Whatever happened to the Segway?

2. It doesn't really fit in a bike lane, or on the sidewalk, or on the road. That makes it harder to get around cities on one.

3. Standing? That's for bipeds! But seriously, it's a less preferable way to travel when compared to sitting for most people.

4. Range. 15-25 miles isn't a great range on a 10 hour charge. You can't count on 25 miles given that you don't want to abandon it by the roadside and the charge time is too long. That's for the i Series. The p Series is capable of 6-10 miles. I live very close to my work, but at about 4 miles, I'd be at risk of having a p Series die on me (given the round trip). Eh, maybe I could plug it in at work. Suffice it to say, range is a problem.

5. It's expensive. You could get a nice motor scooter where you could sit down, drive on the road, get to speeds of 30mph, etc. for less money. Plus, while they don't use much gas, many do run on it and therefore you have the opportunity to refuel in seconds rather than hours.

I thought the iBot wheelchair was amazing and it was really sad to see it discontinued, but the Segway doesn't offer much. Sure, the gyroscopic stabilization is awesome, but (partly due to how things are laid out) it doesn't offer a better experience than cars, scooters, bikes or walking for most people. A bike is cheap. A scooter will let you use local roads much like a car. A car is great as a fast/long distance vehicle. Walking works best in close quarters. And the segway, while cool, just doesn't hit the right spot except in a few occasions.

Too true, when I first bought the Segway I was afraid that I might play with it for a couple of weeks and then stow it in the garage. But instead it became really useful to me, and a lot of fun to boot. I never get tired of it.

Everything works in my favor: my office is less than two miles away from my front door. I live in Central Florida, where I can use the seg year 'round -- no pesky snow and ice to have to deal with. The sidewalks go everywhere I want to go, they are smooth and well maintained, and the curbs all have wide cutouts. Relatively few people ride bicycles or walk (suburban Florida sprawl encourages long distance commutes) so the sidewalks are my private highway.

The drive to work used to take me seven minutes in my Volvo, and takes twelve on the Segway. Not having to face the morons on the road first thing in the morning is worth the price of admission all by itself.

Cost? About US$5000, give or take. 20 miles costs about 1KWH of electricity, so figure that at about $0.13 where I live. Add in a set of tires at $80 after 3,000 miles.

I commute to work, come home for lunch, run small errands, sometimes riding 15-20 miles r/t. A perfect fit for my lifestyle and locale, and I'm not a sweaty mess when I get where I'm going.

What I don't do is take it into stores and malls. I mean, that's just stupid if you're not handicapped. Park it outside, like I would a bicycle.

I'm obsessively polite -- my seg is the first one that most people have seen in the wild, and I don't want people's first exposure to a Segway be some jerk. I yield to everybody on the sidewalk, slow down as I approach, call out before I pass someone on the trails.

Yeah, I've heard "mall cop!" about a thousand times. Most of that sort of thing I hear from high school boys, who also like to howl "awoooooooo" as they roar by. (And what's up with THAT?) I remember turning into the university one day when a couple of college-age boys were leaving in their red muscle car. "Why don't you WALK, you lazy bastard!" one of them yelled out the passenger window, as the driver tromped the accelerator. I contemplated the irony as I watched them tear up the road to a nearby apartment complex.

Pretty much every right-hand-turn auto driver in the country is actively trying to kill me. That Slate article is right about one thing; if you're approaching an intersection at 12mph you'd better be damn sure to establish eye contact with the driver making a right turn in front of you. She's not looking your way, she's looking left to check for oncoming traffic, and she's certainly not expecting traffic from the right at my speed. I almost was clipped several times before I learned that green lights and "walk" indicators should be taken as suggestions only. (Relying solely on your right-of-way mostly means your estate will win in court.)

Segways do have their place. They won't change the world like Dean wanted, but if you live a sane distance from your place of business it's the cat's meow.

We do often see policemen using them in the parks in downtown Chicago.

But as is pointed out in comments here, it fits an odd space in the personal transportation choices. Maybe three or four times faster than walking, slower than a bicycle.

It may be due to the ubiquitous stairs and subways, but this device would be utterly impractical in most situations here, and it looks silly to boot.

The Segway would be a great device for the handicapped, except it requires standing up and decent balance to use.

I've always enjoyed watching kids skate along the sidewalks and malls with those shoes with wheels in the back. When they need to climb stairs or walk carefully through a crowded area, they can; when they have some room to zoom, they tip a heel back and they're gliding along. Segway needs to do something like that.

Maybe they should create a segway for two persons, so that a pro could drive around the passengers (a ka segway taxis).

Also, it gave me (and some friends) a good laugh by yelling the A-team tune at them while they were passing by :)