Segway

Everyday living
1

Saw someone today in a seated Segway - how fantastic it looked, converted to seated, nippy and modern looking, and moving in an intuitive way, not in an old fuddy duddy way (well, you jnow what i mean!). Great shame they aren’t legal here as far as I know - how ridiculous when you think of the freedom and life they can give back to people. If you look at the map of where they are available in Europe, it is everywhere except the UK - why are we so hindbound by rules and regulations that limit people’s freedom??

Do a web search for Genny mobility and youll see what I mean.

Hope you are all well

B x

2

Saw a securityman using a standing one at Gunwharf Quays shopping centre in Portsmouth on Thursday. I wonder how far you go on a single charge.

3

I thought they are legal in the UK. But they are very expensive.

And you have to have good balance control to ‘work’ them. I’m not sure about that though, but it’s why I haven’t thought about the possibility of using them too much! It’d be great to have something I could hop on and get to where I’m going with less effort. But I’d definitely need stabilisers!

4

I don’t think they are legal to use on the road or pavement, but off road and on private land they are legal (I believe). It’s amazing really, because they are used in various parts of the world by the police and other services where getting about like that is useful. There are segway tours available in some Spanish cities - why not here?

Rant rant!!

5

That is the coolest thing ever and I would willingly roll into the highest court in the land with an army of reporters and TV cameras to argue the toss BUT does it do 10 mph like my ‘Big Bug’ does. Yes we all know 8 mph is the legal limit on the road for me.Cobblers…All cars do more than 70 mph, and after more than 2,500 miles I haven’t been done for speeding…YET

Wb

6

im not sure how true this is but i herd that the bloke who invented it died testing a offroad prototype of the segway

7

Its true,he was a local business man,and he was taking his dog out, and fell off a steep cliff when he moved out of the way for a walker.

8

Lembit Opik (ex MP) is very keen on the segway and I think has taken the case to court, maybe he’s got a petition going.

9

I was aware of the Segway from its early days as “Project Ginger”, and first saw one being demonstrated at a conference in Washington DC. The death/accident rate amongst users is a bit high for the number of Segways in use.

Interestingly, Denmark is trying to decide whether they are a bicycle or a moped - if the latter they will need lights, indicators, a horn etc, which will effectively take them off public roads.

And, for jms and jaki, the inventor (Dean Kamen) is still alive. What I cannot find out is why a lot of the development for his fisrts transport device - the iBOT stair-climbing wheelchair - was reputedly done in England.

Geoff