More Segs in the City

Erstwhile Dr. Transit correspondent Phil Wolf called out Dr. Transit for using an obviously doctored photo about "our" president. My flickr site does have the other photo, and clearly the Segway website newsletter was the source for others in the sequence.

As usual, Mr. Wolf offers some trenchant observation about Segways and Metro:

As a man of vision and pragmatism, you were surely drawn especially to the last, craziest, sentence in the Washington Post article, where the General Manager shares his worry that Metro will be overrun by Segways. The sky would sooner turn to yogurt! Here's why.

Never mind the crowds for a moment. Just try to imagine a line of lawyers-with-Segways waiting twenty minutes on the Farragut North platform for their turn to begin an odyssey of two elevators, first to the mezzanine, then to the exit.** Metro's elevators meter luggage very slowly into and out of stations. They also sometimes get stuck for a few hours. Commuters won't stand for the delays; joyriders won't find it much fun. I don't see Metro getting overrun by Segways!

This visionary says: If Segways ever "take off", it will be with "park-and-ride" facilities at the suburban stations; folks might enjoy the fresh air on their way to the Metro station, without the hassle of lugging the Segway downtown. Or it will be with commuters like the Mr Kanaley featured in the Post article, who got rid of his car and gets to work on a Segway, without help from Metro.

Yes, local governments in a panic about air quality pay for "Guaranteed Ride Home", subsidize Metro, and collaborate with Flexcar and Zipcar... all in an effort to convince a few people to relinquish their private car for the general good. But Mr Kanaley did even better: if a commuter on Metro is better than a commuter in a private car, then a commuter out on a Segway is better than a commuter in Metro. Biking and walking - better still. But on the whole, more commuters like Mr Kanaley would be a good thing for Metro riders, and therefore motorists too. Absent a problem, why put up obstacles?

By the way: The National Park Service, which the Post says prohibits Segways from some DC streets that aren't really DC streets, gets a cut from Tourmobile tickets. As for Metro - now that's a puzzle.

Maybe people could sell advertising for their Segways and have a different form of subsidized commute?