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Why hasn't the Segway caught on?
...however impressive its technology, it was fulfilling an already-met need. There is nothing the Segway can do that that humble 19th-century technology, the bicycle, can't--except, of course, not give its user cardiovascular exercise (and any bike can be easily equipped with an electric engine). Kamen has said that eliminating pedestrianism, Wall-E style, was not his goal; as the New Atlantis noted, "Segway is intended to fill the gap between pedestrian travel and car travel; its niche is for those trips that are inconveniently far to walk and annoyingly close to drive." Reducing the shocking frequency with which Americans drive for trips of under a mile--the quart of gas for a quart of milk--is certainly a noble social goal; but again, a beat-up Trek on Craigslist does the same thing.And you can fix a broken bicycle yourself.
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I think the later point, about how it's not at all clear where you're supposed to ride a Segway, might be a bigger obstacle than everything but price (which would drop if the thing were at all popular). They're too big/fast for the sidewalk and too wide for the road.