Is the Segway like a scooter?
In a letter to the editor that was supposedly published in the October 15, 2005 edition of the Toronto Star, a supporter of Segway usage on public sidewalks in Toronto argued that Segways, which are barred from Toronto’s sidewalks since city lawyers have ruled them ‘motor vehicles’, should be allowed on the sidewalks since electric scooters used by the disabled sidewalk-legal.
Stuart Rogers of Toronto wrote to The Star:
“Well, what about those electric scooters that disabled people use? They have no licence plates, usually no headlights or tail-lights, and barrel along the roads and sidewalks taking up three times the space of a Segway. Yet we all somehow accommodate them. Provincial bureaucrats and city lawyers don’t ban them as ‘motor vehicles,’ in spite of the obvious fact they are vehicles with motors.”
Early this morning, Star staff member Helen Henderson wrote a rebuttal to the sentiment expressed by Rogers. She poignantly picked out an underlying message in the debate:
“But behind the righteous indignation of Segway boosters protesting Toronto’s policy toward those who use electric wheelchairs or scooters is a shadier subtext, a type of implied resentment toward people with disabilities.
“There is an unwritten school of thought that deep down believes people with disabilities really do have a choice. If they just tried a little harder, they could walk or talk or hear or see.”
According to Henderson, Joe Mihevc, head of the city’s disabilties issues committee called the targeting of electric wheelchairs and scooters in the Segway debate “a total red herring.”
“I find it almost crass to query the most vulnerable to promote something like that,” Mihevc said.
September 17th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
One of the major differences between the Segway and a disability scooter is that there is more control of the “vehicle” as it is flatter to the ground and has three or four wheel. The chance of a mobility scooter going out of control and hurting a pedestrian is remote, whereas a testosterone charged “cowboy” on a Segway trying to impress can injure many people when it goes out of control and the operator also becomes a “dead-weight” impact object as he is (or should I say was) standing. Once he loses control of the Segway and himself there are two object in motion looking for a victim.
So, a Segway promoter want to refute this, saying that he is interested in getting around, not being a “jockey on a stick” then let him also buy a mobility scooter that he can use on the sidewalk. Hey, they even come in a racey candy-apple red.
Last point, if you use a Segway, where are you going to put your laptop computer, answer your cell phone, listen to your ipod or carry your cup of coffee, when you need both of your hands to “control” your stick on wheels . Doesn’t sound very practical to me!!!!
February 8th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Interesting post, thank you! I always like to read and write about this kind of transportation.