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Segway Banned In San Francisco
bhsurfer writes "The city of San Francisco has banned the Segway [CNN.com] from it's sidewalks before they've even arrived. Apparently Santa Cruz, Oakland and San Mateo are considering a ban as well. What a bunch of spoilsports...or are they? Any thoughts on this?" According to the article, hiring high-powered lobbyists may have backfired. but the city claims safety concerns are behind the decision.
The Segway might be safer for the rider than a skateboard et. al., but it sure as shit isn't safer for the other people on the sidewalk. It's an extra 70lbs -- on top of who knows how much tofu- and sprout-fed mealy Californian -- moving at up to 15mph. Given how godawfully bad San Francisco drivers are, I shudder to think how many pedestrians would get plowed over by yuppie asshats with their new $8,000 toy.
I have no problem with keeping these things off our sidewalks, for the same reasons that I have no problem with bicycles being confined to the street.
'jfb
To spur "enterprise Linux," Big Bang, the distributed two-phase commit.
GULP! I weigh 300 and could probably get up to 12mph, if you rolled a donut down a hill.
Guess I'm not going to SF any time soon.
Bill Gates weighs 70 pounds and only goes 10 mph, and just look at all the damage he has caused!
I believe that is the military Segway... approved use by licensed personnel only.
Going 40 MPH on a sidewalk, in a Segway, would be like pedestrian pinball.
~D:
I think they forgot their metric conversion. Perhaps they work for NASA?
'Embedded Linux on Segway: IT runs Linux!'... With a full SNMP MIB stack for monitoring your battery life from NetSaint (or whatever they're called now)... Maybe a webcam on the front and a copy of apache so that you can 'journal' your travels...
-Steve
My intelligence insults itself.
In California, officials in Santa Cruz, Oakland and San Mateo are still waiting on additional payoffs, and are wary after the much publicized "payoff check is in the mail" campaign failed in San Francisco.
One official is quoted as saying, "Bring cash."
-- Dan
Who the hell walks in Sacramento? You could run 120mph jet-powered steamrollers down Sacramento sidewalks and not hit any pedestrians.
Last time I was there in '97 the sidewalks were empty, apart from fat-assed Sacramento residents who jiggled their way across them on their way into KFC or McDonalds for a bucket or bag full of fried lard.
The reason why pedestrians in San Francisco don't want Segways on their sidewalks is simple physics. A Segway weighs around 70lbs. The average rider would weigh around 150lbs, with some weighing well in excess of 200lbs. The combined weight would be at least 220lbs, with weights up to 300lbs possible. A Segway can travel at up to 12mph. Getting hit by a 250lbs mass traveling at 12mph would be like getting tackled by an NFL linebacker. It could cripple the average adult, and it would kill old people. San Francisco has a large elderly population, and they have enough trouble getting around town without having to worry about being creamed by some pasty yuppie ass tooling down the sidewalk on his $10,000 toy, yapping on his goddamn cell phone.
It's called the SIDEWALK. SIDE, as in at the side of the road, and WALK, as in where your fat lazy ass is supposed to, like, walk. If you want to operate a motor vehicle, do it in the street. The sidewalk is reserved for pedestrians.
Translated: "I can't afford one"
Yeah! We are much more interested in how Christopher Lowell turns a piece of shit into a bigger piece of shit, but colorful.
So go mind your freakin business and leave us to our champagne coolies and cats!
[Karma to burn]
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For comparison, the fastest 100m dash was 10.2 meters per second, or almost 23 mph. A segway goes 12.5 mph, which is about 5.6 m/s -- faster than a swarm of killer bees or an australian crocodile, but not quite as fast as a steep lava flow (9.1 m/s) or a Tyrannosaurus Rex (estimated at 11.1 m/s).
The segway is nearly as fast as a roadrunner (6.7 m/s)... just wait 'til Wiley E. Coyote gets his hands on one. In the meantime, imagine getting nailed by a 250 pound metal cyborg roadrunner as you walk to work.
Hope that clears things up.
You wanna be the one to tell the Postal worker that he can't have his Segway? I don't.
No worries, you'll just bounce off my 320lb gut and turn around just in time for me to kick you in the face with my steel-tipped Timberlands until you're eating out of a straw for the rest of your life...
Every irresponsible f?ck I take out is one less that'll damage a little old lady bringing her gelusil home...
Because it's an auto industry conspiracy! Conspiracy I say! And everyone knows that the auto industry is responsible for SUV's and all SUV owners are terrorists! It's the terrorists!!!
I don't understand how the Segway, which weighs 69lbs can be safer than a skateboard, or rollerblades.
Dude... I'm a 275lbs rugby player that can't roller-blade for shit. Trust me when I say that ANY segway accident will be WAY safer than me "losing it" on my blades!
$0.02 (CDN)
So, I think a lot of people are worried about { nothing | something | having to get out of the path of yet another asshole on a wheeled vehicle | nitwits without any regard for the law or its underlying purpose }. It's the regular fear of the unknown. If a segway mowing you down is your greatest fear in life, { I envy you | too fucking bad | you must be a goddamn pedestrian | you live in some shitty-ass country where most people don't own cars | you are elderly | you are a small child }.
There is a local mall that's near an elderly care centre, and it is a little unnerving when an attack wing of grannies on those electric trikes come whizzing down the mall at you on seniors' discount day.
I suppose all those people who wanted a Segway could get one of those electric trikes, slap on a grey wig and go for it... But I don't know if anything less agile than a bicycle, heavier too, should be mixing with pedestrians at 15 mph on the sidewalk. (And you just have know that they'll be riding their Segway while talking on their cellphone, admit it!) They haven't banned them from the roads, have they? Heh.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
That was one of the best, most entertaining flames I've read in a while. Nice work.
I'm giving you a standing ovation and and a lighter lit high in my hand..(which makes this hard as hell to type)
Civilization has collapsed, the gasoline is gone, the only remains are gathered near wind-farms for power. Except for "I just get these headaches" Max, the .. Segway Warrior!
"You can Segway, but you can't hide!"
Ok, I'm convinced. Allow Segways, ban people.
I knew the Segway was faggy, but to be too faggy for the fag capital of the world is saying something.
God spoke to me
Segwaying is not a crime!
When cars were first introduced, they moved slowly through many areas ... because by law there had to be somebody out in front carrying a lantern on foot.
"Greedy politicians an old time lobbying from the motor industry are the most likely explanations, if you ask me."
Bah! You'll be telling me that you can run cars on vegetable oil next! Oh, wait...
That was classic intercourse!
Any number of times, I've been passed on the right by a bicycle at a corner, when I'm signalling a right-hand turn. As tempting as it would be to Darwinize the idiot, the paperwork is huge.
In Toronto, the stupid cyclists (as opposed to the smart ones) tend towards College and Bloor Sts to die. I think it's like the mating urge of Salmon.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.