At 01:03 PM 1/5/03 +0100, J. van Baardwijk wrote:
At 20:28 04-01-2003 -0500, Dean MacLanders wrote:The problem lies not with the speed being controllable; the problem is that there will always be idiots who think they own the road (or the sidewalk) and will drive at a speed considerably above what would be a *safe* speed.>Getting back to the Segway, I consider a transportation technology that >runs on the sidewalk at a speed that requires pedestrians to jump out of >the way, I believe the speed is controllable.
In other words: the problem is not that the driver cannot control the speed; the problem is that some drivers cannot control themselves.
Personally, I fully expect that it will be less than a year before we will see the first "I got hit by a Segway now give me a million dollars" lawsuit.
It's not the driver's vehicle control that could cause trouble, it is the driver's self-control that could cause trouble.>and who's innovation is not that it provides transportation, not that it >does it in an energy efficient manner, but that it does it with a >certain type of balance and control It appears to me to have more control and maneuverability than any other form of powered transportation.
And every year, cyclists, skateboarders, bladers and pedestrians get injured because of it.>2) The difficulties inherent in running at almost 20 feet per second on >a pedestrian right of way can be overcome in a straightforward manner. We live with bicycles, skateboards, bladers, and personal mobility devices that do this already.
Jeroen "Safety First" van Baardwijk
As someone said many years ago:
"The single part of a car which causes the vast majority of accidents is the nut holding the wheel."
--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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