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“I was in Europe for a semester, and every country I went to had a Segway tour,” Mr. Stein said,
adjusting the Happy Birthday balloon on his handlebars. “They were crowded
around the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa.”
But in New York City, this birthday party on wheels was against the law. Five years after the
first Segways arrived in New York City and were greeted with curiosity and
bemusement, their use remains illegal — even after Gov. David
A. Paterson signed a law in July legalizing Segways everywhere else
in the state.
Officials
in New York City, where many streets are already clogged with taxis, tourists,
dogs and double-wide strollers, deliberately asked lawmakers to leave the city
out of the bill.
“But we are
always open to new ideas and new evidence,” Ted Timbers, a Department of
Transportation spokesman, wrote in an e-mailed response to questions. “And the
city will monitor and learn from the experiences of other cities and states
that permit registration and use of Segways.”
The state
law treats the Segway much like a bicycle, allowing riders on public bike
paths, bike lanes, and roadways with speed limits below 30 miles per hour.
Operators must be at least 16 years old and must wear helmets. Permitting
Segways on sidewalks is a decision the law leaves to local governments.
“I think
it’ll be the thing of the future for some people,” said Assemblyman Joseph R.
Lentol, a Democrat from Brooklyn who was one of the sponsors of the bill. “It
gives us another alternative transportation source.”
Segways are
not completely illegal in New York City. The Police Department started using
them last year to patrol the city’s parks and boardwalks.
But beyond
that, Mr. Atkins believed the number of people with Segways in New York to be quite small, about 30 or so by his count.
“When the
first bike was introduced in the 1880s, it received the same welcome we
received,” said Mr. Atkins, who describes his business and passion for the
vehicles on a Web site, segwaynyc.com. “Hopefully it won’t take 100
years for us to become part of the infrastructure.”
Mr. Atkins
owns six Segways and charges $100 per person for a two-hour lesson. The city
considers Segways motor vehicles and consequently, riding one carries the risk
of being ticketed for operating an unregistered and uninsured vehicle. But
since he bought his first Segway in 2003, Mr. Atkins said, police officers have
stopped him only to ask for a ride. He shrugged off the new law.
“Legal is a
state of mind,” Mr. Atkins said. “Green is a state of being.”
Segway
Inc., based in Bedford, N.H., promotes its product as an environmentally
friendly alternative to driving. But the combination of the Segway’s weight (up
to 130 pounds) and speed (12.5 m.p.h. is the maximum) makes advocates for
pedestrians and bicycles resistant to sharing the road.
“To
introduce a foreign, unproven, untested element into the mix complicates the
job before us, which is to make the most efficient use of city streets,” said Noah
Budnick, deputy director of Transportation Alternatives, a New York advocacy
group.
After
battling the state for seven years, the Segway company is in no rush to direct
its lobbying efforts toward the city.
“We haven’t
formulated a strategy; we haven’t reached out to city officials,” said Matt
Dailida, Segway’s director of governmental affairs. “I expect the city process
to be just as long as it was up in Albany.”
New York
Motorcycles, a shop in Queens Village that carries Segways, says it sells about
200 of them a year, mostly to police departments and private security
companies, but hopes sales will increase because of the new law.
“In the
past, when an individual would call, they’d get shot down when we told them
they weren’t legal,” said Joel Metter, the shop’s general manager. “For people
who have a hard time walking, or need to cover some ground, it’s a freedom
machine.”
Mr. Stein
had been looking forward to his turn on a Segway for months.
“It feels
like swimming for the first time,” he said.
“I would
love to get one,” Ms. Greenbaum said. But she said the $5,300 price tag was
even more of an obstacle than the law.
Their tour
through New York City started at the United
Nations, headed west to Times Square and then north and east to the Queensboro Bridge. People stared and laughed, the couple said, and the few police
officers
they passed “didn’t seem to mind.”
“People
move out of the way for us,” Mr. Stein said.
“Which is
nice,” Ms. Greenbaum said. “I’ve never had that happen in New York before.”
More Articles in New York Region » A version of this
article appeared in print on August 12, 2008, on page B6 of the New York edition.
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