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Also this issue: Back in Style Mummy Russia Liberation The Bell Curve |
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July 25-31, 2002
city beat
 Need for speed?: A new law allows Pennsylvanians to race down the sidewalks on motorized scooters. Photo By: Michael T. Regan |
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Visiting Philadelphia for Fourth of July festivities, Gov. Mark Schweiker decided to conduct a little official business. While in town, the governor signed a few bills, including one to legalize the use of Segway scooters on Pennsylvania’s sidewalks. To pedestrian advocates, it was ironic that the governor chose to sign that bill in front of Independence Hall, the birthplace of government of, by, and for the people. They claim the new law is a prime example of how corporate lobbyists ride roughshod over public interest in Harrisburg.
The Segway bill was written by Pennsylvania state Sen. Jake Corman and introduced on Dec. 3, 2001, the very day inventor Dean Kamen unveiled his much-hyped invention on ABC's Good Morning America. Alternately known as IT, "Ginger" and by the brand name, Segway Human Transporter, the contraption is an electric scooter that responds to subtle shifts in its passenger's weight. Lean forward and you go forward. Lean right and you go right. At top speed, the scooter can hit 20 mph, something pedestrian advocates find troubling.
Peter Hecht, president of PhillyWalks, a grassroots pedestrian advocacy organization, says the issue at stake is "what we want a sidewalk to be. Is it just another roadway or is it a place where people walk, where they window-shop, where they stop to talk, where people wait for buses?"
The Segway's boosters say the device is safe for sidewalks because it is so easy to control. And beyond its benefits to riders, it helps the public at large by reducing automobile use and all the problems that go with it -- air pollution, dependence on foreign oil and the sedentary lifestyle.
But when asked why Corman sponsored the bill, legislative aide Don Houser didn't cite any of these reasons. Houser said Corman, who represents a rural district in the center of the state, introduced the legislation because "he happens to have a good relationship with the people who represent Segway in Pennsylvania."
In Harrisburg, Segway retained the lobbying firm Greenlee Partners, which has additional offices in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.
Houser openly acknowledges that the lobbyists wrote the original text of the bill. “The initial language isn’t something we dreamed up,” he says. “It was something given to us by people representing Segway.”
Greenlee Partners did not return repeated calls for comment.
A search of Corman’s campaign finance records did not reveal any contributions from Segway.
According to Houser, lobbyists approached Corman in the fall, before the scooter had been unveiled. “The project was brought to us,” says Houser, “and they told us we can’t tell you much more than this but we need this legalized. Of course our question was, ‘What is this going to be used for?’ What they could tell us was this would be great for handicapped users.”
The bill, when Corman introduced it in December, only applied to disabled people and government employees, like sanitation workers. On April 29, however, the bill was amended by Corman to apply to everyone in Pennsylvania. Additional changes on the same day also removed a provision mandating a 15-mph speed limit.
“Segway, as it turns out, is much more than a device for handicapped individuals,” explains Houser, who says his boss amended the bill after convincing the Schweiker administration that the device could be used by almost anyone.
Hecht sees the April 29 amendment as a legislative dirty trick. He says the bill was sold to legislators as benefiting the disabled. Once the bill had support, the amendment vastly expanded its scope.
“You’re sort of at a disadvantage [when convincing legislators to oppose] a bill that was introduced as something to help the disabled,” he explains.
Hecht says he became suspicious of the amendment while attending a demonstration of the scooter presented by Segway in May at an Allentown hotel. According to Hecht, the Segway representative told the group point-blank that the scooter is not meant for the disabled.
Segway’s top lobbyist, Matt Dailida, head of state government affairs for the New Hampshire-based company, says, “We do not intend the Segway to be a tool for the disabled.” Dailida blames the invention’s “limited exposure” before its unveiling -- and the fact that Kamen’s previous invention was a robotic wheelchair -- for the confusion. “We agreed with Corman to limit [the bill to] the disabled [but] as more information came out about the product and we explained that it wasn’t being marketed solely to the disabled, the change was made to the bill.”
Dailida insists, “In no way, when we introduced the Segway Human Transporter to Senator Corman or any other legislator did we say this was a tool specifically for the disabled.”
Dailida’s nationwide lobbying campaign has, thus far, resulted in 30 states passing laws similar to Pennsylvania’s.
The Segway bill was passed unanimously by the Pennsylvania Senate with no debate on June 12. In the House, the bill passed 191-9 on June 28. Four of the nine “no” votes came from Philadelphia representatives.
Debate in the House was brief. One of those who spoke against the bill was state Rep. Babette Josephs, whose district includes Center City, Bella Vista and parts of Grays Ferry. Speaking about the debate, Josephs says the bill “came up the way things do around budget time -- out of the blue.” Josephs argues that Segways should go in bike lanes, not on sidewalks. “People ought to have licenses and they ought to go in the street,” she says.
State Rep. Louise Williams Bishop of Overbrook, who also opposed the measure, says, “that bill just went. I think it requires some thought, some hearings, some study.”
Both the House and Senate transportation committee approved the bill without hearings, much to the annoyance of members of the Pennsylvania Pedalcycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee. The group’s vice chairman, Bill Hoffman, says, “It was kind of shocking to me considering we are the [state’s official] bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee. This is the kind of thing we’re supposed to be advising on.”
Even with the bill signed into law, it doesn’t necessarily mean Segways will be speeding down the sidewalks of Philadelphia. The bill contains a provision allowing municipalities to regulate Segways as they see fit.
Speaking about the new law, Streets Department spokesperson Emily Buenaflor said, “We don’t think it’s a good idea.”
Hecht says his group is currently working with the Philadelphia Planning Commission on recommendations to City Council to limit or ban Segway use on sidewalks in Philadelphia.
