[Joe3]

Okay, I may catch a little flack for this, but I'm going to have to agree with Mike D. on this. In most places in the country, everything from skateboards and bikes, to more obvious things like cars and motorcycles are banned from the sidewalks. So why should a Segway be any different? I realize that this law would definately not be beneficial to the sales and marketing of the segway, but I think it is the right decision. While I'm sure most Segway owners would be responsible and could handle their segways responsibly on sidewalks and keep others out of harms way, there will always be those few who ruin it for the others. All it would take is for a few boneheaded owners to be blowing down a sidewalk at 12 miles per hour and hit somebody, run over a foot, hit someone walking into a door, and there would be lawsuits for it. These are the exact same reasons other motorized vehicles and objects are prohibited from the sidewalks. Segways should be no different. A Segway and person moving at 12 mph is moving more than fast enough to do some serious harm to whatever it hits. If the potential for harm is there, it's the governments job to protect the people, however they see fit.

I realize that this law strikes a lot of nerves of people on this board, since many of us have pulled for the Segway to be successful, and a few of us even have invested in one of them. But if you take a step back and look at this objectively, this is the right decision to make, since the Segway really isnt that different.