A Seque About the Segway
Oct. 24th, 2007 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jamesqWhen the Segway PT was released a few years ago we (meaning my friends and I) had a big laugh over it. Lets face it, despite being a technological marvel on par with an iPod (and here I mean it's user interface), it is faintly ridiculous.
How so? Well it doesn't go very fast, it wastes a lot of energy in the simple act of staying upright - energy that could be used as motive force. It exists in this grey area between motor vehicles and pedestrians, which means it doesn't really belong on a road or a sidewalk. Finally, for this Canuck, it's a vehicle that would sit in the garage for half the year (admittedly so does my bike, but my bike didn't cost $5000+).
There are several psychological problems with the Segway that make it bad for mixing with pedestrians - basically it increases your "aura" in crowds. By "aura" I mean the personal space we keep around ourselves. It's what keeps everybody from slamming shoulders in a crowd - you subconsciously make constant minor adjustments as people get closer to you. The Segway breaks that, making it a danger to other pedestrians.
I think you could make a really wicked bike out of the Segway hardware. It's basically just a throttle, motor and battery - all in a light enough package that you can pick it up. A bicycle with this hardware would be more efficient in terms of power, lighter and legal on roads. Why the Segway manufacturers haven't repurposed some of the hardware to this purpose I don't know - maybe they're making the Segways as fast as they can and they've maxed out their suppliers.
Here's the thing though - despite the problems, sales for Segways have gone up every year. And I think they're going to skyrocket soon. What you need is a large population of people who lack full mobility but don't want to give it up. For an added bonus they should all live in warm climates with light density urban buildup. Having a selfish, own-the-road, mentality will be a big help.
In other news, the leading edge of the Baby Boomers started to retire this year. I imagine a lot of them are going to be moving to retirement communities in the south.
How so? Well it doesn't go very fast, it wastes a lot of energy in the simple act of staying upright - energy that could be used as motive force. It exists in this grey area between motor vehicles and pedestrians, which means it doesn't really belong on a road or a sidewalk. Finally, for this Canuck, it's a vehicle that would sit in the garage for half the year (admittedly so does my bike, but my bike didn't cost $5000+).
There are several psychological problems with the Segway that make it bad for mixing with pedestrians - basically it increases your "aura" in crowds. By "aura" I mean the personal space we keep around ourselves. It's what keeps everybody from slamming shoulders in a crowd - you subconsciously make constant minor adjustments as people get closer to you. The Segway breaks that, making it a danger to other pedestrians.
I think you could make a really wicked bike out of the Segway hardware. It's basically just a throttle, motor and battery - all in a light enough package that you can pick it up. A bicycle with this hardware would be more efficient in terms of power, lighter and legal on roads. Why the Segway manufacturers haven't repurposed some of the hardware to this purpose I don't know - maybe they're making the Segways as fast as they can and they've maxed out their suppliers.
Here's the thing though - despite the problems, sales for Segways have gone up every year. And I think they're going to skyrocket soon. What you need is a large population of people who lack full mobility but don't want to give it up. For an added bonus they should all live in warm climates with light density urban buildup. Having a selfish, own-the-road, mentality will be a big help.
In other news, the leading edge of the Baby Boomers started to retire this year. I imagine a lot of them are going to be moving to retirement communities in the south.
