Segway Scooter Protest [Archive]

Casey

10-17-2002, 08:01 AM

quote:Segway Scooter Protest

Oct. 16 — The U.S. Postal Service has tested them out and 32 states including California have legalized them. They are the Segway scooters that are hyped as revolutionizing transportation. But protesters say they're dangerous and a group is hoping to ban them one city at a time. ABC7's Carolyn Tyler reports.

The inventor calls the new mode of transportation "magic sneakers." Critics call it hell on wheels. The man behind the machine got an earful about what some see as a menace to pedestrians.

Protester: "I could be your mother or your grandmother ... and it doesn't belong on the sidewalk."

The Segway — which should go on sell by the end of the year — operates with gyroscopes and computers that keep it from tipping over. It can zip along at 12-and-a-half miles per hour.

Dean Kamen, Segway inventor: "Nothing in the world is risk free and you certainly need good judgment to do anything."

ABC7's Carolyn Tyler tried it out earlier this year and found it fun and easy to operate. But opponents say it's dangerous.

Bob Planthold, Senior Action Network: "Think if you're deaf, you can't hear it coming from behind... if you're blind you can't see it coming toward you."

But a disabled woman we talked to likes it.

Valarie Cheasty: "I view it as a wonderful alternative for people like myself with limited walking ability."

City sidewalks are already crowded with skateboarders and bicyclists who are supposed to be riding in the street.

Governor Gray Davis has legalized the use of the Segway on sidewalks around the state, but local governments have the right to ban them. San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly has sponsored legislation to do just that.

Chris Daly: "Somehow Segway was able to engineer a change in state law to have the Segway scooter counted as pedestrians. They aren't. I checked with the dictionary. It's still people walking on foot."

Chris Daly's anti-Segway measure is making its way thru the legislative process at City Hall. If he's successful, San Francisco could become the first city in the state to ban them.