Pavement hogging Segway rider convicted

A Yorkshireman is the first person in Britain to be fined for driving a Segway on the pavement. Coates 51, an unemployed factory worker, was fined £75, and ordered to pay £250 costs and a £15 victim surcharge at Barnsley Magistrate's Court. Coates bought the two-wheeler after taking one for a spin on holiday in Florida. "I' …

[Marky W]

"£15 victim surcharge"

Now that there is some serious flamebait. Let's sit back and see shall we....

[Marky W]

Or apparently not.

* slinks off grumbling incoherently *

[Anonymous Coward]

Nowt as queer as folk

Buys machine that cannot be ridden either on road or pavement

Drives it on pavement

Gets done for it.

Never saw that as a possibliity?

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

Sir

Did I read that right? Segways are illegal? Good :) They're a bloody menace.

[Mr Brush]

Shame

The Segway seems like a great idea. When the Gov + dog is trying to to persuade us to buy electric cars and pushing the price of fuel through the roof, a small personal transporter for short trips is just the thing we need to help stop people jumping in their gas guzzlers to drive 400 yds to the shops.

Perhaps they should be allowed to use cycle/bus lanes to avoid mowing down Grannies?

[King Jack]

Why?

Because the government WANTS you to spend money on fuel, it's the way they make money. If everyone switched to clean renewable energy (not saying the Segway is renewable) they would not get their tax. So no Segways or whatever new clean transport for the UK.

[qwertyuiop]

Novel idea

How about *WALKING* the 400yds to the shops? Then we wouldn't need to create pollution producing the electricity to charge your poxy Segway.

[Tony Smith, Editor, Reg Hardware]

Re: Novel idea

I saw a mall cop in Las Vegas using a Segway. One of the most ridiculous sights I have ever seen. Only his gun stopped me pointing and ROFL-ing.

[Cosmo]

Also in the UK

I've also seen the "security" personnel use them in Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth. Lazy barstewards

[Ian Michael Gumby]

Not so funny...

They have them in Chicago. They serve a purpose.

And easier to get around parts of the city/mall than a guy on a 10 speed mountain bike.

Besides, without them these cops would be puking up doughnuts and coffee if they had to chase a perp.

I think you Brits want to outlaw them is because when Segway owners drink and drive, their accident victims tend to be people who are pedestrians on the sidewalk, not someone in another car.

[Richard 45]

Mall cops using Segways.

They should make a film about it. I'm certain it would be quite funny.

[Jeremy 2]

I can beat that...

The altogether real cops at Atlanta airport ride monstrous things. They're not Segways, more sort of tricycles but they are to Segways as Humvees are to a Ford Fiesta. Of course, they come complete with blue flashing lights and a very silly sounding siren....

http://www.atlanta-airport.com/HJN/2009/11/customer3.htm

The cops ride them around the airport like they own the place, naturally, while every kid wishes they had one and every adult tries to suppress their laughter.

[Anonymous Coward]

why would that stop ya?

you can rob a shop and hold an old lady at knifepoint and still get a thousand lawyers to sue the cop for drawing the weapon and "traumatizing" you.

Me, I point and laugh anyways.

Now riddle me this, how does a "poor" unemployed sod get $2 or $3K to waste on something like a Segway in the first place? When there's pedal powered and electric-assist bicycle and tricycles for (at the absolute worst prices) half as much? That require NO "long-tailpipe" or ambiguous legal standing?

[Elmer Phud]

Not bike lanes either

Segways are too bloody slow

[Anonymous Coward]

State Approved Title Number Seven - The Dear leader is great.

So you cannot use your Segway on the Pavement and you cannot use them on the road. Okaaaayyyy -Can I please buy a license to keep one locked up in a shed somewhere in Europe?

Thank you citizen.

All hail the glorious leader.

I seem to have surfaced in North Korea.......

[Anonymous Coward]

Get a grip - @AC 15:05 GMT

What an uber-over reaction. There are actually many many things that fit into this category. Legal to own, but not legal to use on the pavement or on the road. For example, if I buy a car without an MoT test certificate. Or I build a car or motorbike and don't pass the SVA (single vehicle assessment). The failure can be for something as benign as not having the correct lights, or not having mudflaps, but it is still a fail, and would still make the car illegal to drive on either the road or pavement.

You can still buy one for use on private property. And presumably there is nothing stopping you submitting one for an SVA which would make it legal if it passed. The fact that it wouldn't pass for safety concerns is another point.

Having rules for what is safe and unsafe to use on public roads and paths is part of being a civilised society. If we didn't, there would be nothing to stop me putting such dangerous things as tanks on the road, or worse still, driving a hovercraft on the road despite having insufficient control to prevent a crash every 2 minutes.

