Segway or the highway?

Despite the hype, the use of the Segway Human Transporter is likely to be curtailed in many countries because of public safety fears. John Borland brings us the story from the device's home market...

SAN FRANCISCO - In a crowded City Hall meeting room here late last week, a group of elderly and disabled citizens made it clear they weren't buying technology's promises.

San Francisco County supervisors were debating the local future of the Segway Human Transporter, the high-tech scooter unveiled amid breathless hype last year. The Segway company has pitched the device as the future of transportation in polluted cities, on factory floors and elsewhere, and began selling the vehicles to the public just this week.

Groups devoted to the interests of senior citizens and the disabled in this high-tech city aren't happy with the idea. They think letting the new vehicles on the sidewalk will wind up hurting people who can't easily move out of the way, and they're lobbying City Hall to keep the Segway on the street along with most other motorised vehicles.

"Money talks," said Catherine Skivers, president of the California Council for the Blind. "In this case, I think it's talked so loud that people in jeopardy haven't been listened to."

The flare-up in San Francisco is one of the last remaining battles over the Segway in the US, where the company's lobbying sweep may well go down as the most successful legislative blitzkrieg ever mounted by a technology company. During the past year or so, the company has won exemptions to sidewalk safety rules in about 30 states, with more expected to go along before the first consumer models ship to customers in March.

Money is only part of the explanation for Segway's lobbying success. The company claims it spent less than $1m promoting its product in legislatures around the country, a sizable sum for a start-up but relatively little compared with the sums spent as part of top-level influence campaigns.

The company's political success stems from a confluence of factors, and can be attributed equally to brilliant marketing, a gee-whiz product and the backing of powerbrokers in tech circles who sang the Segway's praises early on.

Scooting from the hip
At the centre of the debate is a new type of transportation device, a motorised scooter that sports two wheels side-by-side and uses gyroscopes and advanced software to keep itself balanced even with an unstable rider. It has a top speed of 12.5 miles per hour - a pace three to four times that of the average walker, or about half the average foot speed of an Olympic 100-meter sprinter, depending on how you look at it. The Segway lacks a traditional steering mechanism but has been lauded for its precise control and ease of handling, which involve translating a rider's slight weight-shifts into forward motion, pinpoint turns and stops.

The Segway has won design awards while its presumed potential has inspired comparisons to the revolutionary effect of the automobile in the era of the horse and buggy. The device has also won critics, who say its undeniable high-tech charm has persuaded legislators to ignore the interests of pedestrians.

One complaint has focused on the pace of the approval process for a device that was introduced to the public only recently. Over less than a year, the company's efforts have changed state law in about 30 states, moving far faster than almost any other significant lobbying push in memory. No state has yet banned the device, although key regions, including New York, are still hammering out agreements.

"I've never seen anything like it," said Melissa Savage, senior policy specialist with the National Conference of State Legislatures, a group that tracks state legislative issues. "I think most traffic safety advocates, or anyone who would lobby on the other side, were caught totally off guard."

The ultimate effects on urban centres have yet to be fully understood, critics warn. The device has won rounds of kudos for its environmentally friendly design but critics argue that allowing the high-powered vehicles on sidewalks designed for foot traffic could change the character and use of pedestrian areas, especially if the scooters are adopted en masse.

While that's unlikely in the short term - the Segway currently retails for about $5,000 - the prospect of dodging even a handful of Segway riders at the busiest intersections in Manhattan at rush hour is enough to give many people pause.

Organised opposition to the company's proposals evolved slowly, in many cases coming together too late to have much of an impact on the legislative push. The loose coalition, made up primarily of injury prevention specialists, seniors and advocates for the disabled, along with some consumers' organisations, isn't against the vehicle itself. The groups argue that letting the Segway onto city sidewalks without hard safety data isn't a good idea, and could wind up hurting people with mobility problems.

"It's a very innovative device but it has to be used in the correct circumstances," said Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research at the Columbus Children's Hospital in Ohio, and one of the most vocal of the parties that are calling for caution. "The purpose of sidewalks is to separate motorised traffic from pedestrian traffic. That's served us well over the years."