Earlier this summer, Prague enacted a ban on Segways throughout many districts including all of the historical center.
But if you’ve taken a stroll through Old Town or Malá Strana over the past few weeks, you’ve probably noticed that Segways still ride, and the ban is not being enforced (though Segway riders can be fined for ‘speeding’ – driving faster than a normal walking pace in pedestrian zones).
Now, I don’t see any signs telling me I can’t ride my rocket-powered bicycle in Old Town Square, but I assume it’s a no-no (I keep that activity isolated to the lesser-trafficked areas in Libeň).
But the No Segway signs are coming later this year, reports iDnes.cz. Roughly sometime in November, to be not-that-specific.
A whopping 600 of them, at a price tag of 4 million CZK.
The signs must be erected at every possible location a Segway rider might enter the area of the ban. That means at the intersection of Chotkova, Badeniho, and Gogolova streets where Prague 1, 6, and 7 merge, a total of eight signs must be erected to cover every possible entry point to each district.
The signs will not be the small ones with the word ‘Segway’ or an empty vehicle, as you may have seen in some locations around Prague, but a large rectangular one with a person riding Segway and wording informing of the ban on personal transporter vehicles.
And logically, another black-and-white sign will need to be posted in the same place informing riders in the other direction that they are leaving the Segway ban zone and can now use their personal transporters.