Wow, what a thread...I have been fascinated to read the way some people's minds work. I have so much to say but so little time at the moment. I did want to address this one comment, however.
Why would we insist that a handicapped person, who is using a Segway so they can stand and have their dignity, have to hang some big blue placard on themselves declaring to the world that they are handicapped? What a horrible suggestion.
I am gay, I better hang a big pink triangle on myself so that everyone knows...oh wait, that was tried once before in history, wasn't it?
Seriously, folks, people who use Segways to get around are just using one more emerging technology to make their lives a little easier. They're not all suddenly going to get fat because of it, they're not all "entitled" bacuse of it, and they're not all suddenly rude because of it. They've just made a choice that you haven't made yet, and potentially never will, and that's just fine.
If a Segway rider wants to ask permission to store his or her device inside when patronizing an establishment, I see nothing wrong with that, and if an establishment wants to say "sorry we don't have room, or can't, or just don't want to," that is fine too. If that's the case, then the patron can inform of a need to have it with them, and the matter becomes different.
Well, that's all for now.
just me