This news item made me want to laugh and cry at the same time. I was just speaking with Lynn’s son Jamie this New Year about the fact that while technology has advanced and created new opportunities, our laws have failed to keep pace. (As a worker in an industry which relies on copyright for its survival I can claim to know a thing or two about this.)
Then I read this article. The Dutch have, without consulting the manufacturer, banned Segways from all public roads. Why you may ask? Here is the answer from the spokesman for the Dutch Traffic Agency:
It doesn’t have a brake, you brake by leaning back, and that’s clearly not permissible
Clearly.
What’s clear to me is that the bureaucracy is a bunch of idiots. But that’s not really surprising now is it…
The second thing that made me laugh in this article was that the reporter, while trying to drum up comment from the few places that might actually be impacted by the inability of the few hundred Segways in the country to operate anywhere but on their driveway, called up a company called “Segway Tours” which rented out Segways to tourists.
A spokesman for Amsterdam Segway Tours said the business was closed until March due to ice, which makes it difficult to operate the scooters.
It hasn’t frozen in Amsterdam yet this winter, the warmest in the Netherlands in 300 years of recorded history.
“That could change at any moment,” the spokesman said.
Hilarious. It’s the warmest winter on record but because the business is so used to being seasonal, and so inflexible and customer-UN-friendly, they don’t bother to even give a plausible excuse as to why they’re not operating when faced with the possibility of getting some sympathy for their business from the free press that’s being offered them.
So typically European.
Welcome home I suppose.
Clearly
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