I tried a Segway few days ago. It was fun but I cannot see buying one. For short trip, bikes are faster, warmer/healthier and more fun.

Hi David

Here in London just now, keeping warm is not our problem. It's as hot as it's ever been.

The serious transport consequence of this, aside from the Tube being even more uncomfortable than usual, is that railway lines are buckling, or threatening to, and trains are suffering from speed limits, so that if they crash, they don't crash so bad.

Getting back to the Segway, it looks like a solution looking for a problem to me.

I have no idea whether the Segway is a good idea or not. But it strikes me as one in a long list of good ideas eg. bikes, roller skates, the C5, which might have been the answer to all sorts of our problems had it only been possible to give them the right sort of road space.

Take roller skates. Small, fast, relatively easy to learn. They should be fantastic. Lots of people should be using them. Why aren't they? Because if you skate on the pavement you are constantly bumping into people and if you skate on the road you get run over (if not arrested).

But what if you had dedicated roller skate lanes or even dedicated roller skate highways? Different story - perhaps.

Incidentally, this is one of the most compelling reasons (I think) to want a free market in transport - because if entrepreneurs could do their own thing we might actually find out what forms of transport were actually (given all the factors) the best. We certainly aren't going to find out so long as the state runs the show.

I have drafted a longish response to Patrick's comment above. But I realize that I am not nearly as well-infomed as I should be about the history of transportation, and that means the history of roads, railways and canals in Britian from the mid-18th century on. Many of the key questions we discuss here (such as the role of eminent domain) might well be informed by reviewing how we got to where we are now.

Any suggestions on the standard works in the field?

Sorry, can’t answer the David’s question.

But to return to prior comments: I’ve had the chance to try one of those things some weeks ago, and found it is no answer to my needs in using transport.

Somehow, I always seem to be carrying something at some time during the day. A briefcase. Or shopping bags. Or … Or more than one of the above. And nearly the only reason to leave my flat and to be sure not to carry something till I’m back again is for some drinks … Maybe not the best time for motorized individual means of transport as well.

Similar reason why roller skates are not so often a suitable means of transport: you can carry a daypack or something like that, but I’ve never seen anybody more than once carrying roller skates and protective gear around for a whole day at university.

Seems this is not for transport, as in ‘how do I get from A to B’ but for fun, as in ‘now, where could I go to using my gadget’. If Patrick wants to provide separate lanes for fun mobiles, that’s a nice idea for a free market society – but I’m not really sure it would ever be profitable.

BTW, did New York really buy those things, or were they a promotion gift?

David

As far as railways and canals, with very few exceptions (usually small ones) they were all built using compulsory purchase powers. I think I am writing in saying that even the underground railways needed an Act of Parliament. The best source I know of about the railways is: LAW AND ENGLISH RAILWAY CAPITALISM, R W Kostal, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1994.

As far as roads go I really ought to get around to reading Bruce L Benson's paper on the Rise and Fall of Toll Roads in Britain (at least I think that's the title).

As far as roads go I really ought to get around to reading Bruce L Benson's paper on the Rise and Fall of Toll Roads in Britain (at least I think that's the title).

It's called The Rise and Fall of Non-Government Roads in the United
Kingdom. I finally got round to reading this paper a couple of weeks ago.

Toll roads really began in 1663 with a long series of Acts which established local ad hoc bodies known as Turnpike Trusts. Acts of Parliament were necessary because it was illegal to charge a toll without the consent of Parliament. Unfortunately, Benson doesn't mention whether or not they were also necessary in order to exercise compulsory purchase powers.

He also discusses roads in the middle ages. Seemingly, the road network was entirely private at that time and built and maintained without reference to the government.

The end of the toll roads appears to have been brought about by government interference. The Turnpike Trusts were never allowed the freedom to set their own tolls and the trustees were forbidden to make a profit, undermining incentives to maintain the roads. Tolls were generally set by political lobbying - there were long lists of toll exemptions for powerful individuals and groups and the railways successfully lobbied for prohibitively high tolls on competitve modes of transport, such as steam carriages. This undermined the viability of the Turnpike Trusts and ultimately led to their public takeover.

----------------

Another question for you, Patrick: Was it necessary for a railway company to obtain planning permission before it could build a railway, or was anyone who managed to obtain the land free to do so without permission?

I have a conjecture as to why using proxies to buy in secret could not overcome the holdout problem, but it wouldn't explain the real situation if planning permission was not required.

As Brian said, the Segway is a solution looking for a problem. I don't think the barriers to its use are anything more than it's obvious non-weatherproof nature, its slow speed compared to other wheeled transport, and its high price ($5000).

As usual, my perspective is a little different, being a suburb dweller in Maryland, but for the vast majority of people in the US, the Segway just does not fit any need we have. At all. If I walk, it's mainly for the exercise. There just isn't any attractor within comfortable walking distance. Now, this thing might extend that distance to the local shopping plaza, but then it's another inefficient trip. I'd rather make one grocery trip a week than one every day, and the Segway still can't carry large items (multi packs of toilet tissue, anyone?).

They're also unsuited to the weather around here. Any day in the summer, we can have 'the 4:45 thunderstorm', heavy rain generated by solar energy and humidity. I don't want to take a chance on getting caught in that, as I poke home at 12.5 miles per hour, even though I only live 3 miles from work. And I'm quite the exception. So the Segway is self-limiting to short pleasure trips, of the sort people already walk.

Patrick's point about reserved travelways for different modes is an interesting point, but again in the US, the distances are so large, and traffic so relatively free moving, as to mostly preclude the use of small scale transport. I know that in my work, we're phasing in the use of 'hiker-biker trails', which are a great improvement over conventional sidewalks (asphalt pavement, 8 feet wide minimum, no more than 8% grades) yet they still don't get appreciable foot traffic. Personally I think it's just to keep the narrow interest groups (local walking clubs, environmentalists, etc) from raising more opposition to the roadway construction.

Thanks for the references.

And FYI, ICAOMI

http://www.citycomforts.com/2003_08_01_archive.html#106046818632139114