Actually, the Segway is one of the safest modes of transportation one can buy. Granted, it's also expensive right now, but the price will certainly go down in the coming years.
That's true, but the opportunity to steal remains with practically anything not cemented to the ground. I'm sure people have even stolen that too. In fact, I'm sure people have even stolen the cement!
If there is a concern that thieves will steal parked Segways, then the market or infrastructure will respond with ways to prevent theft. Just like heavy duty but lightweight bike locks from Kryptonite, the market will respond with ways of preventing theft.
Let's see, my car cost $5000. For the same price, I could have bought a scooter! Wow, was I ever dumb.
Here, with all the rain we get, i can't imagine people standing on a 12mph scooter getting soaked by rain 300 days a year. I know someone who somehow has one already and we make fun of her because we've all realized how dumb the thing is.
[quote] How many people here can seriously run better than a 10 minute mile over more than one mile? I think I barely can. I can run a 7 minute mile, but then after that I fade quickly. <hr></blockquote>
5:40. TrevorM I hope you were on cross country!
[quote] where it rains all the damn time. <hr></blockquote>
Yeah. And how about where it snows all the time, like in Vermont? What about us po' hicks in the country?
[quote] 1. It goes ~13 MPH, faster than most people ride their bikes. <hr></blockquote>
<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> Not the people I've seen, who are actually going places! I've never used a speedometer but I'd say on some hills I hit 50. Big hills mind you. That's another thing. How steep a hill can it handle?
Nevertheless, Eugene is right on the premise that the car is dead. The internal combustion is outdated, for starters. Now, the Segway IS a toy and will never be practical. But then again the first steam powered vehicles are nothing like the current vehicles we have. I think a shift to smaller transportation and a revitalization of our infrastructure will happen.
However, I've always had this strange little dream. What if everyone rides a bike to the nearest interstate exit, bus station, train stop, or eventually, monorail stop (replace interstates with monorails?) There should be fleet of public bycycles and/or place to store your bike at interstate exits/train stops. The interstate system would be converted into public transportation only.
The idea of the Segway merely adds motorized personal transportation to the side of getting to an onramp to the interstate. Within cities, public transportation should MASSIVELY increase, because just living in a city means so much more pollution. I'm glad I grew up in Vermont, not a dust-domed, sun radiation deprived, carcinogenic city. And I'll still take a good old bycycle. Cleaner, better excercise, and cheaper, so I can buy that PBG4
Aquatic, you're not most people. Most people don't keep up with cars traveling 25 MPH, or get anywhere close to 25 MPH.
G4Dude, jeez, stop mentioning the car already. That's one of the main points of my argument. The car is overkill for many things we use it for. Not only will personal transporters like the Segway become cheaper over time, theft deterrent systems will be made available for personal and public use. What's worth more, a hundred beefy racks with locks for Segways and like devices or the amount of real estate your could possibly reclaim by reducing the size of a parking lot/garage?
Sure, if you're not conscious about fuel conservation, worsening gridlock in major cities, wasted space, etc. then a car is perfect for any situation!
how do you get to the damn city in the first place without a car?? public transportation is the only way...
so...the main travel is going TO the city. once yer already there, whether you use a segway or walk, it wont make a difference because most people still wouldnt be using a car. you arent suggesting people take their segways TO the city, are you? you're completely ignoring the way the infrastructure is set up=people live in the suburbs and compute to work. 99% of the people who go to work in downtown houston commute, which means...they are driving to work or taking the bus. what part of the 99% will be effected by a segway?? none...
You're ignoring the idea that cities will not always be like this. Eventually cities will be so large, there will be few burbs in between. Cities as they exist right now will have to change. Services and goods will eventually be made available much closer to you so you wont have to commute at all. More and more people will work from home.
And with the introduction of small, efficient personal transportation, the car becomes slightly marginalized. Public Transportation like rail can easily get you from point A to B, while the Segway will be able to move you around when you get there. One reason why I don't use CalTrain here in the Bay Area is because nobody else uses it and it's not cheap as a result. In a cost cutting move, trains no longer run on weekends either. I'd also have to drive down to the station and park there anyway. With a Segway, I'd be able to ride it to the train station, ride it up a ramp onto the train and ride from the destination to whereever I am going.
<strong>except...the segway is nothing like those products. maybe it revolutionizes travel within a radius of 1 mile.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
That's precisely the point. That's what it's meant to do, at least from what I see. It's certainly not going to be what John Q. Public's going to drive when he lives in the 'burbs and works downtown in the big city. But for people who live in the city, or in other urban areas I'm sure it would be an appealing option. As it has been pointed out before, a Segway would be great for people who need to travel distances for which a car would be overkill yet walking would be insufficient.
