, the unpleasantness/danger of walking next to speeding traffic, and trip origins and destinations that are too far apart.

I personally think the Segway should be treated like bicycles. The technology is exciting, and I'm all for giving people alternatives to cars, but we need to realize as a society that the best form of transportation hands-down is walking. It is best for our health, it is best for energy consumption, it doesn't make us dependant on nations that hate us, it doesn't pollute, it is the most infrastructure-efficient mode, it builds community, it makes neighborhoods safe, it is inexpensive, it requires no storage space, and it allows us to build our cities densely and efficiently. In my humble opinion, all other modes of transportation should take a back seat to the pedestrian. Unfortunately, the reverse is usually what happens.

I know that there is a tremendous amount of hype about this thing but until it is proven that people will actually use this as an alternative mode of transportation, it should be regulated as a play toy (like a skateboard or razor scooter).

The Segway is a motorized bicycle with parallel wheels. It is capable of the same speeds as a bicycle (it has long been promoted as having a top speed of 18 mph - before pedestrian groups started complaining). The Segway has a longer stopping distance than a bicycle (the steeper angle between the center of gravity and front wheel gives a bicyclist immediate and stronger decelleration). It cannot lean into a turn as sharply as a bicycle. It weighs much more than a bicycle.

The rules of the road for vehciles and pedestrians are based first on maneuverability, and secondarily on speed. Pedestrian facilities and rules were never designed for the maneuverability or speed of bicycles. Bicyclists who behave as lawful drivers of street vehicles enjoy travel that is much faster and much safer than those who do not. Bicyclists who operate as pedestrians-on-wheels suffer higher injury rates, inconvenient travel, and put pedestrians at risk. Segway drivers, regulators and and manufacturers should learn from this experience.

I've encountered Segways every weekday since the Atlanta Police and

the Ambassador Force started using them downtown, and I must say I've

become rather fond of the silly gizmos. If nothing else they provide

an opportunity to chat with the police officers and Ambassador Force

officers (of course making them walk puppies would have the same

effect ...).

I'm a cyclist. Bikes are unsafe on sidewalks. Little kids with parents up against a 250 lb Segway and rider at 8 mph. would kill. Baby strollers, dogs on leashes, or elderly strollers would all be at risk with many others.

No on trails for many of the same reasons. Idiots with dogs on leashes abound on our trails. Does the expression "Cloths line" mean anything?

Stephan Louis

Cinn City