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A Hypothesis On Segway Hate
theodp writes "Admit it, IT is ingenious. Also, IT is surprisingly effective for certain uses, including real cops and mall cops. And if you tried IT, you probably smiled to yourself. So why all the Segway hate? Paul Graham looks into The Trouble with the Segway and offers a hypothesis about what prompts people to shout abuse at Segway riders: 'You look smug. You don't seem to be working hard enough.' Not that someone riding a motorcycle is working any harder, adds Graham, but because he's sitting astride it, he appears to be making an effort. When you're riding a Segway you're just standing there. Make a version that doesn't look so easy for the rider — perhaps resembling skateboards or bicycles — and Segway just might capture more of the market they hoped to reach."
For those of us who has never heard of Segway before:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segway
I don't get why people would do that to themselves, I'd rather walk around with nothing but underwear and a trashbin over my head. But anyway.
Dork
Goofball
"Yeah, it must be how it makes the rider look. /s"
No one likes anything elevated above them on a common ground. Nothing. The IT is more like a personal chariot, and that's innately insulting. It has some to do with work and effort (again, see chariot which is usually pulled by animals which in the past were expensive to own, i.e. stables), but it's more the elevation. One of the reasons people dislike SUVs, and why people like to live on hills sometimes (most it's the scenery, some is that you are above others, i.e. ivory towers).
Trucks and vans are barely over 6 feet tall; occupants are seated, so you roughly exchange the femur space in height with the ground clearance and floor and headroom space of the vehicle. People walking are typically taller than cars.
Tall is a threat. Most tall, couples if they are observant will occasionally see the signs as they walk through crowds versus their shorter spouse or SO.
As to the rest of your pissy post:
Which is worse, the maybe hype of the Segway as an innovative and inventive product...or the hype that the Segway stinks by a bunch of haters? Seems to me that you jumped on the bandwagon of the anti-IT crowd in similar vein that you hate the Segway people for. We call people like that hypocrites and jackasses.
"You know" that what someone tries to sell a product as and what the media runs away with are two different matters. Hype is not generated alone. Hype is repeated selling of the same cruft by the same people over and over (see Obama, see Bush). Saying it'll change it as a something parsed over and over by tech outlets is more a product of stupid media. Sort of like how a "white" woman called the cops on two "black" guys in the blogs.
"You know, how It was going to change the way cities were designed"
Hmm, walking slow ass in a crowd while waiting for automobiles to yield versus having a city built around walkers, bicyclists, and Segway riders. Sounds practical to me. Sounds more environmentally friendly. Sounds like what some cities are trying to do more and more now--except not in cities but suburbs.
Where I am, there is a real effort to make common services more convenient to neighborhoods.
"It was the most revolutionary thing since the invention of the wheel."
We're bitching about electric and hybrid vehicles, Smart cars, and how motorcycles are better, and the Segway was out for how long before the current gas saving "In" thing amongst the population hit?
How much of our stupid "stimilus" went to paving roads? $780 billion or something? Most used improperly or hastily? Most not fixing the worse of the bridges and problems?
We could have funded sidewalks everywhere and paid for health care. Was the Segway hyped? Not enough in my book. It's a bad design because of it's elevation.