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Old 04-24-2014, 05:44 PM   #17
KSagal
Glides a lot, talks more...
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Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Pelham, NH, USA.
Posts: 10,356
5 yr Member HT/PT Owner SegwayFest Attendee
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Bob,

You are entirely welcome to your opinions, and you are welcome to tell other people about them. I did watch a bit of your slideshow, and made the following notes. (the second link did not work for me) I find that several of your comments are unsupported by facts.

1. "Always wear a helmet. "
1a. "It is required in some localities." (Where? I know of none where adults are required by law to wear a helmet.) Do you know of any places where adults are required to wear helmets on segways?

1b. "Faster your speed… 10 – 12 mph on a segway may feel like 40-50 in a car… "
Really? This is totally subjective. Sometime, my 13.5 mph on my segway feels so slow, I think I could get off and run faster. Which I can, but only for a short distance.

At that point however, when I was running, would Bob tell me to wear a helmet, as I pass the segways that he tells people to wear helmets on?

1c. "A helmet is your only real protection against head injury in the event of an accident… "

This is completely false, misleading and can get people hurt.

Your best protection against head injury is to pay attention and not have the accident.

Your next best protection is to act proactively during the accident, and minimize your injury, including protecting your head with your arms and the way you fall.

Depending on your helmet has been proven to be misleading and there have been more head injuries since the introduction of helmets and their widespread acceptance exactly because of the mistake that Bob is making, and that is to depend on them to protect you from serious head injuries instead of using what is in your head (brain) to think your way to safety. This is not so with segways, as there have been no studies that I am aware of, and Bob has likewise offered none. It is so, and documented in studies on other conveyances like bikes, but they are very different, and act very differently.

BUT, helmets do help a bit with lessening scalp abrasions.

1d. "It’s irresponsible of a person to permit anyone to step onto a segway without a helmet securely in position."

TOTALLY subjective. I believe it is irresponsible to offer opinion as if they were prove-able facts, which these are not.

Tip 2. "Mounting a segway is a little like stepping onto the first step of a short somewhat slightly shakey ladder."

Not so. Mounting a segway is exactly like stepping onto a segway. A segway is not somewhat shaky, unless the operator is shaky. When I mount a segway it is solid as a rock, because I do not shake. However, when I mount a shaky ladder, the ladder will shake, as that is how this ladder has been defined.

2a. "The back and forth wobbling that you may experience will disappear shortly."
This is not accurate at all. The wobbling that you may experience is because you are making it wobble. If you stop making it wobble, it will stop. IF YOU DO not stop making it wobble, it will not stop. To say it will stop on its own, is misleading, and indicating that the wobble is not caused by the person, and this is not so. It is entirely caused by the person.


I could go on, but the point is made. These are opinions from the Bob, and I believe he honestly believes them. But honestly believing them does not make them facts.

Also, in Bob's post, he states "It's very simple...in the event of an accident you do not get to CHOOSE. You do not get to choose what kind of accident occurs, when that accident may happen and certainly not the severity of injuries. "

And while it is very much defeatist, it is also simply not so. We all can take responsibility for our lives, or we can tell others that we do not get to choose. OF course we can choose, and many of those choices will make a tremendous difference if we have an accident or not, or how severe those resultant accidents will be.

There are many factors that may not be within your control, but most are. You can choose when to glide defensively, and when to trust that others are doing what they should be doing. You can choose to keep your head on swivel, and pay attention to all the event around you, so that you can see and avoid other people's missteps that could result in an accident that involves you, or you can choose to ignore the world around you.

You can choose to text, or otherwise divert your attention from what you are doing, or choose not to.

And for the record, driving a segway is an act of paying attention to far more than how to control the segway. It is an act of controlling the segway, while interacting with others who may or often may not do what they should be doing in their cars or bikes or sneakers etc...

The same can be said for driving a car. My 14 year old is taller than I, and far stronger than his mother, yet he cannot drive a car, and his mom and I can. This is not because of his ability to manipulate the car, as he can, but because he does not have the maturity, and the attention span required to effectively manipulate that car in a manner that will not endanger himself or others.

Segways are not much different, except by scale.

There are far more important things than just learning to manipulate the segway and wear this piece of armor or that, to being safe on a segway, at least by my opinion. (and I can support that opinion with objective facts)
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Karl Ian Sagal

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"Well done is better than well said." (Ben Franklin)
Bene factum melior bene dictum

Proud past President of SEG America and member of the First Premier Segway Enthusiasts Group and subsequent ones as well.

Last edited by KSagal; 04-24-2014 at 05:53 PM..
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