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Road Safety Bill [HL]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Monson, raised the subject of rollerblades. The difference between a rollerblade and a Segway is that a person on a rollerblade cannot stop himself very quickly, whereas a Segway can stop very quickly indeed because the rider has only to lean back and then the software takes care of it, but I am not aware that a rollerblade contains any software. I believe that in London, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham a Segway would be pretty useless on the road. It should be used primarily on the pavement. In the countryside, where I live, where there is not a hard pavement, it might be useful on the road, but its best opportunity for reducing road traffic—that is, the use of cars—will be in an urban area, and that is where it needs to be used on the pavement. I am still rather disappointed with the Minister—and perhaps a bit with myself in that I did not line up my ducks in order to have a Division. However, I have not done so. But the fact is that the Segway is coming. If the Minister chooses to do nothing about it, it will be ubiquitous by the time he next has the legislative opportunity to do something about it. It is the duty of the Government to anticipate changes in society and normally a lot of effort is put into doing so. The Minister referred to the Dutch difficulties, but that is a decision for the Dutch. They make extensive use of pedal cycles—far more than we do—so I do not think that the Dutch situation is a good model for us. I am suggesting only that the Minister should take an order-making power. It might only be an order-making power for a trial or one to allow a local authority to carry out a trial if it feels that that would be useful. A short while ago Ministers said that local authorities were good at making decisions to suit local needs and sometimes they say that they are not very good. The Minister talked about pavements and speeds. Yes, a Segway can go at 12 mph. In the country, travelling along a main road one may want to go at 12 mph, but you would be off your trolley—if I can put it that way—to go at 12 mph on a pavement. One could legislate to make it an offence to use a Segway at more than 4 mph on a pavement. A Segway has various settings for maximum speed and the maximum speed setting can be locked in its memory. If someone ran a person down at 12 mph, the speed would be locked in the memory of the Segway, so it could be seen that a person had programmed the Segway to travel at 12 mph when 4 mph is quite sufficient. Going from your Lordships’ House to Pimlico, it would be fine to travel on the pavement at 4 mph—it would be wonderful. I am disappointed with the Minister’s response but I was not minded to divide the House. The Segway is coming and the Minister will have to legislate at some stage. I beg leave to withdraw my amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendment No. 58 not moved.]