Crusaders for health

by Steven Garrity in

I fear that people would pelt me with rocks and garbage if I rode around town on this thingA recent article from SFWeekly argues in favour of a ban by the San Francisco city council of the Segway from sidewalks and bike paths with the argument that people need more exercise. This has been one of the most common criticisms of the Segway; that it will allow lazy people to avoid even more much needed exercise.

First, I imagine that for many people, the Segway would replace the car for short drives more often than it would replace walking. For example, I have about a 7 minute drive to work, but it would take at least 30 minutes to walk. Should I walk? Maybe – but if so, then you should eat more vegetables (read: mind your own business).

I’m not going to walk a half hour to work everyday. Maybe I’m lazy – but I’m just not going to do it. I would take a Segway to work. Surely taking a Segway to work would be better than driving (fresh air, far more energy efficient).

The argument that Segway’s are bad because they will prevent exercise seems to me to stand atop a slippery slope. Should we not use remote control on our TVs and VCRs because they keep us on our asses?

It has always struck me as odd that we pay people to mow our lawns (and shovel our driveways here in Canada), and then pay to work out in gyms. I’ve always thought that all those people in gyms could be mowing my lawn. It would be a win-win situation (synergastic!). That said – I don’t think we should ban ride-on lawnmowers and force people to mow their own lawns.

To be fair, most people I’ve heard argue that Segways will be bad for our health don’t take the argument so far as to suggest that they should be banned as a result.

I should also acknowledge that the author of the SFWeekly article was likely trying to provoke debate and responses like this one – fair enough. The author refers to the Segway as “ultimate American doomsday machine” and deems it a “national threat at least as grave as Iraq”. He’s clearly trying to ruffle feathers with hyperbole.

While, as a geek, I am enamoured with the Segway from the bits I’ve seen online, I don’t think the biggest hurdle for the device will come from municipal law or health concerns. Rather, my biggest concern about owning a Segway would be looking like a huge dork. Though I imagine early roller-bladers would have had to contend with jeers form their four-wheel-per-foot comrades (“nice rocket boots, future boy!”).

For now, I’ll keep driving myself to work in my five-passenger, 2788-pound car each morning.

 

15 thoughts on “Crusaders for health”

  1. I can see a Christmas morning in the not too distant future when a young boy or girl is overjoyed to find “Steve Garrity Pro Segwayer” for Playstation under the tree…and then compains online when he can’t “Seg-Grind The Wal-Mart Roof”…Can’t wait for my copy of SGPS.

  4. If Segways make people lazy, so does public transportation, something every major city has… with the exception of Charlottetown.

    Now I know people will ask me how I can compare a $2.00 bus ride to a multi thousand dollar futuristic scooter, here is my answer: They both allow some one not to walk to get to their destination. What I am getting to is, there has to be more to this story. I don’t buy San Francisco just banning them for that reason… Maybe they wanted the Segway company to pay the city a fee to allow their product to be used on city infrastructure, I don’t know…

    But if San Francisco would rather every one drive their gas eating cars to work, so be it.

  6. Maybe they should only ban overweight people from using them … and create a ‘fitness police’ unit that will ticket overweight people caught in the act.

    But on a more serious note: Being a skateboarder for the last ten years gives me a first hand experience in being slandered for using a mode of transportation, just as revolutionary as this segway, on city sidewalks.

    Even if they do allow it, they will be looked down upon (and mocked) for a while. Maybe forever.

    Who wants a segway anyways? Yeesh.

  7. Segway will not fail due to health concerns or regulation. It will fail because of rain. Everyone who does not buy a moped now will not buy a Segway as during a downpour few want to be without a roof. Segway even improves on the weakness of mopeds in the rain as you stand during operation. So, either people will have makeshift rain covers which fog up and cause the oft denied but inevitable new breed of accidents or – and I am hoping to see Garrity executing this move – we will see the crouched cursing soaked squinting Segway drivers being splashed by cars driving past them through puddles. Who even wants to stand during a cross town drive on a nice day? Haven’t these designers ever been on a bus when they couldn’t get a seat? CB radio of the new millenium.

  8. He wasn’t old enough to say too many words. He just kept hollerin’ “Giddy up, go, Segway. Giddy up, go.”

    Like its name implies, the Segway will, I believe, only be useful in the long run as a device that bridges current modes of transportation with newer modes.
    Its technological advances may be of use for future-designs, but the Segway as it ‘stands’ now is flawed and doomed to irrelevancy. The rain-problem is huge. So is the standing-problem. I want to go somewhere, it’s nice that I don’t have to move my legs, but why do I have to stand? The Segway acknowledges Man’s laziness, but only meets it halfway. Having to stand to get somewhere isn’t just good enough for the lazy.
    Put the same effort into designing a cool, futuristic, motorized wheelchair (don’t call it a wheelchair) that you can sit in/on, and it’ll outsell the Segway a thousand-fold.

  10. First of all, the Segway may be great and all, but I get an awful whiff of Sinclair C5 whenever I see it.
    Secondly, if one only has to walk half an hour to work, and one doesn’t, then one is lazy. That’s only 1 1/2 miles, which is nothing. Now if you had a 2 hour walk from the city centre like I do, or it’s raining, that’s a different story.

  11. The author refers to the Segway as “ultimate American doomsday machine” and deems it a “national threat at least as grave as Iraq”.

    Although the author may have meant this as trolling hyperbole, he might have actually it on the head. The are similarly threatening to America, but pale in comparison to, say George W., in threat level to the “homeland.”

    I don’t think the Segway is stupid, I think it’s amazing. I didn’t say it would change our lives, but it’s certainly impressive. Perhaps they could program an exercise mode, where it follows you with your stuff (baggage, cargo, groceries, etc., or for mail carriers on their route.) so you don’t have to feel like a pack-mule, and still you get to walk when you choose. It would simply follow behind you or perhaps lead/pace you like a smart pack-dog. Give it a “personality” like those robo-dog petsÂ… hey! There’s a lot this Segway could lead to!

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