Remember the Segway? Here's Why It Never Quite Took Off

The invention that tried to replace walking

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As the fastest man alive, with 17 gold Olympic and IAAF medals in his trophy case, Usain Bolt was a man who could not be toppled. That is, at least, until the sprinter met Song Tao. Bolt had just won the men's 200-meter final in Beijing. Tao, a TV cameraman, was following Bolt on his victory walk when he took the runner down with a 90-pound weapon of steel.

Tao was riding on a Segway.

 

The August collision was only the latest in the bizarre legacy of a technology that was to have changed the world.

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