Transportation of the future...or maybe not

Am I the only one that remembers the hype surrounded the Segway Human Transporter before its release? "Code Name Ginger", "IT", the covers on magazines. It was like the Beatles. I remember circa 2000 being really excited, and debating what "IT" was going to be. Dean Kamen was going to revolutionize transportation. I remember one of his quotes. "It's going to change the world." There were many predictions that it would be the primary mode of transportation in a decade. Um, did I miss something? I'm not quite sure what happened. What I do know is you can buy a nice scooter type object from Segway for Four grand. Quite a steal. Don't get me wrong, I know there were a lot of engineering advances and novelties designed with/into the segway. But what a let down. How could the people at his company, and people with an insider’s knowledge of the product be so far out of touch with reality? There were many claims of how it would dramatically revolutionize the development of transportation in developing countries. Did no one realize that the 4k price tag might put it out the budget for people that make less than that? Ok let's forget that one small little detail. Let's pretend that they were affordable to all. How many people really want an object that is much slower than a car or a bike that needs plugged in daily (again I'm forgetting that it's 40xs more expensive than a decent bicycle)? If it was close you could just walk, if it was further away it would be quicker to ride a bike. If you had to hall a huge load, a car would be much more convenient. Ok again let's forget all of the above. Suppose it was cheap, faster, and didn't need plugged in all the time. Did anyone take into consideration local laws and regulations? I mean how many cities have now banned the Segway on their sidewalks? An over priced, uneconomical, slow mode of transportation that you can't use in the area it's been designed for. Hmmm, can I also sell you a $100,000 car, that only runs on racing gasoline, and can't be driven in the city you live in? Yes, these are the types of things I really think about. And I do actually plan on test-driving a segway this summer. I found out they rent them for two hour runs at the Santa Monica Pier.