Yes, there are some practical obstacles to the widespread adoption of the HT (price being one of them), and I think most of us know that they're far from perfect. But I think that given a chance, this is a technology that will take off.
The reason why I compared the HT to the iPod/iMac/iBook is that people jumped all over their flaws. "Oh, it's not expandable"..."Oh, yet *another* MP3 player?"...etc. They just didn't give them a chance. Like Jobs with those products, I think Kamen knows what he's doing with the HT. After all, he's betting pretty heavily on it.
The basic ideas and broad vision behind Ginger is all but nonsense. But eventually it will never reach the rank of a status symbol like cars do. And this will kill it. It's sad, but I guess we will remember Segway as a yuppie high-tech gadget.
There are other vehicles based on very similar intentions as the Segway. For example, here in Switzerland the <a href="http://www.twike.ch"; target="_blank">Twike</a> has been hyped for years. But unfortunately nobody buys them.
I guess it's just hard to argue with a well conceived classic, like perhaps a bicycle? Case in point, China, it's cramped and poor, and guess what? Lots of people use a bicycle. It's ideal in cramped spaces but also suitable for open stretches, and once you reach a pedestrian area you can dismount and interact. The conditions are already tailored to this behaviour. Segway could probably fly in similar conditions -- cheap relative to expensive fuel/parking/etc and suitable for congested areas, however it does not at the moment look like a device that will proliferate for reasons mentioned so far in this thread. Much development lacks a human-centric scale/ethos, and it seems more likely that rather than replace vehicle centric models, Segways would encroach into pedestrian spaces, they are probably innocous enough for a generation of the future to look on them witout the smirks that ours will deservedly give them, but I don't know if they're really useful enough enough to replace cars/bikes/feet.
Most of the US isn't the place where they should be trying to sell this thing. They should have gone for a launch in Europe.
This is the Smart it's made by Damiler/Chrisler it has a tiny engine, you would have to be mad to use it on a freeway/motorway (the people who own them ether have 2 cars or rent for long journeys) and only takes 2 people. In the US this would be (and probably is) a joke, nobody would buy them. These thing's are selling really well in major City's all over Europe.
A good example of where the Segway would do really well is Holand, it has an already built infrastructure for dealing with cycles, and a exelent (cycle friendly) Public transport system. All tis could be adopted for the Segway. The only thing that would stop it is cost.
Damn you, Eugene. My parents are fiscal failures I tell you!
[quote]Originally posted by Not Unlike Myself:
<strong>
Wow SPJ! I post that I actually agree with! You must be improving!
PS, I like the Segway, but am waiting for a flying car from <a href="http://www.moller.com/"; target="_blank">these guys.</a></strong><hr></blockquote>
Comments
i don't see the rest of you sticking yours out there for the world to oogle and deride.
one of the first things i thought of though is how wonderfully steal-able it is:
pick it up, put it in a pick-up truck, throw a drop cloth over it, and voila!
i like it...i really like it !
somebody give me 5 grand.
If there is a concern that thieves will steal parked Segways, then the market or infrastructure will respond with ways to prevent theft. Just like heavy duty but lightweight bike locks from Kryptonite, the market will respond with ways of preventing theft.
[ 12-27-2002: Message edited by: ShawnPatrickJoyce ]</p>
Here, with all the rain we get, i can't imagine people standing on a 12mph scooter getting soaked by rain 300 days a year. I know someone who somehow has one already and we make fun of her because we've all realized how dumb the thing is.
[ 12-27-2002: Message edited by: Aquatic ]</p>
5:40. TrevorM I hope you were on cross country!
[quote] where it rains all the damn time. <hr></blockquote>
Yeah. And how about where it snows all the time, like in Vermont?
[quote] 1. It goes ~13 MPH, faster than most people ride their bikes. <hr></blockquote>
<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> Not the people I've seen, who are actually going places! I've never used a speedometer but I'd say on some hills I hit 50. Big hills mind you. That's another thing. How steep a hill can it handle?
Nevertheless, Eugene is right on the premise that the car is dead. The internal combustion is outdated, for starters. Now, the Segway IS a toy and will never be practical. But then again the first steam powered vehicles are nothing like the current vehicles we have. I think a shift to smaller transportation and a revitalization of our infrastructure will happen.
