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Citizen complaint of the day: Apparently, the city's yet to start enforcing its ban on Segways in parks

Damn Segways

An annoyed citizen reports:

Segway traffic jam at Christopher Columbus Park! Large Segway tour group blacking steps & monopolizing pedestrian plaza riding practice laps. Aren't Segways illegal in pedestrian areas and parks?

The City Council adopted Segway restrictions in June, but said enforcement would have to wait until after transportation and police officials came up with specific regulations that include on-street lanes Segway tour operators can use.

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Comments

Am I the only one who notices that people look so foolish on these things? Do tourists actually say "I can't wait to go to Boston and ride a Segway around busy city streets"? Can't they stay home on their farms and do this?

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The tourist are one of the biggest money makers in the whole state. Give us your plan B to bring in the big money. Whats that huh you have no plan just your small tax payment. With out them you wouldnt have to worry about the traffic. because there wouldnt be any.

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Obviously these tourists would have come to Boston anyway and would spend more money at local businesses if they could actually walk into the doors of local businesses instead of zooming past them and smashing into their exiting patrons. I see tourists hopping on and off of the trolleys every day carrying shopping bags. People on those North End walking tours are loaded up with shopping bags. Nobody ever bought anything on a Segway tour. Well, maybe bandaids or an ice pack. Maybe a splint.

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A part of me sees the Segway as a great opportunity to deflect some of the car-cyclist vitriol to a common enemy that everyone can despise. But, I suppose, we should recognize they do in fact represent a revenue source--I mean it's tourists paying taxes on their tours and enjoying the city. Maybe I should start up a pony ride tour in government center...that would be amusing. At least the Segways don't leave anything behind.

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I could have sworn the people in the North End were testifying to ungodly amounts of dead babies, knocked-down elderly, and blood from foot and shin gashes left in the wake of a passing tilt of Segways.

(That's right, just like a group of ducks is a flock, a group of Segways is a tilt.)

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Well, at least that's how the inventor went out. :|

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Dean Kamen is fine. You're thinking of the guy who bought the company.

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Uhhh. Down with them still! :|

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Tourists came to Boston before the Segways. This is just one tour operator putting an additional imposition on locals with tacky Segways, to take business that would otherwise simply go to a tour operator who didn't put an additional imposition on the locals with tacky Segways.

I guess this is a good way for a tour guide to teach about Boston's tradition of Massholish behavior: "Now, why, when Boston is supposedly a walkable city, and we even have tour trolleys you can get on and off all day, would someone choose to ride a motorized vehicle all over pedestrian areas? And the Bostonian answer is: because fuck you, that's why. And that's why we're the hub of the universe, and you corn-fed cretins from the 'heartland' are living off government handout farm subsidies. So fuck you and fuck Boston, and up here ahead, we're coming to the Holocaust Memorial, but first let's pick up ice cream cones at historic Faneuil Hall food court, because racing single-file through the Holocaust Memorial is even more fun if we're eating."

Not too far from the truth?

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That wins you an un-sarcastic "cripes! right on!" One of the best comments and diagnoses of Boston. "Because, fuck you, that's why." Brilliant!!

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She is a lot more attractive then most guys I see.

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New glasses for me?

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I live in the North End and have seen the tour guides actually shout at people to move out of the way on the sidewalk. It's no wonder this has happened, this place is a public relations nightmare. The Segway corporation wrote a letter to the neighborhood council denouncing the tour operator hoping that a law banning Segways would not be passed. But he ranted on at the city council hearings anyway and was quoted in the Globe as sating he would defy the law if passed.

I read the link you posted and there is no way on god's green earth that this company gave $66,000 to local or neighborhood non-profits. I went to over a dozen neighborhood fundraisers last year and there was not one donation from this company in-kind or otherwise. At $60 full retail per tour that would be 1,100 tours they donated last year and all completely invisibly, this guy's the Mother Theresa of Segways, it's inspiring, brings a tear to the eye.

