As someone with a disability (I walk with a cane and can't go very far) who recently aquired a Segway, I can tell you first hand how liberating they are to someone in my condition. Although I worked for years to create the Burlington Bike Path in the 1980s, I had never been out to the cut in the fill on the rail line to the Islands until I got the Segway. I could never walk that far and I can't bike anymore either.

The Segway does require a good sense of balance and a faith in technology, but the skills required to operate it over relatively flat ground on a bike path can be easily mastered by almost everyone willing to learn in 15 minutes. The Segway is as controlable by someone at that point as someone on a bike or a skate board. For tis true that safty resides in the attitude of the operator.

I personally see Segways as the latest high-tech piece of the movement I have worked on for over 30 years, to get people out of gas-guzzling cars and into alturnate more environmentally friendly forms of transportation. In my opinion the Segway could be a bigger piece of the transportation transition we need to complete this century than the bicycle. It is quiet, cheep to run, does not pollute and involves the transportation of much less wasted weight than a car but can get someone around reasonable city distances in reasonable time. I believe the Segway should be classified with pedestrians, bikes and skateboards to paths separated from cars. I believe we should encourage their use and would support a trial period of use on Burlington and Colchester bike paths, including tours.

I want to disclose that I was so impressed with the operation of the Segway at our Christmas Tree Farm on Cobble Hill in Milton that I plan to purchase 8 and conduct ecology tours with them. Since we live in Colchester near Airport Park we may also be interested in offering Segway tours of the Colchester fill and areas south of the bridge into Burlington.

Finally, as for vehicles allowed under a new rule, it is possible to completely ban internal combustion engines due to noise and air pollution. Electric bikes, Segways, and wheelchairs fit with pedestrians and bikes, not cars. There should be a place for Segways in the quest for more environmently friendly ways to transport people. I believe bike paths are that place and the Segway is compatable this these other uses.