Canadian fined for riding Segway on street

We knew it was bound to happen sooner or later: an Ontario man has gotten fined $8000 (Canadian dollars, we think) for riding his Segway on a street without a license, without insurance, and making an illegal left turn. He's fighting the charges, but he's caught in the middle of a techno-legal catch-22: he can't ride his Segway without a license, but the good people down at the motor vehicle registry can't (or won't) issue him one, reducing his Segway-enjoying options to playing polo with it or using it as a golf caddy.

[Thanks, Phil]

[Jeremy Wilson @ Dec 19th 2005 1:47AM]

A few years ago I had a gas-powered scooter (basically a two-wheeled skateboard with a chainsaw motor and handlebars) in Toronto, which I drove on the street for awhile - until I was pulled over by a cop and given $12,000CDN in fines because the cop considered it a motorcycle. No insurance alone is a $5,000 fine.

I took it to court and the charges were all thrown out after my lawyer said to the judge that "it's basically a skateboard with a motor your honour."

The cop was pissed.

[Ryan Waddell @ Dec 19th 2005 1:47AM]

I swear to god, I nearly run over at LEAST once cyclist a day who insists that "he is a vehicle, so he gets just as much right to the road as I do"... Yet these bastards will ride across crosswalks as if they are pedestrians, and expect me to stop for them THERE too! And these crazies don't need a license, so why should someone on a Segway require a license?

[David @ Dec 19th 2005 1:47AM]

I'm not sure where you live, but every city I've lived in requires bike licences. They're usually cheap and last forever ($25 for a lifetime licence) so you'd have to be pretty cheap not to get one.

As for cyclists pretending they're pedestrians at crosswalks, well, that's just being a jerk.

[Bill @ Dec 19th 2005 1:47AM]

A license for a bike? That's nuts. Two wheels, pedal power -- that should be as much a right to ride as owning a high-power assault rifle. Maybe it's just in Canada that they require a license for bike riding though.

In the US many states don't require license or insurance for 50cc motorized two-wheel vehicles or electric bikes that can't do more than 30 mph, while other states do require license and insurance. If you're going to ride something on the street though, it's up to you to figure out what the law is and get the appropriate license. Seems to me that the guy with the Segway could have gotten a motorcycle license (though they may have refused to administer the driving portion of the test if he showed up on a Segway).

[David Hughes @ Dec 19th 2005 1:47AM]

Well, if you have a driver's license, you should know that a bicycle IS considered vehicle - subject to the same responsibilities and traffic laws as cars. Of course, they don't have the right to ride on sidewalks, but drivers don't have the right to make turns without using the turn signal, or not making complete stop at a stop sign, or use the horn for anything but as a warning signal...

[aeo @ Dec 19th 2005 1:47AM]

Just because you have the cash to drop on a gadget doesn't mean you're guaranteed a place to play with it. Sounds like the guy should have done a little more research first.

Bikes vs. cars? Pfffft... a little off topic eh?

[loner @ Dec 19th 2005 1:47AM]

As far as bikes go, it's pretty much the same all over: bikes are vehicles and must be treated as such by other vehicles, and cyclists must obey all rules of the road. When you don't share the road with cyclists, you're a jerk. When the cyclist doesn't stop at a sign, uses the crosswalk or the sidewalk, the cyclist is a jerk. Plain and simple.

As far as the real topic, there should be some default regulation that clearly defines power and size limits for any arbitrary vehicle and determines what we can do and can't do with it. Above the limit, the user needs a license, insurance, whatever, below the limit, the user doesn't need some or all the stuff. Then when a new type of vehicle comes along, there is no confusion while we wait for the lawmakers to define more specific rules.

[Server @ Dec 19th 2005 1:47AM]

While I agree with an earlier post, about how some (if not most) bikers believe they are immune to the blunt force of an 3-6000 Lbs automobile crashing their skulls like a roadkill squirrel, there will always be a problem with how to deal with bikes refusing to obey or share the roads. Bike accidents are still up and rising and the reasons are simple. Lack to training/common sense/ and YES a license. This basically gives the bikers 'carte blanche' to do whatever they want without any regards to laws that technically don't apply to them. Its a hard [ON TOPIC} debate and having been on both ends I for one believe that bikes need their own lanes or regrettably some kind of general licensing system.

Next up? Licensing Tricycles?

[aeo @ Dec 19th 2005 1:47AM]

Registration and license won't do anything but fill the governmental coffers. People will continue to act illegaly regardless of what stickers they have on their vehicles.

Currently, we're free to be anonymous on the streets. The exception is when a cop is directly observing us at which time, any and all registered and non-registered vehicles a subject to being stopped at the officer's whim. Notice how much more behaved we are in the presence of a traffic cop? Why? Because he holds us accountable for our actions.

Anonyminity is the general problem as people are jerks when nobody knows who they are (happens on the net too :-P).

[joeytomatoes @ Dec 19th 2005 1:47AM]

Have the Canadian officials chew on this America @ 10 MPH which we are sponsors http://www.10mph.com/

[Galley @ Dec 19th 2005 1:47AM]

Are you sure there isn't an extra zero or two in those fines? $12,000???