Segways banned from ‘happiest place on Earth’

Too goofy for Disney

By Ashlee Vance in Chicago • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 10th February 2004 22:35 GMT

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You won't see inventor Dean Kamen chasing Minnie Mouse around Disney World on his Segway. The expensive scooter has been banned from Disney owned theme parks.

Disney is requiring that customers use its own rental scooters while visiting its four theme parks. The main reason for the Segway ban stems from a lack of approval from the Food and Drug Administration to count the scooters as medical devices, according to an AP report. The decision has angered a number of people with disabilities who feel the Segway gives them a better ride than Disney's own kit.

"I'm not prepared to let a corporate attorney dictate to me how I should be mobile," said Doug Exum, a paraplegic injured as a teenager, in an interview with the AP.

But is the Segway ban unreasonable? Probably not.

Last year, a renegade Segway rider wounded a three-year-old girl on the streets of San Francisco. It's not hard to imagine other toddlers being hurt at the "happiest place on earth" with an army of scooters speeding by them at 12 m.p.h.

It seems Segways are better suited for military pursuits than use at crowded, expensive amusement parks. ®