From today’s Toronto Star:
Dutch police banned Segways from all public roads, bike paths and walkways as of New Year’s Day, surprising the nation’s official importer of the two-wheeled, self-balancing scooters.
Segway Nederland director Piet Kruijt said Tuesday the company was “completely ambushed” by the decision, first announced by national police on Nov. 27, 2006.
“We’re working on all fronts to get this resolved,” Kruijt said. He estimated that “a number of hundreds” of Segways have been sold in the Netherlands. For the time being, they are only legal on private property.
Police said that with no approval of the vehicles in sight by the country’s Royal Traffic Agency, they could not be allowed to continue using public streets.
The Segway “is a motorized vehicle, and according to Dutch law, a mo-ped,” a police statement said.
Check out Spacing‘s previous posts about Toronto’s experience with Segways.
photo by Sandra Woodward
2 comments
i had the pleasure of dodging a whole caravan of these stupid things down state street in chicago (which is gross enough without them) last week. they’re huge, they’re slow, and just like the huge, slow, annoying guys who always seem to be sharing a bike lane with me, no matter how many times i passed them, they always ended up back in front of me at every intersection. the amazing part was how every single other living being for miles would stop and gasp like, “wow, a segway!”
I wish we could find a way to integrate the Segway into traffic, I really do. Perhaps when people stop driving such monstrously large vehicles, they will fit in more with our traffic-calmed streets.