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They seem pretty expensive but if it saves me from driving my kids around so much, especially during the summer, it might be worth the price if buying one lets me get more work done. I checked with the DMV and they are the only legal motorized vehicle for kids under 16 allowed where I live.
I was just wondering if anyone here had one and if so, what do you think of it?
[edited by: Jane_Doe at 11:38 pm (utc) on July 13, 2007]
cool, like UNIX is cool, and owning a USB mug warmer is cool, and wearing an air-conditioned pocket protector is cool.
even on university campuses you've got to be a class-A nerd to putt around on a seg. send your kids out on a segway in the wrong neighbourhood and you're pretty much guaranteeing they'll get mugged. Please don't let them drive it to high school
only legal motorized vehicle for kids under 16 allowed where I live
What about mopeds?
I walk to the train station every morning - about a mile. If I were too sick to walk anymore I'd think about getting one - but that's years away.
Would have been perfect for the Jetisons!
Would have been perfect for the Jetisons!
Not sure if the typo is intended, but it's still a humorous one!
What about mopeds?
Everything else motorized here you need to be 16. I had a very patient person from the DMV and another from the local police department go through the code books for me and neither found anything motorized legal for younger teens, except the Segway.
And even with the Segways some individual cities are banning them as many pedestrians are complaining that they are a hazard on the sidewalks.
My husband pointed out that there is stretch with no sidewalks next to a busy street to get to the neighborhood where most of their friends live, so I guess the Segway wouldn't work anyway. If they couldn't use to get to those friends houses, then for sure it wouldn't cut down on my driving enough to justify the cost.
I don't know why they are so expensive. An electric scooter is $200, Segways are $5,000, but legally the kids are supposed to be 16 and have a license for the scooters, while I don't think there are any age restrictions on the Segways.
[edited by: Jane_Doe at 7:10 pm (utc) on July 16, 2007]
The first bikes (1870s to 1890) cost a fortune and were loaded with new technology. Bike pneumatic tires preceded auto tires and must have been enormously costly at first. The modern complex chain was the last major innovation, around 1900. Wright Bros were bike mechanics...cutting edge then.
The bicycle is one of man's greatest inventions, vastly better/cheaper than any means of individual propulsion up to then. It's about 5 times more efficient to ride a bike than to walk. Of course its reign was brief in the West. The car, an even better invention, outsold bikes by 1902.
I'm thinking of buying a Segway
Now there is a sentence I never thought I would read.
Not exactly big sellers:
and as of September 2006, approximately 23,500 had been sold
from wiki
xootr
What's needed for adult scootering (is that the word?) to take off is athletic pedigree similar to cycling's Tour De France and the Olympics. (bicycle racing has been included in every Olympics since the first modern one in 1896).
A major gas shortage would help too.
...and I have 2 dozen of them in the city park a couple of miles from my home. I have never used them but they are for rent to ride the 10 miles of park cycling/running paths.
I see groups of people often crusin' the park.. looks like a good time.
The Segways offer a fun ride, once you get the hang of 'em (which doesn't take long). I couldn't justify the investment versus the cost and exercise benefits of walking and/or biking. But, hey, my parents already bought 'em, so they're free for me. ;-) It's a better option than getting in the car for short (under a couple miles) trips, though, if you aren't willing to, or can't, walk/bike.
What really ticked me off about the Segway, though, is the limit on the motor. I'm told that it is a software restriction. If so, has anyone hacked one? Because I really, really, really want to race these puppies. Segway racing would be sweet! (Think of a cross between motorcycle racing and roller derby....)
