Peter Jackson column

Apr 14 2005 By Peter Jackson, The Journal

I had been wondering, off-and-on, over the past year, what happened to the Segway.

The Segway is a revolutionary, motorised self-balancing scooter, somewhat similar in appearance to an old cylinder lawnmower.

Introduced to the UK two years ago, it was meant to the change the way we live and, in the words of its US inventor Dean Kamen, it would "be to the car what the car was to the horse and buggy".

It was real Tomorrow's World stuff and captured my imagination. However, I forgot the fundamental lesson imparted by that great TV programme - namely that these things never happen.

I have just read that there are estimated to be just 30 to 50 of the machines in the entire country, so they are probably outnumbered by the horse-drawn buggy.

They are, it seems, handicapped by the law - which will not allow the 12mph machines on our pavements - and the price of £2,800.

I have actually seen one, although that was not here but in the US, when I was attempting to leave a bank while a Segway owner was simultaneously attempting to enter by the same swing doors. Presumably that particular driver (rider?) hadn't undergone the minimum four hours hands-on coaching recommended before the purchaser is let loose.

It seems that I was exceptionally lucky, because the Segway doesn't appear to have been a much bigger success in the US than over here. Not only is price a problem, the Segway weighs about 80lbs and can travel for only about 11 miles on a charge.

I suspect Dean Kamen would not have gone ahead with the Segway had he been British.

Not because of any genetic or environmental factors, but because he would have remembered the fate of Sir Clive Sinclair's C5, the electric tricycle that was described as a car.

With a top speed of 15mph and a range of a few miles, it was so vulnerable in traffic, particularly in the vicinity of heavy lorries, it was vital to buy, as an accessory, a high, bright-red, reflecting mast.

The point is this. In an age when image is everything, apart from clothing - which is strangely exempt from this rule - people don't like to buy things that make them look silly.