Beijing's Olympic Security Forces Drive ... Segways?
by Alex Pasternack, Beijing, China on 07. 7.08
Combine rising fuel costs with escalating security concerns in China, and this makes perfect sense -- kind of: ahead of the Olympics, a Chinese anti-terror team has recently been training on specially-outfitted Segways, the electric, gyro-balanced scooters that are more commonly seen zipping across Silicon Valley campuses.
The scooters, which claim a top speed of 12.5 km/hour and which inventor Dean Kamen billed as nearly impossible to tip-over (George W. didn't get that memo) will also be used by officials and security personnel around the main stadium, the partially solar powered Bird's Nest, come the "Green" Olympics in August. (Segways are still uncommon in China, where they cost $10,000 -- double the cost in the U.S. due to import duties.)
We might think that any self-respecting soldier wouldn't belong atop a pogo-like scooter, but putting police and military on Segways has actually been part of the company's vision since it launched, and it now counts all four branches of the US military as clients (see its police and government website, this law enforcement version and an application for military robots). Consider that the Segway is much more agile, efficient and cleaner than a car, and allows hands-free operation (for shooting your gun) in a way a bike doesn't. There is also the shock value: seeing a cop on a Segway is likely to give brief pause to even the most hardened troublemaker.
But is putting cops on these rich nerd toys, which once promised to make the car obsolete, really a good idea? If the Segways are replacing patrol cars, yes. And perhaps this will be a good way to promote the battery-powered scooters as an alternative among China's future car buyers, something of which Jackie Chan, budding Segway dealer, would approve. But when it comes to chasing terrorists, it's not clear that the costly Segway promises much of an advantage over, say, good old fashioned feet. And when you're firing a gun, it seems better to be standing on the ground rather than a gyroscopically-balanced scooter that makes adjustments 100 times per second.
At the very least, it's a lot harder to call gun-toting Segway riders dorky -- at least to their faces.
via CNET and Imagethief
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Segway: Police and Government
haha those things look so goofy, i wouldnt be caught dead in that, i mean how do you take a prisoner in that? piggy back ride to the looney bin?
Prisoners? If the suspect survives, the police cuff 'em and wait for back-up, just like the police do at the Atlanta Airport, for example.
Bicycles would be more cost-effective.
"..i mean how do you take a prisoner in that?"
From the looks of the photo provided, I don't think the trip to jail is a big part of the plan.
My College campus security switched from bikes to segways a few years ago claiming there was terrain on campus the segways could go on that the bikes could not. I can't think of what that could be, but my guess was the old retired cops were too lazy to exert energy.
A step in the evolution of the cyborg.
-Seqway 12mph
-Young woman on beach cruiser bicycle 8-12 mph
-Mountain Bike 14-16 mph+ with ability to easily hop curbs and go over rough terrain.
-Road bicycle 16-24+mph
Typical police issue mountain bike is probably around $400-500. A Segway is 5-6 thousand dollars.
Why is are Segways a good idea again?
Lets analyze the Segway against some human powered alternatives using the lovely bullet point feature:
Speed is not everything, here are some other things to consider;
Well, it doesn't necissarily have anything to do with Beijing and the Olympics, just because it's in China.
In fact the Segway riding police is in Jinan, which is the capital in Shandong.
Just asking for a bit of accuracy. You know... "In other news. Today the police in New York or Washington or somewhere in the US announced that..." Well, it makes a difference.
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