Segways

The Herald reports Boston by Segway, which has racked up close to $200,000 in city fines over the past couple of years, has filed for bankruptcy protection. It lists the city as its largest creditor, due to the fines for having his tours operate on city sidewalks and in groups larger than allowed by a 2011 ordinance passed by the city council.

This is company owner Allan Danley's second attempt in two months to file for bankruptcy. Last month, he filed for personal, Chap. 13 bankruptcy and listed his largest single creditor as the city of Boston, again due to the fines. But US Bankruptcy Court Judge William Hillman dismissed Danley's request for failing to provide proof he had undergone credit counseling or had insurance on the vehicles he owned.

In March, the Zoning Board of Appeals denied a request by Danley's landlord to legally use what used to be a gas station as a Segway rental office. A couple months later, a Suffolk Superior Court judge denied his request to get the city to knock it off with the fines.

What's wrong with this picture?

OK, so the Segway guy is finally keeping his tours off the Greenway, if not off Long Wharf, but now he's taken to directing his tours across the Charles River, by way of the gangplanks over the locks at the Charles River Dam.

Kristin MacDougall noticed one of those Segway tours navigating the gangplanks today and complained to the state Department of Conservation and Recreation:

What is up with Segways on the Charlestown Locks lately?! Dangerous to walkers and riders alike.

Tonight, DCR agreed:

They are not allowed on the locks! Please stay clear of them and be safe.

NorthEndWaterfront.com

NorthEndWaterfront.com gets the scoop: Basically, limits on Segway tours are not a matter under federal

UPDATE: Danley actually faces 21 violations of the city Segway restrictions - and a hearing that could mean 70 to 90 more, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

NorthEndWaterfront.com posts photos of a Boston Transportation Department worker handing out a ticket to the leader of a Segway tour

Boston Gliders, which leads tourists on Segway visits around downtown and the North End, yesterday filed a federal lawsuit to try to block the city's new regulations on Segways and similar wheeled devices.

Segway menace: Liz Flynn of City Square, Charlestown, gave Council several photos of pedestrians forced into the street by Urban Gliders. Company says it's moving training area to Cambridge.

If it were up to City Councilor Bill Linehan, only Paul Blart would be allowed to ride a Segway in the Boston area.

At a hearing on Segway use in Boston today, the South Boston councilor said Boston is too old and its streets and sidewalks simply too narrow to allow widespread Segway use. He said he would only favor their use in "large malls." He was joined in his concern by the Rose Kennedy Greenway and Faneuil Hall Marketplace, whose representatives call them a menace to pedestrians - and, in the case of the marketplace, even its elevators. Last year, a marketplace official said, a five-year-old was hit by a Segway and had to be taken to the hospital.

After an owner of Boston Gliders, which runs Segway tours, refused to commit to keep his vehicles off the Greenway at a hearing today, Police Superintendent-in-Chief Daniel Linskey said the matter was pretty simple: He will direct police to escort any Segway riders off the Greenway - and possibly issue them trespassing citations. This came after a Greenway official said Boston Gliders tour operators have refused to stop for uniformed Greenway personnel trying to get them out.