MP Lembit Opik braved arrest on Tuesday as he teetered along on a Segway at a cool 12 mph outside the Houses of Parliament.
The member of Parliament for Montgomeryshire was willing to be hauled away by police in his protest against the ban on the two-wheeled transporters on U.K. roads saying: "It's either Segways or Strangeways."
A member of Parliament is testing the ban on Segways on U.K. roads.
(Credit: Segway )Opik, who can regularly be seen weaving along the country lanes on his Segway Personal Transporter around his home in Newtown, Wales, believes the machines will be legal on U.K. roads by Christmas.
He argues the one-person gyroscopic vehicles could transform city centers--replacing pollution-spewing cars with the electric vehicles--saying their top speed of 12 mph is 4 miles per hour faster than the average car in London's city center.
Opik believes the fact his action went unpunished will inspire other Segway owners nationwide to defy the ban and take to the streets without fear of arrest.
About 500,000 Segways have been sold worldwide and they are used by about 600 police forces. Around 2,000 are thought to be in the U.K. where they cost about 4,300 British pounds ($7,550).
Opik said: "The Segway Personal Transporter...is a revolutionary leap forward for travel, which virtually does away with short-haul journeys in the car.
"I use my Segway for many journeys, for example to travel the 7 miles from Newtown to the nearby village of Abermule.
"The only barrier is the Department for Transport's vagueness about whether they are legal or not.
"I was prepared to be arrested, but if they do not arrest a group of MPs in high-visibility jackets then how can they arrest anyone."
Opik pledged to raise the issue with transport minister Jim Fitzpatrick and to put forward a parliamentary question asking for them to be given the same classification as a bicycle on the road.
He said: "Let the Segway reduce congestion and pollution on Britain's roads."
The Department for Transport says it would be "difficult" for scooters such as Segways to meet the standards required to be classified as road vehicles.
Nick Heath of Silicon.com reported from London.
(Credit:
Segway)
Segway, the manufacturer of the scooter-like device that was supposed to change the world, is losing an early employee. Doug Field, the company's chief technology officer, is leaving the company to become a vice president of product design at Apple.
The announcement was made through a post on the Segway Chat forums by John Grohol, Segway's former "Web architect" who continues to help run Segway Chat.
"Doug has been the driving force in making the Segway what it is today and will be sorely missed at the company," Grohol wrote. "However, with every change comes good and bad. So while it's bad the rich history and experience of Doug is leaving, it's good in that perhaps the team will get a fresh perspective into possible engineering solutions for future versions of the Segway."
Official Segway representatives did not return a request for comment.
Meanwhile, after initial disappointment, the Segway keeps chugging--er, gliding--along. The company's latest big customer is the Chinese military, as security ramps up for the summer Olympics in Beijing. Inventor Dean Kamen, meanwhile, continues on his path to create life-changing devices.
This post was updated at 10:41 a.m. PT to correct John Grohol's relationship with Segway.
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