The US Federal Government recognised and embraced the use of Segway Personal Transporters (PTs) by disabled users very early. At an individual level, in 2002 the world's "second-most-powerful-man" US Vice President Dick Cheney use a PT to get around inside the White House while recovering from an Achilles tendon injury. The benefits of a PT indoors vs a mobility scooter or wheelchair were made plain and obvious to everyone who encountered Cheney moving quietly and swiftly, taking up no more space than a person walking along.
At a broader level, the Segway PT was promptly declared a mobility device under the US Federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), ensuring that impaired users could operate their PTs by right just about everywhere in the United States.
At the US State level, between 2002 and 2005 just about every individual State had defined Segway PT-type devices as a new, distinct class of mobility device. The terms Electric Personal Assistive Mobility Device (EPAMD) or Personal Mobility Device (PMD) were commonly adopted to describe this new method of moving about. These laws permitted the use of Segway PTs on sidewalks (footpaths), roads, in parks and reserves and other public spaces, regulating that all persons could operate them (with minimum age ranging from 12 to 16, depending on the State), and rules relating to right-of-way, and maximum speeds depending on the place the device was being operated. Later, in many States amendments were added to broaden the vehicle definition to include self-balancing devices that were knee-steer controlled (eg: Segway miniPRO/S-Pro) and foot controlled (eg: "Hoverboards"), one wheeled electric unicycles, electric skateboards, and of course the now-ubiquitous two and three wheeled electric KickScooters (NB: some States regulate KickScooters under different legislation altogether). A couple of additional States never had restrictions that applied to Segway PTs, and a couple of States never moved with the times at all.
The oft-quoted opinion that the Segway PT was launched in 2003 then banned in most places in the USA is simply not true. State-level legislation was passed promptly in most states by 2003, with the remainder following by 2005. It was never "banned after the launch" as such, only not yet permitted to be used in some States under older legislation that pre-dated the Segway PT (typically by decades). The EPAMD/PMD laws sensibly did permit local councils to ban the use of Segway PTs in specific locations. When this occurred in high profile places (often for good reason), such as along the congested street known as The Strip in Las Vegas, the media often leapt on such stories as some kind of proof of their oft-quoted factual error.
Returning to the embracement by the US Federal Government around use of Segway PTs by impaired individuals, the document below (GSA Bulletin FMR 2008-B3) was released Monday 7 January 2008. It was sent by GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION to the Heads of Federal Agencies to advise the policy for entering and operating Segway PTs on GSA-Controlled Federal Facilities.
Documents such as this one, along with the dozens of State laws that were rapidly put in place, are excellent examples of how a nation can recognise and embrace a promising new technology, which drives change elsewhere across the world.
In 2005 the EU European Commission encouraged all member nations to revise their transport laws to incorporate Segway PTs if they had not already done so. Many nations had acted quickly to embrace the Segway PT under existing or new legislation/regulations (eg: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands) while others did, well....absolutely nothing (eg: UK). In many countries that had transport law based on historic UK law (i.e. most ex-Colonies), adoption was generally slower. In Australia, change was piecemeal, starting with Queensland creating the "Rideable" category (later broadened to include KickScooters), while risk-adverse WA legislating only for guided tours. Most other states and territories have followed similar courses. But not so New South Wales or Victoria, and there is still no legislation at a Federal level. Victoria has just legalised e-scooters (leaving only NSW as the only state where they cannot be used), and a good summary of the state of play across Australia can be found in this article in The Guardian. It discusses the idea that bicycle lanes should be reconsidered and renamed as micro-mobility lanes.
In New Zealand the Segway PT met the definition of a mobility device under the 2004 revision of the Land Transport Act. This definition of the law was affirmed a court ruling in 2014 that made findings of fact and law in the favour of the Segway PT being a mobility device.
The full US Federal GSA policy is a useful read for those interested in the application of rules and definitions for access to places for individuals who use a Segway PT as an assistive solution. The complete entry (two pages) is reproduced below, and can also be downloaded.