I have asked our Mayor to also ban this vehicle and plan to contact the
Mayor of San Diego and other area cities.  Here is the info from San
Francisco on their ordinance.

The Segway ordinance is on the San Francisco web site at:

http://sfgov.org/bdsupvrs/ordinances02/o0241-02.pdf

If you back up one level to:   http://sfgov.org/bdsupvrs

you can get to any items adopted by the Board of Supervisors.

If we can be of any further assistance, please let us know.


San Francisco Mayor's Office on Disability
401 Van Ness Avenue, Room 300
San Francisco, CA 94102

415.554.6789
415.554.6159 TTY
415.554.6799 Fax

Pete


>X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21)
>Date:         Wed, 22 Jan 2003 10:22:48 -0800
>Reply-To:     American Blind Lawyers Association <[log in to unmask]>
>Sender:       American Blind Lawyers Association <[log in to unmask]>
>From:         "Thom, Jeff" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: FW: EPA & segway in the news
>To:           [log in to unmask]
>
>LEt's hope N.H. folks read this.
>Jeff
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Robert R Planthold [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 5:33 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask];
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>Subject: EPA & segway in the news
>
>
>
>FYI.  Bob P.
>--------- Forwarded message ----------
>From: "srira" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: "Bob Planthold" <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2003 14:09:39 -0800
>Subject: segway in the news
>Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]>
>
> The Segway ban made it to the top of EPA's daily news update,
> referring to an article in a NH paper:
>
> http://www.epa.gov/ne/inthenews/index.html
> http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_show.html?article=17483
>
>San Francisco says no to Segway Transporter
>By DENIS PAISTE
>Union Leader Staff
>
>You can't ride your Segway in the City by the Bay anymore.
>
>As of today - just about a month shy of going mainstream - the Segway
>Personal Transporter has been banned from San Francisco sidewalks for
>safety
>reasons.
>
>San Francisco Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr., who a year ago joined the hoopla
>celebrating Segway's introduction, let pass a city ordinance banning the
>high-tech scooter when the city's Board of Supervisors recently voted 9-2
>to
>outlaw the Segway on city sidewalks, spokesman P.J. Johnston said.
>
>Brown earlier had said he opposed the ban, and would veto it, "because he
>thinks it's terrible public policy to ban a new technology outright
>before
>that technology is even tested in the city, before there is any
>meaningful
>debate about pros and cons, before there is any thoughtful understanding
>of
>what the safety risks may in fact be," Johnston said.
>
>However, advocates for San Francisco's elderly and disabled won the ear
>of
>the ban's sponsor, Supervisor Chris Daly, who represents the downtown
>district, according to Otto Duffy, an intern to Daly, and a solid
>majority
>of supervisors, who eventually supported the measure.
>
>Critics of the gyroscope-balanced, $5,000 scooters feared pedestrians
>might
>get hurt by the two-wheeled, 69-pound Segways which travel at speeds up
>to
>12.5 mph - or three times faster than the typical pedestrian. The
>self-balancing machines go forward when a rider leans forward, and
>backwards
>when a rider leans to the rear.
>
>"We don't want to say that it doesn't ever make sense. But in urban
>settings
>there isn't enough room for all the pedestrians," said Ellen Vanderslice,
>president of America WALKs, a Pedestrian advocacy group based in
>Portland,
>Ore.
>
>In hilly San Francisco, officials feared Segways would cause more
>problems
>than they would solve, particularly for the disabled and senior citizens.
>
>"There were statistics submitted to us about injuries and the Segways
>themselves did not have adequate safety features to alert people they
>might
>be behind them," said Tom Ammiano, a San Francisco supervisor who
>supported
>the ban.
>
>No state is requiring that its drivers be trained, although some have set
>minimum age and helmet requirements.
>
>The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has ruled that the
>Segway
>is not a vehicle subject to its oversight. Late last year, Worcester
>(Mass.)
>Polytechnic Institute become the first university in the world to
>implement
>use of the Segway Human Transporter after acquiring three Segway HTs this
>past fall.
>
>WPI's campus police department has already started using two of the
>Segway
>HTs to make patrols around WPI's 80-acre main campus easier.
>
>The battery-operated, motorized devices, which are the brainchild of New
>Hampshire inventor Dean Kamen, are being assembled at 14 Technology Drive
>in
>Bedford. Segway LLC has its corporate offices in the Manchester Millyard.
>
>Segway officials say the scooters have been tested for 100,000 hours on
>city
>streets across the nation without injury.
>
>Ammiano also said Segway's publicity blitz rubbed officials the wrong
>way.
>
>"Segway didn't help themselves by hiring very expensive lobbyists," he
>said.
>"I think that backfired on them, too."
>
>The company hired lobbying firms but has made no contributions to any
>public
>officials or candidates, said Matt Dailida, the company's director of
>state
>government affairs. He said attempts to modify the ban in San Francisco
>were
>unsuccessful.
>
>"It looks as if (San Francisco) will be the first city in the country, if
>not the world, to ban this new form of transportation from their
>jurisdiction," Dailida said.
>
>Segway Human Transporters, or HTs, have safely logged more than 50,000
>hours
>of real time use in U.S. cities, Dailida said.
>
>Tested by the U.S. Postal Service and put through industrial trials for
>the
>last year, the consumer version of Segway went on sale on Amazon.com in
>November for a price tag of $4,950, and are set to begin shipping in
>March.
>
>So far, 33 states (including New Hampshire) have passed legislation that
>allows Segway HTs to operate on sidewalks. But California's law, passed
>in
>August, allowed cities and towns to regulate or ban use of Segway HTs in
>their communities, as San Francisco has done.
>
>In California, Santa Cruz, Oakland and San Mateo are considering joining
>San
>Francisco in banning Segways from sidewalks. There is no similar move in
>congested Los Angeles, city officials said.
>
>(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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