I'm pretty sure the citizens of North Korea would be quite happy to gain the freedoms you have in the UK in return for all the traffic laws, so seriously, get a grip, and cut with the Polemic.

[ElReg!comments!Pierre]

What is legal or not

>The failure can be for something as benign as not having the correct lights, or not having mudflaps.

Actually it is also illegal to drive an approved vehicle in the street just because you have it running on non-approved fuel. That's how you can get done if you put 1/4th of colza oil in your (diesel) tank. It's better for pretty much everything (including your engine, your wallet, and the environment) but it's not approved so the whole vehicle becomes illegal to drive on public roads.

[Anonymous Coward]

Except, of course, it isn't.

In fact, you can make up to 2500 litres a year of home-brew fuel to run in your diesel car without even paying any tax on it.

[ElReg!comments!Pierre]

Poor little thing

>Can I please buy a license to keep one locked up in a shed somewhere in Europe?

You seem to have forgotten something: no-one is FORCING you to buy a Segway in the first place. If you choose to buy one, knowing that you can't use it on public roads, then your bad.

You can own karts or an elephant rifle, doesn't mean you have the right to use them in the street.

[Anonymous Coward]

If it's not legal......

why does the uk official dealer say this:

"The environmentally-friendly, electrically powered Segway Personal Transporter (Segway PT) is a novel and alternative form of personal mobility transportation. The Segway PT can take you places that a car or bicycle can't "

Now if only there was some way to stop tossers cycling on pavements, that would be good news!

[Jan 0]

But you can stop them

I hear that a walking stick in the wheel works wonders.

However, as I'm not "ambulatorily challenged" I find that grabbing the front brake lever also works nicely.

[D@v3]

I think that should read....

"Can't take you places a car or bicycle can"

I nearly got knocked down by one myself in Miami a few years back, they (and their drivers) are a bloody menace. If they were to be legalised, stick 'em on the roads with bikes and buses.

[Rob Crawford]

Since when

do cyclists ride on the road?

Never mind allowing segways on the road, how about prosecuting those ignorant two wheeled bastards that ride on the footpath, ignore traffic lights and pedestrian crossings.

Same as the fatability scooters that you see the old fat chavs crushing under their lardy arses, if they where disabled they wouldn't be able to shovel so much food down their gullets.

BTW I am all for cyclists as long as they actually pay some attention to other people (especially those who are not sitting in cars)

[CmdrX3]

Well I don't know about where you live

Over here where I am, it genuinely is mostly pensioners who aren't able to walk very well that own the Mobility scooters. Most of the fat chavs are crushing a DLA car under their lardy arses.

[NBCanuck]

Full disclosure!

"The environmentally-friendly, electrically powered Segway Personal Transporter (Segway PT) is a novel and alternative form of personal mobility transportation. The Segway PT can take you places that a car or bicycle can't "

The statement should be: "The Segway PT can take you places that a car or bicycle can't , but can't take you places that a car or bicycle can."

[Anonymous Coward]

unemployed factory worker

"I've used it ever since for going to work "

How does that work?

[Arnold Lieberman]

Unemployed factory worker... Segway... Barnsley

Have I missed something? I haven't been able to afford to fly anywhere for 10 years let alone buy sh** like a Segway. Must be in the wrong profession...

[LuMan]

Ridiculous

£340???? I see adults and teens alike riding big, heavy mountain-bike-style pushbikes on footpaths all the time - even outside the friggin' Police Station and they don't get fined. Chances are that they'd do a damn sight more damage if they hit someone, too.

So he was in the wrong. Fine him £30 and ban him from the Seg for a month, but don't take the equivalent of a week's wages from an unemployed man for Christ's sake!

This is yet another example of the Police making a poor decision because they can and further alienating themselves from society while continually reducing the publics' faith in them. F*cking sickening!

[Anonymous Coward]

You may have misunderstood.

I don't think the police actually decide the amount of the fine as you seem to think they do, wasn't the whole point that this went to court?

Court != police.

And a weeks wage? I seriously doubt that job seekers is >50 pw nevermind >300!

[Anonymous Coward]

Good article

But, "Period"? What?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've never heard ...

I've never heard of the menstrual cycle used as an exclamation before.

[Anonymous Coward]

Stupid Segways

All we need now is a machine capable of lifting our fat arses off our couches and balancing us like weeble wobble people on the Segway and we woulnd't need to use our legs at all.

Segways: For when you really can't be arsed to even walk.

[sebacoustic]

was it Norman Tebbit...

..who said unemployed factory workes should get on their Segway scooters to find work?

[Jan 0]

Nice!

Mind you is there something different about Barnsley? Do they also stop cars driving on pavements*?

