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Judge upholds city Segway crackdown
By adamg on Wed, 06/19/2013 - 6:30am
NorthEndWaterfront.com has the scoop and a copy of a Superior Court judge's denial of a request by the city's only Segway tour company for a preliminary injunction against a city ordinance restricting where his vehicles can go.
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Comments
Good work , Judge , those
Good work , Judge , those things aren't toys . There is enough chaos in the clusterflux in Boston. Even the owner of the company had a bad experience with the dreaded segway.
Millionaire Segway owner dies in cliff fall :
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/09/27/us-brita...
Great logic
Using that logic, there should be no bicycles, cars, or even pedestrians in the city. ;-)
FYI, I have no dog in this fight
Huh?
I don't the person above said they needed to be banned. But regulating them scooters and approving certain pathways they might use seem prudent in our city were sometimes it’s hard to stand shoulder to shoulder on the sidewalks.
They can get up to 12-15 mph and we know, at least with the tours, most people don’t have experience with them.
Heck, we almost lost a President to one!
;)
Scary
I was all set to upvote the idea of not having to deal with Bush after 2003, but then I remembered "President Cheney" and got a shiver from hell down my spine.
And in hindsight a President
And in hindsight a President Cheney's polices would have been different from our current scandal prone warmongering surveillance state authoritarian President Obama how?
Devil in the details
What? You don't think it could be worse than this?
Left a few things out?
Don't forget to include nazi, communist, fascist, socialist, secularist, papist (I'm sure Obama is a closet Opus Dei styled Catholic fellow), member of the Trilateral Commission and a racist descendant of the author of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
On a serious note I share your concern about surveillance becoming ubiquitous. But this is not one person's doing. The private cameras that watch the streets were installed by property and business owners. Public cameras are authorized by police, mayors and governors.
I agree with your concern about surveillance of the average person going about their lives. But the problem is not a president. It is the average citizen who accepts these cameras, the average citizen who him/herself seemingly goes out of their way to also betray their own privacy with putting personal, sometimes intimate information on social network sites, or sharing the data of their private lives with everyone around them by loud conversations on cell phones.
If privacy is desired, if a sense of privacy in the public realm is wanted, if we don't want to be watched and tracked by cameras or other forms of surveillance (is your cell phone turned off?) then all of the powers that govern must be told to shut off the cameras, we have to stop sharing personal information with faceless companies (Facebook is as faceless as Exxon) and government (Republican and Democrat, conservative and liberal, and anyone who identifies with niether) has to be told to stop spying on American citizens.
Exactly
I can see some practical applications (even if, while in the course of those practical applications, Segways still make you look like a tool) but they don't belong in the North End. It's too cramped, and putting people on these things who have never ridden one before and then sending them into a crowd of tourists on some of the tiniest sidewalks in the city is assinine.
About bicycles ...
More specifically, bicycle tours.
I happened to be at Park and Tremont this morning when an Adventours bicycle tour came through. Not sure if they just came out of the Common (if so, tsk, tsk), but they crossed Tremont at the light and rode down Winter Street. There were about 20 of them, and I'm not sure that's the kind of thing I'd want to see go down Winter on a busy day.
Adam, is your problem with
Adam, is your problem with traffic, or leisure traffic?
If so, do you propose checkpoints to ensure all cars going that way are doing so for strict business reasons and not leisure?
Neither, and have you been to Downtown Crossing?
My problem is not with bicyclists, either of the messenger or tour type. My problem is with a mass of bicyclists going down a pedestrian walkway that for 30 years locals have assumed has been just for pedestrians, with the odd delivery truck coming through. It was sort of like watching a tenpin ball hurtling down a candlepin lane.
As for cars in Downtown Crossing, I've never seen a "civilian" car going down Winter - there are those portable bollards at the Tremont Street side, to start with. I have seen people coming down Washington who have no business coming down Washington, mostly of the confused tourist type.
I think I've driven down
I think I've driven down Winter street within the past couple of years, unless I'm getting my streets mixed up. If I am correct, Winter St is a very car popular street.
Hmm, are there 2 Winter streets?
This is the short street that runs from Tremont (across from where Pigeon Lady sits) and runs for a block until Washington Street, where it becomes Summer Street.
Yes I've driven down there
Yes I've driven down there many times and I'm not alone. Daughter lived on Tremont (Suffolk dorm) and it was quite handy.
Unless of course after all these times I find out I'm not supposed to drive down West? I gotta tell all the cabbies and other cars infront and behind me...
My apologies, I am thinking
My apologies, I am thinking of West St., not Winter.
Sorry for the mixup.
