KEY POINTS:
Auckland City Council's Segway trial will go on - despite the mayor's saying it is a "silly idea" for parking wardens to ride battery-powered scooters.
Parking operations manager Rick Bidgood said Segways were one of several options being tried as a way of transporting parking wardens around the inner city and the trial would continue until the end of the month.
Other options include electric scooters, a three-wheeled electric car and the Link bus - all of which will be evaluated to see what mode of eco-friendly transport will best take the wardens "into the future".
Once the evaluation is complete, a business case will be presented to the council executive, but Mayor John Banks has already made it clear he will not be using ratepayers' money to pay for wardens on Segways.
Concerns have been raised about them whizzing along footpaths and knocking pedestrians over.
Mr Bidgood said the Segways - which are being tested free of charge - had been modified so they could go only between 7.5 and 9km/h.
"It's not a speedy vehicle by any means - someone who was in a brisk walk could just about beat it if they really tried."
However, that is not enough to convince Mr Banks, who has been flooded with calls and emails of support from around the world since a story about the Segway trial appeared on the front page of the Herald yesterday.
"It doesn't change things. It is the wrong impression, it's all very silly but fortunately this is at no cost to the ratepayers," he said.
"There's no great reason to rush around corners and down alleyways and around rubbish bins to catch people and prosecute them with such urgency that you need to be on a battery-driven, jet-propelled contraption."
Mr Banks, who was himself photographed on a Segway when he opened the 2003 Big Boys' Toys show, said he did not have anything against the personal transporters.
"There is absolutely nothing wrong with Segways and Segwicks - those who ride Segways.
"They are great in a warehouse, great down in a skateboard park.
"I hope I haven't suggested there's some problem with them, just Auckland City Council apparatchiks riding around on them."
Mr Banks said there was a time and place for Segways but that was not in the CBD being ridden by "servants of the ratepayers of Auckland".
"It sends all the wrong messages of overindulgence, laziness, reckless cowboy even."
Mr Bidgood said the trial would continue as wardens needed a way of getting around the city's inner fringes.
