Segway or the highway? (II)

Under the radar?
The company says its opponents' worries are overblown. Inventor Dean Kamen and his team of engineers invented the vehicle's self-balancing technology in the course of creating a wheelchair that would help disabled people go up stairs, thus, they say, they understand the concerns of senior citizens and disabled individuals.

"For us, the whole point of creating the technology was to solve mobility problems," said Doug Field, Segway's chief engineer, in San Francisco last week. "We designed [the Segway] to put riders into the same environment as pedestrians."

The company knew early on that riding the Segway on city sidewalks would technically be illegal in many states. In most areas, motorised vehicles are banned from sidewalks, a rule the company knew would likely be applied to its new invention.

With just a two-person regulatory staff, and a relatively small budget for such a large task, the company fanned out to approach state legislatures this year. It hired local lobbyists in most states and provided samples of the scooter to lawmakers, making the sight of smiling legislators tooling along capital hallways a common one. It wooed potential opponents, showing off the technology to special interest and advocacy groups.

Brian Toohey, VP of regulatory and international affairs at Segway, says the company kept a tight grip on its wallet even as it argued its case to politicians. Less than $1m was spent on lobbying in the past year, he said, and none of that went to campaign contributions.

California records show the company spent about $72,000 on lobbying expenditures for the bill in that state. As big-money campaigns go, that's small - over the same period of time, California's embattled power company, Pacific Gas & Electric, spent more than $2.5m on lobbying. But in California - as in more than two dozen other states - Segway's expenditures proved more than sufficient.

As much as money, the shock value of the device itself and the star power of Kamen and his backers in the technology industry helped win legislators' attention.

In most cases, bills were introduced that would allow 'Electronic Personal Assistive Mobility Devices' on sidewalks. To many, the NCSL's Savage said, the phrase suggested electric wheelchairs, and people didn't pay attention.

A similar bill was also introduced at the federal level. That stalled this year, in part after influential groups, including the Consumers Union, the United States Public Interest Research Groups, and the Consumers Federation of America, wrote letters asking that more research be done.

"From a safety perspective, we're still plenty concerned," said Sally Greenberg, senior product safety counsel for the Consumers Union. "I would advise buyers - and people who use the same sidewalks - to proceed with caution."

Few state legislatures balked, however. Close to 30 states passed laws saying the Segway could be used on sidewalks with only a few imposed restrictions, such as mandating training or the use of helmets.

No bruises yet
The product has been tested at length over the past year by police officers, postal employees and other groups that Segway has worked with to help demonstrate the vehicle's efficiency and safety record.

"We've logged tens of thousands of hours with people operating [the Segway] in real city environments without injury," Field told San Francisco policy-makers last week. "There has been not a single incidence of injury to a pedestrian."

Bob McCord, a manager at the Atlanta Regional Commission who has overseen that body's tests of the Segway, says it has seemed to fit into pedestrian environments.

"It's not really a problem," McCord said. "If it's really crowded, you can only go as fast as pedestrians go. You just blend in."

The one reported accident occurred in Atlanta, when a police officer fell off a Segway and was taken to the hospital.

Indeed, critics' efforts in San Francisco may well be the last echoes of opposition fading out in the wake of Segway's successful campaign. Amazon.com began taking orders for the scooters this week. Fewer than 10 state legislatures, all of which were out of session in 2002, remain for the company to pursue.

The true test will come once the expensive devices show up on sidewalks, if indeed they prove popular with enough people to make any real impact in cities. The company says time will tell that critics' fears have been misguided.

"You can't expect everyone to embrace change," said Toohey. "But the overwhelming majority of people have said we should give this a chance."