By Hayley Derwort
The popular Segway board is now banned in WA
It’s the latest and greatest trend sweeping the nation but the dream of owning your own hoverboard has been brought to a grinding halt.
With Back to the Future day already in our rear vision mirrors, the pressure is on to bring some of the futuristic technology to life and the Segway Board could just be that step.
Essentially a Segway without handlebars, the ‘hoverboard’ is a rugged, two wheeled vehicle that is powered by balance and foot pressure on the pedals.
It can reach speeds of up to 12 kilometres per hour.
Electronics superstore outlet Harvey Norman was set to retail its own brand of this hoverboard at around $700 but it was banned in Western Australia for use in public places before it even hit the shelves.
Future Wheels Australia, a Melbourne based company, manufactures one of the most popular Segway boards in Australia.
Laeyna R, spokeswoman for Future Wheels Australia, labelled the ban as nonsense.
“Bikes can definitely can go faster and that’s the problem. They need to look at people on skateboards and bikes. You can actually control the speed on our Segway boards,” she said.
To the future! – Kevin Nguyen loves his homemade hoverboard – but his Segway is now banned.
She also told Bounce News it wasn’t a well-known fact about the ban but they didn’t expect a reduction in the demand for the boards in the lead up to Christmas.
“Petrol prices are going up and they are trying to get us out of our cars and onto public transport and this is certainly one way of moving into the future.”
Hoverboard enthusiast Kevin Nguyen, who has one of the new Segway boards, said he’d heard about the ban but wasn’t sure what it would mean.
“It’s an unfamiliar vehicle, we’ve had the push bike for such a long time and the government doesn’t know how to handle them,” Mr Nguyen said.
“I own one for the sake of having one, they’re a bit pricey though,” Mr Nguyen said. “They’re still a bit like skateboards and I’m not that good at that!”
Harvey Norman were contacted for comment.