At 09:32 PM 12/28/02 -0600, Dan Minette wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Trent Shipley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2002 8:46 PM Subject: Re: SCOUTED: Segway scooter hot seller online> On Saturday 28 December 2002 07:14 pm, Erik Reuter wrote: > > On Sat, Dec 28, 2002 at 08:16:59PM -0600, Robert Seeberger wrote: > > > I would imagine the Segways internal gyroscopic system would make it > > > *hard* to trip. > > > > Want to bet? It it is going 10mph and hits an unmoving object at the > > right height, it is going to pitch forward quite a bit, no question. > > At 10 mph it won't matter how well the personal mobility thingy is going. > Induce any sudden acceleration and any unsecured mass is going to continue on > its last trajectory. > > Opinion: > > Given: > It is right and proper that the disabled be able to use powered personal > mobility devices in pedestrian traffic. > > Resolved: > Therefore, in the interest of equity, anyone should be able to use powered > personal mobility devices wherever they are allowed. Most of the people that I know who are disabled, including my wife, could not use the Segway for more than a few minutes at a time. For my wife, using a Segway for 5 minutes would be as hard or harder than walking 5 minutes. A motorized wheelchair is much better for a handicapped person. Depending on their control, I either expect them to be courteous to pedestrians, or give way.
Given the price of the scooter, though, the demographic which can afford them are probably the ones who feel that walking is too slow and wastes too much time out of their busy, important lives, the type who will ride the thing down a sidewalk at full tilt regardless of congestion with one hand honking the hornš and the other holding a cell phone to their ear . . .
(IOW, the same way they drive a car now.)
_____
šIf it doesn't now come with one, someone is sure to come up with one that can be added.
--Ronn! :)
I always knew that I would see the first man on the Moon.
I never dreamed that I would see the last.
--Dr. Jerry Pournelle
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