St. Louis writer on Segway vs. walking
Submitted by Brent Hugh on Fri, 12/13/2002 - 4:19am
Christopher Orlet, a St. Louis writer, had this to say about the new Segway Personal Transportation device, in an article in Salon:
Truly what is needed is not another gizmo that provides otherwise healthy men and women with another reason to remain sedentary, but more sidewalks and walking trails, safer intersections, the reappearance of street-side shops and sidewalk cafes that once made urban walking enjoyable, and flatfoot cops on the beat that made that sauntering safe. What is needed are bicycle lanes and routes like the ones you still find in European cities. It is unfortunate that a man as ingenious as Dean Kamen has dedicated the last decade to working to make walking obsolete, when he might have put his considerable intellectual gifts toward creating something to improve, not diminish, the quality of life.
Truly what is needed is not another gizmo that provides otherwise healthy men and women with another reason to remain sedentary, but more sidewalks and walking trails, safer intersections, the reappearance of street-side shops and sidewalk cafes that once made urban walking enjoyable, and flatfoot cops on the beat that made that sauntering safe. What is needed are bicycle lanes and routes like the ones you still find in European cities. It is unfortunate that a man as ingenious as Dean Kamen has dedicated the last decade to working to make walking obsolete, when he might have put his considerable intellectual gifts toward creating something to improve, not diminish, the quality of life.
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