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How pitiful to see young and, presumably, able-bodied people riding these things on a park sidewalk outside the Palmer Event Center. They are brilliant technology but address a need that does not exist except in possible specific cases of disability.
Tonight we were walking through the park on our way to rollerderby at Palmer and a Segway tour headed towards us. They made no attempt to yield the right-of-way which I consider pretty entitled for motorized transportation on a park sidewalk. I often ride my bike on these same sidewalks, but ALWAYS hit the grass or yield in some other fashion when I encounter pedestrians. On my bike on any sidewalk it would never even occur to me to say "excuse me" to pedestrians and assert the right-of-way.
I am 66, my buddy is 78 with two hip transplants and we don't need no f*****g Segways to get around!
I didn't let it spoil a real exciting close rollerderby bout, but it kind of pissed me off. About 50% for how pathetic it is and the other 50% for rudeness.
Don in Austin
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The Segways on the sidewalks and Pfluger bridge are a bit irritating to me because they interfere w/ human powered traffic. One or two or three of them would hardly be noticeable. The irritation builds when they are in a touring group of 10-25? of these things and everyone is trying to stay in a tight line together, on the sidewalks and bridges, in our parks. The guides try to keep the whole group together and oftentimes resort to yelling out things like excuse me, coming through, etc, so the pedestrians move out of their way. If on foot, I move out of their way and make sure to get my two youngest kiddos off the path. On bike, I just pass them and more or less ignore.
At least they are not driving their cars hastily around on the bike routes. The other thought that I had on this is that even if they were a novice paid tour group on rented bicycles, they would still be irritating if 10-30 of them were on our busiest sidewalks and bridges in our busiest parks day after day, staying together in a tight slow group to observe the local 'wildlife'.
Perhaps that is the final source of irritation. We have a nice park and great sidewalks for public mobility. Then a for profit group brings in a ton of these things that dominate our public spaces, sidewalks, and bridges in use by our pedestrians, cyclists, and pets. In the end, I am totally willing to share the pathways in the parks if safe alternative transportation routes (protected from cars) exist and the cars and drivers are willing to share our roads with the cyclists and others.
I can see how that might be even more irritating to you and your friend, Donald.
I wonder if they have these tour groups in places like San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Denver, New Orleans, etc.... and how do they deal with them ?
Last edited by AusTexMurf (2013-02-21 23:39:13)
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A little courtesy would go a long way. Pedestrians should not have to yield to ANYTHING on a sidewalk. "Hike and BIKE" is not so clear cut.
Don in Austin
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A little courtesy would go a long way. Pedestrians should not have to yield to ANYTHING on a sidewalk. "Hike and BIKE" is not so clear cut.
Don in Austin
Absolutely agreed.
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I think it's pretty silly to go 10mph with a motor if you aren't disabled. With that said, I use an electric bike for transportation which is amazing. I am young, fit, but the ebike makes much more sense most of the time. I don't feel like a sitting duck when I have to share lanes with auto traffic, because I can go with the flow.
I see the segways a lot. It's always tourists on them - you can NOT expect them to be courteous. Of course they should, but tourists are usually in a daze and barely know how to operate what they are using and unfamiliar with the area. The guide usually directs them to move over when they see me coming.
The sidewalks within the park are all wide enough for a bike and pedestrian to pass safely, without one stopping or riding the grass. I do ride the grass if someone is in the middle though.
Last edited by rich00 (2013-02-21 18:37:02)
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