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Segway Banned In San Francisco

Posted by timothy on from the you'll-walk-mister-and-like-it dept.

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.

6 of 937 comments (clear)

  1. I still don't get it. by God_Retired · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Segway, cool toy, but I just don't see what I would do with it. I can already go on my skateboard pretty damn fast. If I need to go faster I have a bike. If faster than that, my truck. Otherwise I'm walking. I don't get where it fits in, other than some lazy asses and maybe a heavy duty one for delivering mail along the boardwalk.

    I'm not even sure that my kid thinks they're cool. I'll ask when I get home.

    1. Re:I still don't get it. by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 5, Interesting

      IMHO they're a pretty stupid idea. Most sidewalks are so chaotic that they wouldn't be worth riding anyways. They're too expensive to lock outside, too heavy to carry into the office or onto public transit, too big to stuff under your desk... never mind how they'll do for vehicle range or power consumption. They're not sheltered, so there's no advantage in the rain, they're too slow for the roads, too slow for bicycle lanes even, but too fast to go anywhere people go.

      They're a solution looking for a problem.

  2. And the City of San Franciso has been using them! by elzbal · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The first (in fact only) time I've ever seen a Segway was on the streets of San Francisco. I saw a Postal employee riding down the sidewalk with his USPS-branded saddlebags on the sides. I wonder if they have had bad experiences with Segway on their streets...

  3. A Couple Notes by Jordy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yes, San Francisco banned this device. We have some very liberal board of supervisors running the city government here that defined the word 'bleeding heart.' Granted, some of the reasons for the ban aren't too bad, but some of them are very big brother.

    The problem is that everyone is worried that the elderly walking down the sidewalk would be injured by one of these things.

    There is also the whole pro-walking thing which lobbied pretty hard against it. They believe this device would cause everyone to get fat.

    The price of the device didn't help its case either. Being a liberal city, a $4000 device is seen as a rich man's toy and rich men should be spending their money on social problems such as the homeless problem, not toys. This viewpoint is pretty common here unfortunately.

    Bikes have been banned for quite some time on the sidewalk and for anyone who has biked down Market St. knows, it isn't particularly safe to be in the road either.

    Rollerblades have also been banned on the sidewalk for some time. I've seen people try to go down the road on them and it isn't pretty given the general quality of the roads themselves.

    Powered scooters are getting more and more common. They seem the safest of any one-person mode of transport simply because they can keep up with traffic. They are obviously banned on sidewalks, but have no real problems with the street from what I've seen.

    Powered wheelchairs however have not been banned even though they seem to cause a whole lot more injury than anything else. That would hurt the disabled however, so it isn't even considered.

    On the other hand, you have to realize that the sidewalks are litterly *packed* with people in many parts of the city. The segway would have caused problems simply because it is impossible to walk without bumping into someone.

    --
    The world is neither black nor white nor good nor evil, only many shades of CowboyNeal.
  4. Re:I hope they banned bikes on their sidewalks too by outsider007 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    youre not supposed to ride bikes on sidewalks!

    When I ride my bike in a downtown area where there are lots of cars parked on the side of the street, I get on the sidewalk and ride slowly.

    The reason is that I can't rely on the drivers watching before they slam open a car door. Technically I'm not supposed to do it but I've had conversations with cops about it and they mostly agree that I'm better off on the sidewalk as long as I'm going slow. Same will probably be true for segway.

    --
    If you mod me down the terrorists will have won
  5. Well consider the momentum aspects of this.... by casings · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Lets apply the conservation of momentum to a situation involving a man walking toward another man of same mass going 15 mph on a segway (for this we'll neglect friction).

    Vi1 = 2.235 m/s (5 mph)
    M1 = 77.27 Kg (150 lbs)
    Vi2 = 6.705 m/s (15 mph)
    M2 = 100 Kg (220 lbs)

    say at the end the segway with rider stops in its tracks and the man goes flying, and since the man is travelling toward the man we can say he's going -2.235 m/s.

    Pi = Pf
    M1(Vi1) + M2(Vi2) = M1(Vf1) + M2(Vf2)

    (77.27 Kg)(-2.235 m/s) + (100 Kg)(6.705 m/s) = (77.27 Kg)(Vf1) + 0

    Vf1 = 9.648 m/s or 21.583 mph.

    ouch.

    (sorry about repost forgot to put in my pw.)