The Segway didn’t catch on because Americans don’t want to look like dorks. It was dorky as hell as soon as it came out, but GOB’s use of it on Arrested Development was the final nail in the coffin!
In Washington DC, they use them for guided tours of the Mall. The biggest innovation about the device is that someone figured out a way to make Washington tourists more annoying.
Yeah, and that’s why no American wears fanny packs, right?
Perhaps, but a fanny pack doesn’t cost many thousands of dollars. Why would someone spend thousands of dollars to risk looking like a dork?
I’ll never, ever, ever understand people who buy brand new Ford Tauruses for 18,000 dollars when half of that could get you a used BMW or a vintage Mustang or a Jeep or something else that looked cool and made a statement. The Ford Taurus is a dowdy and boring car, why the hell would someone spend a fortune on one? Do you care that much about it being new? It’ll be dirty and smell like your laundry detergent or your cigarettes or your kids within a year. Mechanical problems? It’ll probably be dripping oil after 5,000 miles. Jesus, people, is the new car smell THAT intoxicating?
Why would you buy a 4,000 dollar Honda Helix scooter when for the same price you could have a damn motorcycle, which would give you three times the speed and 100 times the looks?
The Chevy HHR is the ugliest car on the American bricks. It still costs a damn fortune. I will never understand HHR buyers.
I saw Security in Union Station on them last year when we were in DC.
Probably because they were outlawed on most streets and sidewalks (pavements). This didn’t leave much potential use outside of universities and businesses with large campuses or office parks, and these places already had solutions in place for the problem of moving people around quickly. For example, those small Cushman mini-trucks do the same thing as a Segway and allow the person to carry more with them.
They are somewhat common in parts of downtown Chicago. Apparently some Chicago cops use them - I guess to fill some niche between bikes, 4-wheelers, and horses.
And a company does lakefront tours of them. I probably see a group of them once a week during my lunchtime runs thru Grant Park and along the lake.
I got to ride one here in our building last December.
I saw one at Disney World in Florida. It makes a huge amount of sense there – the Disney parks are big and the Segway can carry a worker over those long distances safely through pedestrian traffic. You could do the same with a bike, but a Segway is infinitely cooler and less common, so it works in Disney’s advantage to have them. Besides, it’s their own park, so they don’t have to worry about anyone passing laws against them.
I wouldn’t be surprised if other parks (especially Universal Studios) had them, too.
I suspect the real reasons for the rarity of Segways is that, for most folks, a bicycle is cheaper, faster, and gives you a better workout. For people who have trouble walking, they’d have trouble standing, too, so they have to use motorized wheelchairs and those “Lark”-type motorized devices. The segway’s price tag and relatively low speed limit its possible customer base, no matter how cool the gyro-styabilized platform may be.
There’s a guy on the Board of Appeals in my town who rides a Segway. He has it tricked out with those mirror-finish spinning wheels. He always wears a long black duster and a black cowboy hat when riding as well. Yes, he looks exactly as ridiculous as he sounds.
I don’t know how expensive they are - I presume they’re fairly costly - but here in a suburb just north of Chicago, I think I’ve seen a mail carrier on one. Not that we have money to burn in this town, so I doubt that we have a fleet of them, but it does seem to be a pretty good use of funds. Just how much DO they cost, anyway?
When they first came out they were around $5000. Definitely not cheap! I looked over the web page I linked, but didn’t see a current price. The XT they now have looks cool. I think a gas Segway with good tires and good suspension would be a blast for offroad. But then, so is my dirtbike (for $1000 less).
How about for use on the Moon and Mars? Electrically powered and rechargeable, the only adaptations it would need are wire wheels and a dust seal. I hope NASA’s bought a few to study.
I mentioned in the “AUstin It” thread that we have a company here that does tours on them so I see them all the time. They’re a totally pain in the ass as they’re as wide as a standard sidewalk and the tour guides always think the pedestrians should be happy to just step aside for them. Screw that, I ain’t walkin’ in the mud just so you can get by on your fancified scooter. And they always seem surprised that I’m not grinnin’ and wavin’ like a fool when they cruise by…
I’ve ridden one. It was a blast!
The Disney folks use them greatly. They’re all over the place at Disney World, especially at Epcot.
There is an elderly professor on my campus who zooms around on a segway. It makes sense for him, as the campus is relatively large and contains many hills. One can’t help but stare when he passes though, especially since segway’s are much faster than I would have expected.
At the Dessert Passage shops in the Alladin Casino in Las Vegas, the “Ask Me!” info girls ride around on them, proving that even a pretty girl in a short skirt will still look dorky riding on of these things.
Mall security in Pentagon City uses 'em, too.
People in this country spend far too much time worrying about how cool they look. Many of these same people wore mullets in the '80s.
That’s all I have to say about that.
While he’s never said it, I suspect that the real purpose for Segway is to drive down the cost of the stair climbing wheelchairs. They use the same electronics and software, so by selling Segways, Kamen gets to take advantage of larger economies of scale.
Oh yeah, groman, Kamen made so much money off his inventions in high school that he paid to send his parents on vacation, then secretly had a contractor enlarge the basement so he could fit a bigger machine shop in the basement. His parents, being no dummies, figured tht he was probably up to something and came home early to see workmen lowering a milling machine into the basement. He got in a lot of trouble for that, apparently.
As “The Onion” says about Segway:
“The ergonomic handlebars really enhance your loss of dignity”