1 post tagged “segway”
Here is a picture of me on a first-generation Segway in SL.
As it happens, I ride one in RL, too. They really are incredible machines. The feeling of effortless motion is wonderful, yet you can easily stop and have a conversation wth your neighbors or pedestrians. After a few minutes on the machine, it begins to feel like it's a part of you. It's really cool!
But not everybody thinks so. There is a fair amount of fear out there about these machines, mostly from people who haven't learned how they work. It is very difficult to hurt a pedestrian while riding one of these, unless you are reckless. But the same thing applies to bicycles, wheelchairs, people running down the street, etc. When I teach people how to ride a Segway for the first time, I have them try to run into me at full speed. I stop them with very little effort just by pushing up against the handle bar. The leverage of the handle bar upsets the rider's forward balance, and the ends up standing straight up, which brings the machine to a stop.
Anyway, there is a good amount of information on the Web about which US States allow the use of Segways on the sidewalk. But there is very little non-US information, and I couldn't find a single reference to private property permissions, such as shopping malls, office buildings, hotels, etc.
So I created a page on KittoWiki to try to collect that information. If you know of any particular places that have either allowed or prohibited Segways, add it to the list.
That reminds me, I need to put an entry there for Second Life. :-)