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That kind of blogger really ruins the whole platform. There are so many bloggers out there that just have a blog to write glowing reviews of whatever they get freebies of. They are the poor mans celebrity endorsement (which always reminds me of Hank Kingsley and the Hankercizer from Larry Sanders Show, or his alter ego Ed McMahon). The internet has turned so many people into marketing whores, Bill Hicks is rolling over in his grave.

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I couldn't tell whether the writer was being paid for the advertisement, or simply had never been exposed to non-whoring writing, and thus didn't know any other way to write.

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Doesn't look like a guy to me...

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How would you like to be forced to jump into the street or squeeze up against a building to get out of the way of people who have had a 10min lesson in how to use a Segway. These people on Segway Tours think they have the right of way and f#@$ the pedestrians in their way. Where do they get this attitude ...from the A hole who owns the tour company and has said FU to the city and brags about the fact he plans to ignore the regulations

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without bicycle paths that could also be paths for these machines? It's great that the City is trying to encourage people to drive less, but yesterday walking down Atlantic Ave. at rush hour a few blocks away from South Station, I first had to dodge a flock of the new Hubway bicycles and then get out of the way of a group of people on Segways who were speeding along oblivious to all of the pedestrians around them.

Meanwhile, across the street, there was virtually no one on the Greenway. I guess that means that's where I and every other pedestrian should take refuge if we don't want to risk getting knocked down, but shouldn't sidewalks be sideWALKS? If there's really no place for bikes and Segways to go except on the sidewalks because no one planned for bike paths during the Big Dig, then please, let's give pedestrians a fighting chance and get travel lanes painted on these wide sidewalks that the wheeled among us adore so much.

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Fine, whatever. But that "group of people on Segways" was a "tilt". It's a "tilt of Segways" that you avoided.

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I stand corrected.

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Try and use it out around town as often as possible. I wanna see if I can coin the phrase. :)

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"when a tilt of Segways passes, you can often observe a fall of pedestrians ...." Or what should it be, because "a stand of pedestrians" (the joke I was trying to make) obviously doesn't work in this context.

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How about a shuffle? A shuffle of pedestrians stepped aside as a tilt of Segways passed them by.

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"tilt"? Why not a "Gaggle-fuck"? A "a fuckin snafu" of Segways... A "fat fucking load of..." Or just "forfucksake."

Whatever it is, it should incorporate "fuck" in some fashion.

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Gosh, the city is awful, isn't it? Personally, I wouldn't go there - you get stuck behind a duck boat in your car, and you can't see the lights, the street signs. Same goes for a bus, or a big truck, or a large SUV. Then, if you take the train, they aren't always on time, and the people on there often talk on cell phones, loudly, or softly, either way it bothers me. Then, once you're in Boston, why there are crowds, and they don't always walk in an orderly fashion, and at times, they walk too slowly (if I'm behind someone) or too quickly (if they're behind me). Now "they" have added bike and Segway traffic to the mix. I walked through Columbus park a few weeks ago, and got stuck behind a couple of baby strollers who obviously thought they owned the walkway. Now, I've decided to stay at home in my easy chair, with the lights, tv and radio off. People, huh?

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IMAGE(http://images.cheezburger.com/completestore/2011/1/11/217687f5-adbe-42de-9f7d-fa30de17142a.jpg)

1/10

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On street segway lanes? Give me a break.

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This "idea" for a bike system could be adapted to the Segways!

http://www.ecofriend.com/entry/kolelinia-concept-b...

IMAGE(http://www.instablogsimages.com/images/2010/01/15/kolelinia_1_Vtmfq_69.jpg)

It's Friday.

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So enforcement of the ban on driving segways on sidewalks and parks will wait until the city builds on-street lanes for segways? That is not true for cyclists, who are banned from riding downtown on sidewalks whether or not there are bike lanes or paths on the street. Why is the priority given to wealthy suburbanites over residents trying to bike to work?

Does this mean the bike lanes the city recently promised along Atlantic ave are going to be filled with lazy tourists riding segways? That will render them useless for cyclists.

