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So I have another perspective on this as well - I've actually had occasion to use Segways in a work environment and let me tell you what they're extremely good for and what they are terrible at:
They're great a crossing large expanses of wide open spaces in a hurry. They're perfectly suited to an area with very large setbacks, buildings spaced far apart, it makes crossing a large parking lot a breeze.
They're terrible in congested, crowded sidewalks.
In otherwords, Segways are useful in low density environments where there is little chance of an accident and people will not walk or find walking to be extremely unpleasant.
They're much much much less useful, even a hinderance in the dense urban environments advocated by new urbanists who want to see more people on the street in closer quarters with more interesting stuff to look at or interact with as you walk.
So, really, Segways are perfect in a mid-20th century vision of the future - towers-in-the-park Jetson's kind of vision.
But for new urbanism and new urbanists - no, they don't really mesh.
Dean Kamen had a vision for a clean vehicle designed to work within the constraints of existing infrastructure. He envisioned people leaving their home on their Segway, rolling onto a bus or train and then continuing on to the office. It was designed to go through a standard doorway and to be used on a sidewalk.
It does have built in security and a means to lock it to a rack. The primary purpose was to extend the walkability range to reduce driving.
It seems like instead of applauding inventors who are trying to find solutions to our environmental challenges more people find greater satisfaction in celebrating their failures even though these solutions are necessary for our future prosperity.
Other countries are capitalizing on the advantages of finding solutions to our environmental and societal challenges and will have a leg up when the problems become apparent to the masses.
Other countries have embraced the Segway and it's use is commonplace?
That's what I was thinking -- too risky when pedestrians are moving that much slower than the Segway, which doesn't seem to have a pedestrian's ability to maneuver quickly or to stop on a dime. And if a wayward pedestrian crashes into another, the risk of injury isn't as great.
That's what I was thinking -- too risky when pedestrians are moving that much slower than the Segway, which doesn't seem to have a pedestrian's ability to maneuver quickly or to stop on a dime. And if a wayward pedestrian crashes into another, the risk of injury isn't as great.
Sounds more and more like a big, expensive, bicycle. Going to Davis, pedestrian vs bicycle altercations were always fairly likely to occur despite bicycles taking over the road and pedestrians on to sidewalks for the most part. There was some walkway/bikeways that were "mixed-use" and it often got to the point where people just walked their bikes (or teeter-tottared into you as you were walking) since they couldn't balance them going 3 mph.
Also why I usually ride in the the lane with cars along the Embarcadero. Sidewalk gets too full so the stroller moms take to the bike lane since it's too hard to navigate their strollers through the crowds. You either spend all day dodging them or ride with the cars.
Only advantage over a bicycle is no sweat. But then, why not use an electric bicycle instead?
Or an electric car. I was next to a Tesla Roadster last Friday for a good 20 minutes. Consider I used about 10 times as much gas idling as moving in that time, the Tesla seemed a particularly good idea as it just shuts off when it stops.
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