Segway scooter hits a bump in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO — Known for its love of geek chic as well as its congested streets, San Francisco might have been expected to embrace a new, environmentally friendly personal vehicle that promises to pull people out of their smog-spewing cars.

Instead, the city on Monday became the first large municipality to outlaw the Segway Human Transporter on its sidewalks — more than a month before the chariot-like vehicles are made available to the public.

The Board of Supervisors acted last month following intense lobbying by Segway LLC in state capitals to change laws to permit the two-wheeled vehicles on sidewalks. In all, 33 states, including California, approved Segway-enabling legislation.

But that doesn't mean major cities will roundly embrace the scooters touted by their inventor, Dean Kamen, as apt to "change civilization" when he introduced them to great fanfare in December 2001.

The two-wheel device that is controlled by body movements with the help of high-tech gyroscopes and tiny computers has been tested across the country by postal workers, police officers and meter readers. They're on sale to the public at Amazon.com for $4,950 and will begin shipping in March.

In hilly San Francisco, where pedestrians must navigate not only rough pavement, news racks and homeless people, officials feared the battery-powered Segways would cause more problems than they would solve, particularly for the disabled and senior citizens.

"There were statistics submitted to us about injuries, and the Segways themselves did not have adequate safety features to alert people they might be behind them," said Tom Ammiano, a San Francisco supervisor who supported the ban.

Segway officials, however, say Segways have been tested for 100,000 hours on city streets across the nation without injury.

Ammiano also said Segway's campaign rubbed officials the wrong way. "Segway didn't help themselves by hiring very expensive lobbyists," he said. "I think that backfired on them, too."

New Hampshire-based Segway hired lobbying firms but has made no contributions to any public officials or candidates, said Matt Dailida, the company's director of state government affairs.

A California law that takes effect on March 1 allows cities to ban the devices. Santa Cruz, Oakland and San

Mateo are among those in the state that are considering such actions.