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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.

1 of 937 comments (clear)

  1. Re:That's Insane... by superdan2k · · Score: 1, Troll

    Let's clarify a few things: 1.) in most municipalities, it is ILLEGAL to ride a bicycle on the sidewalk, due in large part to the hazard to pedestrians. Rollerbladers move about as fast as a sprinting human, and as such represent a lower hazard.

    A Segway, I'm guessing, weighs in the neighborhood of 75 pounds. At the low training speed of 12mph, it moves as fast as an Olympic sprinter. 75 pounds of Segway + ~200 pound rider = 275 pounds. Getting hit by one of these would be like getting hit by an NFL linebacker on a blitz.

    Simple physics are enough to get it outlawed, and I'm hoping that my municipality -- Minneapolis -- will do the same thing.

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