Bellevue using high-tech Segway to survey sidewalks | KOMO-TV – Seattle, Washington | Local & Regional — This sounds ridiculous when you should be able to do this by paying a couple of guys in wheelchairs to tell you what they think. Incredible waste of money.
The customized Segway is equipped with a laser, a distance-measurement instrument and other hardware. They will give city officials detailed information about sidewalk slope and surface variations that can make the sidewalks difficult to navigate.
The city east of Seattle has 336 miles of sidewalks, and officials hope to complete the surveying by the end of September.
The customized Segway was developed by the Office of Pavement Technology, part of the Federal Highway Administration.
found by Aric Mackey
AND then force the Land Owner to FIX it, or be fined, or LOOSe the property…
I wonder how many letters have been stuffed into files complaining about cracks, slopes, holes etc. Why not start there? Federal funding probably requires a survey first, then there isn’t any money left over.
John, while your alternative sounds reasonable, I doubt that the opinions of a couple dudes in ‘chairs is going to get the data necessary to obtain federal grants.
3 – Olo – Even then they’d get more federal funding, faster, if they started a war by invading some remote county in eastern Washington.
Thank you, Olo.
I can see it now. Not just Civil Engineering For Dummies’, but Civil Engineering For Handicapped Dummies.’
Maybe we could get Jay Leno to debrief them on their “research findings.”
Ya, John. Trained, screened, able-bodied people using modern technology is such a boondoggle…
If they’re smart, the landowner by law has to fix the sidewalks. Most sidewalk problems are caused by the landowner’s trees or poor drainage.
Or they can be stupid, like the people in my city. Nearly 20 years ago, they voted to make the city responsible for maintaining all sidewalks. Did they also vote for higher taxes to pay for this? Nope! And now people in the city complain about the decaying sidewalks!
(Although if we chose to fund it with tax money, it would be cheaper for the average Joe to pay for sidewalk repairs this way rather than paying for it out of his own pocket when his sidewalk breaks…)
Sorry, John….
While I suppose the necessary hardware could be attached to a wheelchair (not really the worst idea I’ve heard), it’s likely that the alternative to the Segway is $30K worth of custom truck.
Also, I expect that this would be a temporary job for the wheelchair-bound folks, and the expense of coming up with a wheelchair, similarly equipped, might wake up City Council, too.
If you’ve got a “good weather” situation, and it’s a permanent position, then the wheelchair is a good idea, IMHO. Otherwise, the Segway and the mayor’s brother-in-law may be more cost effective.
Regards,
Stu.
Sounds like the rain finally got to ’em.
1. In many places, like #6 says, the sidewalks are city property and are maintained by them. Landowners often do not own the first ten feet from the curbing inward. Your state may vary.
2. I’m guessing the inspectors are city employees protected by their union. No way would they ever permit wheelchair-bound people to take their jobs.
The key is the last line. Federal money was available for t he Segway. HIring the handicapped would have been local money.
side walks are part of the State freeway system, and MUST be maintained by the property owner…Even under Duress
John has a “thing” about Segway in general.
See the history of his past posts on it. I still extend the invitation to him to spend some real –not cursory– time on mine.
As a Segway rider, I’ve held numerous chats with other wheeled sidewalk users, and riding one of these suggested the same thing to me way back when they were new, that one should be used by the city to gauge its sidewalks for maintenance.
Wheelchair folk have complained ENDLESSLY in this town about this or that ruinous deficiency in the sidewalks to no avail. So much for the theory that “all you have to do is ask the wheelchair bound.”
Sometimes the dumbest (or most expensive) advice starts out “all you have to do is…”
How about having passengers on trains report on track conditions? Or airline travelers report on relative flight dynamics of aircraft. It’s cheap. It’s easy.
Geeky characterization or not, the Segway is one positive thing: A Leg Amplifier.
And it takes legwork to inspect sidewalks. By turning one into an instrument of maintenance, the city will perhaps tend to listen to the recorded facts. They’ve already show how easy it is to dismiss the complaints.
-iNova
#11, ECA,
I can’t speak for Idaho (I think that is your neck of the woods) but most jurisdictions maintain a Right of Way that extends onto what most home owners consider their property. This Right of Way is where the city or state put their roads, sidewalks, utilities, and save room for road expansion. Although some jurisdictions may assess a new home for the cost of the utilities in front of, or an extension to their house, this is usually a one time affair.
I don’t know of any jurisdiction that requires the home owner to pay personally for any repairs to the services on the Right of Way unless they caused the damage, such as installing a new driveway. Maintenance is always done by the city except for snow or ice clearing.
BTW, most people don’t realize that most trees lining the street also belong to the city.
#13 In my hometown in Ohio the property I own had markers placed to show exactly what I owned (relative term).
It is a corner lot and the deed along with plat maps clearly showed that I did not own the sidewalks or the curb but homeowners ARE responsible for repairing them. They go around every few years and mark the sidewalks with paint that are in need of repair. They give you a notice and if you don’t fix them then the city does it for you and bingo, you are paying out the wazoo for the repairs when they tack it onto your property taxes.
If they want you, they get you.
The only exception was when they tore up the street in front for major repair and they had to replace all the new wide sidewalks I had replaced on my own dime a few years earlier.
sigh….
#14, Steve
In that case I would be screaming to my alderman about changing the bylaw. Or, I would set up a toll booth on the roadway to make the users pay for the use. If the maintenance responsibility’s is the home owners then he should be able to recoup the costs.
Fusion, you’re a fool.
The laws regarding easements are state laws – and they’re different in every state. You’d go screaming, if you were in Ohio, like Steve, to your state rep, not an alderman. And are you so dim to think you’re the first person in the last 100 or 150 years in America who doesn’t approve of the easement laws? Think maybe other people, incuding people with a lot more money, influence and brains than you, haven’t already objected? Many times, many places? Y’think?
Eediot!