Skip to main contentFor the past several months, a handful of Portlanders have been zipping around the streets--and sidewalks--on Segways. Last week, a pedestrian group took the first step at slowing them down.
Initially known by its code name, "Ginger," the Segway Human Transporter is a push-mower-sized self-balancing electric scooter that will be sold to the general public in March.
"We are definitely not opposed to the Segway," says Ellen Vanderslice of the Willamette Pedestrian Coalition. "But we are very, very concerned about the use of it on sidewalks."
Last Thursday, her group voted to oppose the vehicles' use on business-district sidewalks in Oregon or, at least, to impose a speed limit of 5 miles per hour. (The gyroscope-balanced vehicles, which cost $4,950, can hit 12.5 mph.)
Earlier this month, San Francisco officials banned the
83-pound machines--derided by some as dangerous machines that will add to the country's swelling obesity problem--from sidewalks.
The Portland City Council hasn't yet weighed in, but city commissioners are already getting lobbied to follow San Francisco's lead.
Critics have described the Segway as the sidewalk's version of the SUV, tailgating and bullying pedestrians out of the way. "It's intimidating to pedestrians to have something that's going really fast next to them on the sidewalk," says Vanderslice, "especially pedestrians who have sensory, mobility or balance challenges."
Portland developer Homer Williams, who purchased two Segways as part of a limited advance-sales "ambassador" program, thinks they are safe on sidewalks if used properly. "I mean, if you can have a wacko on a skateboard, you might get a wacko on a Segway, I don't know. But I've never had anything close to an incident."
In Atlanta, however, an "ambassador" tumbled off the machine while traversing an "indentation in the sidewalk," injuring his knee and requiring a quick trip to the hospital. In San Francisco, a lobbyist demonstrating it gouged chips out of a marble wall in a building's lobby, leaving two foot-long cracks behind. The Ohio-based Center for Injury Research and Policy has come out in opposition to Segways on sidewalks, as have several consumer groups.
The company has launched a reported $30 million nationwide lobbying campaign to make Segways sidewalk-legal. Currently, an Oregon scooter law passed by the 2001 Legislature requires Segway owners to wear helmets and use bike lanes when available. But the law is not as Segway-friendly as the company would like. So last summer, the vehicle's makers retained Dave Barrows & Associates, one of Salem's top lobbying firms, to get Segways legalized for sidewalks.
The move seems to have bipartisan support. Rep. Jeff Kropf (R-Halsey) has introduced a bill to allow Segways on sidewalks. State Sen. Kate Brown (D-Portland) is poised to do the same in the Senate. These laws would not overrule any local ordinances passed in Portland or elsewhere.
Segway lobbyist Lara Smith doesn't expect safety to be a big issue. "We don't foresee any injuries," Smith says. "This thing is not much wider than a man's shoulders. It can turn on a dime."
Williams agrees, but advises caution. "Boy, you gotta be careful with it," he says. "It's not intuitive, and it's seductive because it's so easy to get on and go. But it's just like being on a bicycle: You gotta watch everything around you."
WWeek 2015