Segways are motorized and should drive where other motorized vehicles are, in the streets.

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So should motorized wheelchairs be forced into the street?

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The new Segway regulations have an exemption for people with disabilities (they cannot, however, ride more than two abreast).

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Segways can run up to 12.5 mph, which is roughly equal to a 5-minute mile. Can motorized wheelchairs do that? That's pretty damn quick, and it'll crush a pedestrian pretty hard in a collision.

Not to mention they have much more mass then a wheelchair.

Not to mention these tours are usually the first time these tourists step on one.

Plus as mentioned, there's a disability exemption; although one has to wonder what type of peculiar disability allows you to stand and operate a Segway with your hands. Fat isn't a disability IMO.

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I got my shit jumped on a few weeks ago for asking the same question about which disabilities can use Segways - Apparently MS patients and old people.

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There is no reason the police can't enforce the sidewalk ban now. The ordinance has been in effect almost two months. The regulation to be made involve the approval of routes, required safety gear and training materials and the licensing of tour operators. The law requires all tours occur on the streets, not on sidewalks, parks or other pedestrian areas. That is not subject to change no matter what regulations are in place. The tour operator shown in the photo, Boston Gliders, knows full well that this is the case and chooses to send tourists out to break the law and pay it for the privilege.

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they won't interfere much with most casual cyclists (like me) who tend to travel at about 12 mph as well. If your bike riding speed is 15-18 mph, you will probably need to weave in and out of the bike lane anyway in order to pass the slowpokes like me.

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Combining Boston's walkability with suburban car culture's total lack of physical activity.

Coupla those tubby bitches in the photo could have used the exercise.

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What a nice person you are. I'm sure everyone cares about your opinion.

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I share his opinion. But then I also think Segway use should be punished with mandatory sterilization by use of a demolitions wrecking ball.

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The exercise will do them plenty-o-good.

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And on a bit of a tangent, when I visited the Museum of Science a few weeks ago, there seemed to be a start point for Segway tours outside the museum. What was hilarious though is that the guys running the tour and waiting for customers (they were wearing some sort of official polo shirt). Both of them were wearing those thick black injury braces- one fellow had one on his knee and a second had his entire lower arm in a brace...
When the people running the tours look like they were in an accident, maybe it's time to try a different way to get around the city...

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I've never heard Segway lanes mentioned anywhere before. I think the city is technically supposed to be enforcing this now, since the tour operator was denied an injunction. The city is passing up $1,200 in revenue from the violations in this snapshot. Multiply that times 20 something tours per day and it's serious money for both the city and the egregious scofflaw.

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If you actually read the ordinance, it makes no sense that enforcement has to wait until regulations are in place. Except for those who can show they need them due to a disability, operation of Segways on the sidewalk are forbidden, period. The city needs to make regulations dealing with specific routes, safety devices and training materials, etc. However, no matter what regulations are created, it is the law that the tours have to operate on the street. There is no reason that the police cannot enforce the prohibition of Segways on sidewalks and in parks or other pedestrian areas. Authorized enforcement includes seizure of the offending vehicle, which would seem justified since the same tour operator continues to violate the law with impunity.

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Get rid of 'em! Vile things. The tour operators are rude and show a disdain for anyone on foot, especially for little children who seem to be are treated as 'obstacles' in their fat lazy-ass segway-riding path.

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If the Segway riders were naked then the police would be on top of them (so to speak). Naked trumps danger in this city where non-violent crimes are concerned.

I would like to see Segway races in the style of Ben Hur's race. The Segway wheels would be fitted with blades that would rip up the competition's wheels. Or there could be chariot races with Segways pulling instead of the horses. There could be Segway bumper cars.

Instead of Nascar there could be Segcar. Or how about races between Segways and the monster motorized tricycles that are popping up in the city.

I think that the real potential for entertaining mayhem and violence via Segways has been barely tapped.

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. . . and they don't bother me. On my list of things I want to try- along with a Ghost tour, a whale tour, and a harbor island trip.

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