Photo by Burnt Couch

Did you know that Segway riders are banned from riding on sidewalks within the Central Business District? What about that some small fraction of disabled people regularly ride Segways? These are the true and exciting facts that can be learned from this Examiner story today on a little bit of D.C. Council business that went down yesterday. See, it turns out that Miles Groves, the president of the Downtown Neighborhood Association, is a chronic pain sufferer and a Segway rider. Groves uses a Segway to get around the city easier, and was recently given “a polite warning” by a police officer that he wasn’t supposed to be riding on the sidewalk. Not included in the Examiner story: the phone call Groves presumably placed to Tommy Wells, champion of alternative transportation. And Wells came to the rescue yesterday, convincing the Council to pass emergency legislation to give disabled Segway riders a pass on being forced to ride in the street.

Left unclear is how police officers are supposed to be able to distinguish disabled Segway riders from other folks. Hopefully that’ll be worked out by the time permanent legislation is considered. As emergency legislation, this bill will expire in 90 days.