Back When There Was a Point to Going Downtown...
I always walked on Winter Street and Summer on the original sidewalks still, and it would behoove everyone else to do so as well. The road, though closed to normal traffic, is still used quite frequently by service and police vehicles. So one should not stroll around on it.
Of course now there is nothing to go to downtown so no point to walking there at all.
Yes BC , I took the cho- cho
Yes BC , I took the cho- cho into town, walked down Summer, no Joe & Nemo's , the place just aint the same.
to blackkat
Back when there was a point to going downtown?? ...speak for yourself. I walk through downtown regularly, but then again, I love Boston. Haters gonna hate.
Haters gotta hate? If you
Haters gotta hate? If you knew what Washington/ Summer street areas were like before, you'd get it.
It used to be the hub of shopping, you name the stores and it was there: Jordan's, Filene's, Kennedy's, Gilchrist, RH Stearns, Baily's Ice Cream and more. It was a kids delight (and mom's too). You'd pull right up, park on any street and shop till you dropped. Then there was Dini's to grab a bite..
My childhood is filled with very fond memories of that area and now it's just kind of sad.
Ditto a thousand times
I also have very fond memories of shopping with my mom (and later years, my sisters) at the stores in what is now Downtown Crossing. Not to mention the ice cream at Bailey's.
And Dini's was my introduction to Boston seafood.
Speaking of Bailey's and Winter Street...
I'm trying to remember, weren't there TWO entrances to Bailey's? The main one was on Tremont, which lead you right in to where the counter was to order ice cream etc. But I also seem to remember a side entrance that I THINK was on Winter, where you walked through a longish gallery-type corridor that sold cards, little gifts, candies, etc.
I remember an entrance on
I remember an entrance on either West Street or Temple Place. I wasn't even aware of the Tremont Street entrance.
Bearwalker...cripes...
what years are we talking about here? I frequented DC during the 1980s when Filene's and Jordan's were in swinging business, and while the area was busier shoppingwise than it is now, its status as the "hub of shopping" was on the wane then.
I'm dating myself but I was
I'm dating myself but I was referring to the 60's - 70's. Granted, I was a child in the 60's but that area was one of the only places my parents shopped.
groups of cyclists running red lights in the city
about 15 or so riding bright green bikes? Just witnessed that group run the red light while abt 10 of us on foot were in the middle of the crosswalk leading into the public garden. The last few cyclists had to hit the brakes hard just narrowly avoiding smashing into a baby in a stroller whose family was crossing in the opposite direction. It was unsettling. The cyclists who stopped just stared ahead with blank expressions. The grandfather (or I assume he was) was visibly shaken. The cyclists offered no apology.
Dude , I was just pointing
Dude , I was just pointing out that they are not a simple thing to operate , dont understand how you expanded that , it was a statement of fact, reinforced by the experience of the owner. The streets or sidewalks of Boston are not a good place to learn to operate this gadget, maybe a deserted runway down at Naval Air Station South Weymouth would suffice as a training ground.
I think the wide aisles of
I think the wide aisles of the Natick Mall, excuse me! Collection, would be perfect for segway tours. It's usually the fanny pack suburbanites that shell out the cash to ride segways in large groups anyways. With more and more cyclists on urban streets and sidewalks along with pedestrians, sandwich boards, over-sized recyling bins, etc., there really isn't enough room for these awkward bulky contraptions.
Maybe it's me...
but the thought of putting a tourist who is either
- not familiar with a Segway OR bicycle riding in the City
and/or
- not familiar with the cow pasture layout of downtown
just doesn't seem like a good idea to me. I dunno - just seems like a prescription for disaster...
Interesting area of law
The City ordinance is full of contradiction. Segways with a maximum speed of 8mph and very quiet somehow pose a danger to bicyclists and skateboarders? Bicyclists who are breaking state law riding on sidewalks in commercial areas?
The City defines them as electric personal mobility assist devices, kind of doing what electric wheelchairs do, but not treated the same. Noel Lee of Monster Cable has a charity for disabled vets to get Segways, http://www.monstercable.com/community/segs4vets.asp
So, Boston is unfriendly to the disabled by taking away mobility options - better the handicapped get bedsores on their asses than stand up using a Segway.
Again, Boston is being unfriendly to tourists and tourism business by discouraging Segway tours. Oh, and no happy hours, bars open past 2am, dancing without a license, or fun. Welcome to Boston where repression has always been in style.
People with disabilities can get a Segway in Boston
They just can't ride them abreast of each other.
I'm glad you care so much
I'm glad you care so much about people with disabilites. And aren't at all using them as an insincere argument to back up your political stance.