Smith Introduces Segway Legislation
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, March 20– If Senator Bob Smith, R-N.H., has his way, Dean Kamen’s Segway scooters may soon be zipping along sidewalks, trails and bike paths across the nation.
Yesterday, Smith introduced a bill that would enable “personal mobility devices” to travel on federally built or federally financed sidewalks and bike paths-but not highways. The bill builds upon a law passed by the New Hampshire legislature last month.
“This broadens the scope” of the state law, Smith said. It would give users, particularly the handicapped, “a little more mobility, a little more flexibility.”
Current federal regulations prohibit the use of all motor vehicles, except wheelchairs, on sidewalks.
Asked if he could envision people cruising up the White Mountains on a Segway, Smith said he wants to “see people have the flexibility to use the devices as they might a bicycle or a wheel chair.”
Kamen, the Manchester-based inventor of the Segway, agreed, calling his scooter “an important alternative transportation solution that could help solve many of the pressing problems facing urban transportation around the world.”
Supporters of the Segway, formerly known as “Ginger,” say that it will help reduce congestion and fuel consumption nationwide. Opponents worry about the safety of allowing the devices–which can travel up to 12 miles per hour–on the sidewalks. Segway maintains that the damage from a collision with a pedestrian would be no greater than if two people collided, but a recent Wall Street Journal article reported that the devices have not been crash-tested for safety.
Asked about this, Brian C. Toohey, Segway’s vice president of international and regulatory affairs, said that it “depends on what you define as testing.”
“We have done a tremendous amount of in-house testing, and we believe it is extremely safe. We are undertaking more extensive testing.”
Toohey said the product is now being sold exclusively to postal workers, police and other professionals to “prove its safety” to consumers before it goes on the public market.
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
