Segways meet resistance in Boston neighborhood

http://www.universalhub.com/2010/city-council-consider-banning-segways-busy-sidewal

by ilamont • 16 years ago

11 24 16 years ago

techiferous3• 16 years ago

Some Boston sidewalks are crowded and narrow, so I can see how adding a segway, which is about twice as wide as a person, is not a welcome addition.

gyardley2• 16 years ago

Width of a Segway: 25"

Width of a Bugaboo Cameleon: 23.9"

I'd like to see the Boston city council try to ban strollers.

Willie_Dynamite2• 16 years ago

Segways can be banned on pure aesthetics.

barrkel• 16 years ago

That's a specious comparison. People make all sorts of concessions for people with children. People who want to drive their mechanical devices on the sidewalk, not so much.

slug• 16 years ago

From the article, the complain seems to be the fact that the Segway can be dangerous to the other pedestrians. Don't forget that it can carry an adult, and with it, its momentum is much larger than some small kid in a stroller. Of course, if this is the case, they should also ban the jogging strollers...

techiferous3• 16 years ago

Strollers are slower than segways and do not come up behind you trying to pass you.

maxharris• 16 years ago

I have a Segway.

I always stop when other people are walking toward me on the sidewalk; it makes them more comfortable.

The other important thing to watch out for are blind corners - where obstacles prevent others from seeing you. I do my very best to stop so that I don't surprise anyone.

Why doesn't this guy just push for the ability to issue tickets to impolite Segway users instead?

Banning Segways has repercussions that this guy probably hasn't considered. Remember that nationwide, well over a third of all Segway users are physically disabled in some way, and around here, at least two of the three owners that I know are.

ilamont• 16 years ago

Note that the discussion in Boston also relates to complaints in the North End, where tourists can rent Segways and local residents complain about the vehicles and the attitudes of the owner of the rental service. Background here:

http://www.universalhub.com/2010/some-north-enders-fed-tour-...

og1• 16 years ago

I think doing a neighborhood wide ban would be excessive, but it makes sense for the streets mentioned. Hanover St. gets so crowded on some days that pedestrians will walk in the road in order to pass people. I don't even see how someone would be able to use a Segway when it is that congested.

RyanMcGreal• 16 years ago

Segways are annoying, but can't Boston just let people figure out how to share space on the sidwalk without more regulations?

MrFoof• 16 years ago

"In any sufficiently large group of people, most are idiots".

Take the subway in Boston. You'd be baffled at the ingress/egress difficulties encountered. People block the doors. Passengers boarding don't wait for passengers departing to exit the cars before they attempt to force their way in. People are reluctant to take a seat between other people (especially women when the seat is between two men), reducing standing space. Standing passengers do not move towards the ends or center of the cars to allow more passengers to board.

This is usually accompanied by at least 30 seconds of announcements from the on-board spotter over the train's intercom system. Per stop. I've seen this take as long as 90 seconds.

Nwallins• 16 years ago

Wow, that's pretty awful. I've only been living in NYC for 2 years, but I've totally absorbed all of these etiquette rules that are fairly well ingrained in the local culture. Still, I find myself gritting my teeth a few times a week when they are breached. I've never thought of myself as a tense person, but I swear my body temperature goes up a few degrees when boarding passengers either stand right in front the door, blocking those exiting, or worse, attempt to board through the exiting passengers, somehow.

I might need medication if I ever move to Boston ;)

Willie_Dynamite2• 16 years ago

Why can't people who insist on traveling around on big mechanical contrivances figure out a way to share the road with cars?

dougp• 16 years ago

Crowds are actually what segways are best at. You can easily control your speed and turn in place. There is a reason mall cops use them rather then bikes.

ams61102• 16 years ago

I thought it was because they were too obese to walk from one end of the mall to the other.

eli3• 16 years ago

I read that some airports use them because seeing police running could cause people to panic in an emergency. Not so with helmet-wearing cops on segways.

moron4hire• 16 years ago

Ah, the Segway. Remember when they were saying it was going to revolutionize travel, and then when it was revealed to be this dorky scooter, everyone let out a collective "oh..."?

ams61102• 16 years ago

Yeah it was called "It" during the pre-unveiling hype, while, everyone wondering what "It" was... I think Steve Jobs said something like "they are going to design cities around this thing."

And now Boston says "This is a walkable city, not a Segway city."

eli3• 16 years ago

It seems like it'd be a great topic for a marketing case study.

Too bad they didn't put as much effort into making you not look ridiculous riding it.

eli3• 16 years ago

Well, you can't rid bicycles on the sidewalks in most major cities either. So I don't think it's an example of people fearing new and different modes of transportation.

Segways meet resistance in Boston neighborhood

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