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Segways Still Ride On the Wrong Side of the Law
By
Jen Chung
Published May 7, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published May 7, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Woe to the Segway commuter: A Brooklyn man who commutes from Brighton Beach to Midtown Manhattan has failed in his attempts to fight a $90 ticket he received while riding the contraption. Jonathan Gleich told the Post, "New York City wants to be green, but to me they're being mean. For me to get to work costs 15 cents instead of two bucks to take the subway. There are never delays, there are never strikes. There's nothing to stop me but rain and snow."
The problem is that Gleich's Segway is unregistered. He bought insurance for it, but the DMV refused to register it, so when he was pulled over on 6th and West 23rd, he got a ticket for driving an unregistered vehicle. And though City Councilman John Liu said back in 2004 that a Segway-riding ticket was probably contestable, Gleich's judge felt the ticket should stand, calling the Segway "a gas-powered skateboard." Talk about insult to injury.
The NYPD tested Segways for two months in 2004 as a possible addition to their crime-fighting vehicles -we're trying to find out if they are still used. And the NYPD captured its first Segway thief in 2003. And one state where you don't have to register Segways: New Hampshire.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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