*Well, ok, I know that Tower Hamlets has an ingenious way of stopping cars driving on pavements and an aggressive ticketing policy, but I'm not aware of any convictions for driving motor vehicles on pavements anywhere else I live or visit in the UK.

[RichardB]

Hum

Seems a shame.

Funny how the council can run big electric rubbish cart trolley things on the pavement even though they have _numberplates_ though!

[Anonymous Coward]

"Even though"?

That's precisely why they CAN.

Because they fall into a legally defined category of vehicle, and meet all the legal requirements to be used on a pavement. Unlike a Segway.

Lembit - bless 'im - is actually going about it the right way, by campaigning to get a recognised and defined vehicle category introduced to permit them.

Whether it would be a good thing or not is another question entirely.

[Anonymous Coward]

What about...

Disabled mini scooters. I assume they are legal to drive on pavements and through shopping centres?

[Mark C 2]

@LuMan

I think you'll find it was a magistrate that decided on the size of the fine. The Police are there to prevent and detect crime, not decide on how much to fine a person that committed a crime.

An elementary understanding of the UK legal system would be useful....

[LuMan]

Hmm..

Perhaps an elementary understanding of comprehension would've help you and the reply to my original post....

I didn't actually say the police had fined him. I blamed the police for taking action in the first place. Could they not have told him to push the bloody thing home? Nope, they HAD to take action (he could be a terrorist, after all). <sigh>

[Trev 2]

Unemployed and employed...

With ref. to the last AC - quite common on many estates where most of the population are "unemployed" and employed at the same time....just DHSS don't know about the latter. How'd you think they afford Segways and 42" plasma TVs.

With regards a Segway, I am wondering whether they should be classified the same as those motability scooters that try to mow everyone down. Drive it on the side of the road at your own risk and great fun to watch as two of them come head to head.

[Anonymous Coward]

Err...

As a cyclist I would fully expect to be prosecuted for cycling on the pavement (if I did, I don't!) so why should a Segway driver not expect the same?

The only problem here is that they're not allowed on the road, because they have a motor. Surely a sensible solution would be to have them MOTed and insured, or something similar, so they are covered for road use. While I'm at it, I also think that cycles should have some sort of MOT and insurance. (Although most cyclist are covered by their home insurance public liability clause.) I cycle in central London and actually see people going through the city with broken brakes, badly worn tyres, knackered chainsets, buckled wheels etc.

[JaitcH]

Segway unsafe for road use, unsafe for pedestrians on sidewalks, too

I live in a country where Segways are used on the road way.

They have no signals, horns, etc.

The funniest thing is watching the rider handle an emergency stop - another thing they are incapable of - even funnier when the driver discovers the limitations of the Segway as the wheels continue to drive sufficiently long enough for the handle bar support to hit the vehicle in front, lowering the handle bar so as to form a perfect take off point for the Segway driver, propelled by the drivers kinetic energy, to propel them over the lowered handle bar.

Anyone witnessing such an incident would have little doubt about whether a Segway is "intended or adapted for use on roads". In my opinion it is definitely not!

[Graham Marsden]

The only reason...

... that Segways are not legal to use on the road is that they are not constructed in accordance with BS6102 part 1 which are the regulations that govern the use of electric bicycles, nor are they classed as either Class II or Class III Invalid Carriages under The Use of Invalid Carriages on Highways Regulations 1988.

Of the two, the latter (especially class III) are by far the more dangerous (and certainly more dangerous than a Segway) because they are allowed on the pavement and you can have 300kg or so of machine and rider capable of traveling at 13kph being driving by someone who may not have the best visual acuity or mental faculties and, indeed, they have been responsible for a number of deaths and injuries.

So before you start taking the pi$$ out of Segways and saying that they shouldn't be legal because the riders look ridiculous (or some other spurious BS such as you didn't like Lembit Opik) try looking at some facts.

[Anonymous Coward]

Right. But...

Class III scooters aren't permitted on the pavement at 8mph. For 8mph, they've gotta be on the road. On the pavement, they have to be restricted to 4mph - for which they all have a clearly labelled (usually with a hare and a tortoise icon...) switch.

And they've got to be registered with DVLA and insured.

[brainwrong]

Unemployed

How can you be an unemployed factory worker?

[Anonymous Coward]

Segway size

I wonder how many people making comments have really seen these things. They are big and from my recollection of UK pavements will take up about half the width. They are also realtively fast.

They are definitely not suitable for use on the pavement.

IMO they would also be a menace on the roads, a bit like a vertical Sinclair C5.

[Peter Ford]

C5 on the road

How would a C5 (or a vertical C5) be a menace on the road?

Victim? target? squishy mess? Yes.

Menace? Nope...

[Martyn Welch]

Re: C5 on the road

> How would a C5 (or a vertical C5) be a menace on the road?

It'd scratch my paintwork.