1. It isn't that fast. That makes it a no-go for suburbs/rural areas.
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.
Walking is better exercise and more healthy in a country in which obesity is a major health problem. And walking is more adaptable to varied terrain, and doesn't leave you with something to park.
I wonder if in retrospect the big buildup to its release spelled doom for its ultimate acceptance.
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.
I'd imagine that Segways are useful for police officers doing crowd control duty. First off, standing on that platform gives you an eight inch advantage over everyone else -- you can see pretty well.
But more importantly: you can be SEEN. I think that most of a cop's job is done when s/he is visible.
I have seen exactly two people with them in "real life" (not a rental).
The company I work for had a contest for our customers where we gave one away. I got to ride it around at work a bunch (I was the only one that could successfully ride it without risking a broken bone). The guy we gave it to drove it into his pool. Oops.
The other one belonged to a lady that used to live near me in Scottsdale, AZ. I know this because I almost hit her with my jeep one morning. I was pulling out of a parking lot, and she was coming the wrong direction down the sidewalk, moving MUCH faster than anything on the sidewalk should, and generally acting careless.
It has been pointed out already, but the segways don't really "fit" anywhere. They're too slow for the road, they're too fast for the sidewalk, and they're too big for the bike lanes.
They're well suited for malls and airports, but I can't really imagine myself using them anywhere else.
There used to be a guy who would go zooming down Jamaica Ave on his segway. He was dressed in a suit and presumably on his way to work (no advertising, that I saw), but even when he was on a flat sidewalk (i.e. - no stairs or subways) it really pissed everyone off to have to move out of his way so quickly.
I live down in the Pacific Beach area of San Diego and see a few rental Segways being ridden around every day. We have a perfect boardwalk both by the ocean and in the bay for people to safely and legally ride them on so it kind of makes sense down here.
Every time I see one though, I just think of GOB in Arrested Development and bust up laughing...
I've always loved the Segway, but never bought one because it's difficult to find a lot of places where I can use it. Bikes face a similar problem, which is why people in the US mostly use it for exercise.
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.
I can't imagine why bikes would make it harder to get around, I live in a country where people use bikes when there's decimeters of unplowed snow outside. The only thing that's hard to do while riding a bike is getting up stairs but it's only a tiny bit of a trip.
Finding a place to put your bike is typically not a problem. The problem I find is that I am often too sweaty, and or dirty once I arrive at my destination. This has always limited me to places where I can shower, or places I don't care if I am sweaty/dirty.
DEKA solved those problems, but not in the way you'd expect. Actually the Segway was a spinoff of technology developed for the original device: the iBOT. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBOT
Maybe airports would be another good use, or other big buildings. Except that probably you have to train before you use them? Would you fun if you could rent them at airports like the trolleys, and zap from gate to gate.
Maybe they should create a segway for two persons, so that a pro could drive around the passengers (a ka segway taxis).
I've seen police men and parking inspectors on them, quite recently - both in the Netherlands and in Switzerland. So I thought they were finally catching on.
Also, it gave me (and some friends) a good laugh by yelling the A-team tune at them while they were passing by :)
I'm an owner (about 30 months now) and won't part with it. I ride about 200 miles per month on the seg, and use it for all of my workaday transportation. Gave my Volvo to my Mom in fact -- I just don't use it anymore.
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.
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.