From
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2006/10/20/segways-ontario.htmlLook out for those police on their Segways! Snowie better leran to drive faster to avoide one of these giving him a speeding ticket.
Ontario gives Segways a chance to rollLast Updated: Friday, October 20, 2006 | 1:55 PM ET
CBC News
The Ontario government is rolling out a new program that will permit mail carriers, police officers and people with disabilities to travel on Segways on roadways and sidewalks.
The pilot project, which will be conducted over the next five years in London, Ont., will study how the personal transporters can safely integrate with pedestrian and street traffic.
"Allowing the use of Segways, a two-wheeled electric personal transportation device, brings us one step closer to having an Ontario that is accessible and inclusive to all," Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield said in a release.
"We are very excited that today, we can offer persons who have a disability a wider range of accessible transportation choices."
Determining where scooters can travel is currently under provincial jurisdiction. Quebec's government tested the use of Segways on sidewalks, cycling paths and roadways in 2005.
Researchers described the transporters as stable and quiet and noted that they allowed the user to accelerate and stop easily. The study recommended that Segways should be permitted to travel on pedestrian walkways.
However, in recent years Segway Inc. has endured a series of safety glitches. In September, the company issued a voluntary recall of all of its 23,500 self-balancing scooters, which sell for between $4,000 and $5,500 US, because of a software error that caused the wheels to shift unexpectedly in reverse.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said six people were injured as a result of the malfunction.
In 2003, the company recalled 6,000 of its scooters when consumers reported that the transporters became unstable when the battery power ran low.