However, I've always had this strange little dream. What if everyone rides a bike to the nearest interstate exit, bus station, train stop, or eventually, monorail stop (replace interstates with monorails?) There should be fleet of public bycycles and/or place to store your bike at interstate exits/train stops. The interstate system would be converted into public transportation only.
The idea of the Segway merely adds motorized personal transportation to the side of getting to an onramp to the interstate. Within cities, public transportation should MASSIVELY increase, because just living in a city means so much more pollution. I'm glad I grew up in Vermont, not a dust-domed, sun radiation deprived, carcinogenic city. And I'll still take a good old bycycle. Cleaner, better excercise, and cheaper, so I can buy that PBG4
G4Dude, jeez, stop mentioning the car already. That's one of the main points of my argument. The car is overkill for many things we use it for. Not only will personal transporters like the Segway become cheaper over time, theft deterrent systems will be made available for personal and public use. What's worth more, a hundred beefy racks with locks for Segways and like devices or the amount of real estate your could possibly reclaim by reducing the size of a parking lot/garage?
Sure, if you're not conscious about fuel conservation, worsening gridlock in major cities, wasted space, etc. then a car is perfect for any situation!
how do you get to the damn city in the first place without a car?? public transportation is the only way...
so...the main travel is going TO the city. once yer already there, whether you use a segway or walk, it wont make a difference because most people still wouldnt be using a car. you arent suggesting people take their segways TO the city, are you? you're completely ignoring the way the infrastructure is set up=people live in the suburbs and compute to work. 99% of the people who go to work in downtown houston commute, which means...they are driving to work or taking the bus. what part of the 99% will be effected by a segway?? none...
And with the introduction of small, efficient personal transportation, the car becomes slightly marginalized. Public Transportation like rail can easily get you from point A to B, while the Segway will be able to move you around when you get there. One reason why I don't use CalTrain here in the Bay Area is because nobody else uses it and it's not cheap as a result. In a cost cutting move, trains no longer run on weekends either. I'd also have to drive down to the station and park there anyway. With a Segway, I'd be able to ride it to the train station, ride it up a ramp onto the train and ride from the destination to whereever I am going.
<strong>except...the segway is nothing like those products. maybe it revolutionizes travel within a radius of 1 mile.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
That's precisely the point. That's what it's meant to do, at least from what I see. It's certainly not going to be what John Q. Public's going to drive when he lives in the 'burbs and works downtown in the big city. But for people who live in the city, or in other urban areas I'm sure it would be an appealing option. As it has been pointed out before, a Segway would be great for people who need to travel distances for which a car would be overkill yet walking would be insufficient.
Yes, there are some practical obstacles to the widespread adoption of the HT (price being one of them), and I think most of us know that they're far from perfect. But I think that given a chance, this is a technology that will take off.
The reason why I compared the HT to the iPod/iMac/iBook is that people jumped all over their flaws. "Oh, it's not expandable"..."Oh, yet *another* MP3 player?"...etc. They just didn't give them a chance. Like Jobs with those products, I think Kamen knows what he's doing with the HT. After all, he's betting pretty heavily on it.
<strong>I'm with you on this one, Eugene, So far the negative has yet to offer a compelling reason against its use.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Wow SPJ! I post that I actually agree with! You must be improving!
PS, I like the Segway, but am waiting for a flying car from <a href="http://www.moller.com/"; target="_blank">these guys.</a>
There are other vehicles based on very similar intentions as the Segway. For example, here in Switzerland the <a href="http://www.twike.ch"; target="_blank">Twike</a> has been hyped for years. But unfortunately nobody buys them.
[ 12-28-2002: Message edited by: Quick ]</p>
<strong>Eugene, did you place your order yet?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Hah. What do you think?
I'm not answering.
[ 12-28-2002: Message edited by: Eugene ]</p>
This is the Smart it's made by Damiler/Chrisler it has a tiny engine, you would have to be mad to use it on a freeway/motorway (the people who own them ether have 2 cars or rent for long journeys) and only takes 2 people. In the US this would be (and probably is) a joke, nobody would buy them. These thing's are selling really well in major City's all over Europe.
A good example of where the Segway would do really well is Holand, it has an already built infrastructure for dealing with cycles, and a exelent (cycle friendly) Public transport system. All tis could be adopted for the Segway. The only thing that would stop it is cost.
[quote]Originally posted by Not Unlike Myself:
<strong>
Wow SPJ! I post that I actually agree with! You must be improving!
PS, I like the Segway, but am waiting for a flying car from <a href="http://www.moller.com/"; target="_blank">these guys.</a></strong><hr></blockquote>
2400 posts- you've got to agree with one of them