ENVIRONMENTAL ORGS
CALL ON GOV. SPITZER TO VETO BILL THAT
WOULD ALLOW ‘SEGWAY’ SCOOTERS TO GO ANYWHERE
PEDESTRIANS CAN GO
Bill Would Motorize
Wilderness Trails, Sidewalks, Street Festivals, Etc.
Released, Tuesday, August 7,
2007
ALBANY, N.Y. – Leaders from
a variety of New York environmental and health organizations
called upon Gov. Eliot Spitzer today to veto a bill that would
allow two-wheeled, electric scooters – known as Segways
– anywhere a pedestrian can travel.
The groups said the bill would
bring motorized traffic into inappropriate places, would discourage
people from exercising and would worsen air pollution by increasing
the nation’s thirst for additional electricity, most of
which is produced by burning fossil fuels.
The organizations included the
Adirondack Council, American Lung Association of NYS, Citizens
Campaign for the Environment and the New York Public Interest
Research Group.
The legislation (A.202-a, Gantt/S.1353-a,
O. Johnson) would exempt “Segways” from the legal definition
of a motorized vehicle. The bill was sent to the Governor on
August 3, so he has until Wednesday, August 15 to sign or veto
it. If he doesn’t act, it automatically becomes law. A Segway
is a scooter with an electric motor and two large wheels sitting
side-by-side. The operator stands on pedals that sit between
the wheels, holding a center handlebar. The operator leans forward
or backward to control direction and speed.
Laws protecting public Wilderness
Areas in the Adirondack and Catskill parks ban motorized vehicles
on those trails. Specific accommodations have been made for some
devices that have become widely used since the creation of those
Wilderness areas in 1972, but each has been the subject of lengthy
negotiations. Snowmobiles, for example, are restricted in the
Adirondack Forest Preserve to no more than 848 miles of designated
trails (out of 4,000 total miles of public trails). Mountain
bikes are restricted to 1,100 miles of trails. Electric wheelchairs,
however, may go anywhere on the Adirondacks and Catskill Forest
Preserves. Segways have never been subject to such negotiations.
“Segways move a lot faster
than a person hauling a backpack or someone lugging a canoe from
one stream to another,” said Brian Houseal, Executive Director
of the Adirondack Council, an environmental organization. “A
lonely trail, miles from the nearest village, is a bad place
to be encouraging collisions. And if a Segway breaks down or
runs out of juice in the woods, who drags it back out?”
Houseal noted that the Adirondack
Council recently spent more than a year persuading the Village
of Speculator, Hamilton County, to stop allowing snowmobiles
on the sidewalks in winter, after several incidents where people
were chased over snow banks and on to the state highway (NYS
Rt. 30) to avoid being run over.
Allowing Segways to go anywhere
pedestrians go would cause other problems as well, the groups
noted.
“At a time when the health threats and costs of obesity
are becoming better understood and air pollution levels show
little signs of abating, we do not see this legislation as being
beneficial to lung health. We encourage walking and other physical
exercise for a healthy New York,” said Michael Seilback,
Senior Director of Public Policy & Advocacy for the American
Lung Association of New York State.
“This is exactly the wrong
kind of legislation. We don't need more machines using electricity
and endangering the welfare of pedestrians on sidewalks. It should
be vetoed," said William Cooke, Director of Government Relations
for Citizens Campaign for the Environment. "As we look at
our national and global energy use, this is not the way to go.
We should be encouraging more walking and less use of fossil
fuels."
“Governor Spitzer should warm up his veto pen for this special
interest legislative giveaway to the Segway company,” said
NYPIRG Legislative Counsel Russ Haven. “In a year when important
environmental and energy conservation measures didn’t get
done, the Segway company got a bill passed to give its expensive,
energy consuming, dangerous product an exclusive market in New
York.”
For more information:
The Adirondack Council
John F. Sheehan
518-432-1770 (ofc)
518-441-1340 (cell)
518-456-4512 (home)
American Lung Association
of New York State
Michael Seilback
Albany: (518) 465-2013 x318
Hauppauge: (631) 265-3848 x16
Citizens Campaign for the
Environment
Bill Cooke
518-434-8171
New York Public Interest Research
Group
Russ Haven, Esq.
518-436-0876
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