basingstoke123 wrote:One problem with laws and regulations is that they lag behind new ideas and new developments.
Sometimes this results in laws failing to regulate new developments, or having requirements that have become irrelevant.
Other times, out of date laws and requirements can inhibit new developments or improvements. The laws and requirements were never intended to cover something like the Segway, and so, in my view, they fail to give appropriate regulation. To make using a Segway illegal just because it doesn't fit previous 'vehicle' categories is plain stupid. To declare them illegal because they are considered unsafe would be different. But, according the the posts above, they are illegal just because the law and requirements were written before the Segway was invented, and so does not know how to make provision for them.
I do not know whether Segways should be allowed or not, whether they are a 'good thing'. But to effectively make their use illegal because a Segway isn't something that it isn't, is nonsense.
We had a similar situation when LED cycle lights were first introduced. The technical standards were written based on the assumption and thus requirement to use a filament bulb. The difference here was that common sense prevailed. The police were not bothered that your much brighter light was illegal, and did not insist you replace it, or supplement it, with a far dimmer but legal light.
Cannot agree there, in fact the judge in Taylor v Goodwin (1879) specifically tackled the argument:
"The expressions used are as wide as possible. It may be that bicycles were unknown at the time when the Act passed, but the legislature clearly desired to prohibit the use of any sort of carriage in a manner dangerous to the life or limb of any passenger. The question is, whether a bicycle is a carriage within the meaning of the Act. I think the word "carriage" is large enough to include a machine such as a bicycle which carries the person who gets upon it, and I think that such person may be said to "drive" it. He guides as well as propels it, and may be said to drive it as an engine driver is said to drive an engine. The furious driving of a bicycle is clearly within the mischief of the section, and seems to me to be within the meaning of the words, giving them a reasonable construction."
Segways etc. can’t be used on the pavement because they are a danger to pedestrians
They can’t be used on the roads because they don’t have the things that motor vehicles on the road need in order to be safe - lights, indicators, horn, tax, insurance, inspection
It seems entirely logical to me