The officials barred them from the Mall and memorial grounds. They will reconsider the prohibition as part of wider transportation study this fall.
Until the Park Service decides on a policy, Segway riders are allowed to cross the Mall only along streets owned by the District -- Third, Fourth, Seventh and 14th streets, Viets said.
"The rules they're making are really catch-as-catch-can," Kanaley said.
City Segways Tours has a map for guides showing the circuitous route they're supposed to take, said D.C. tour manager Brian McNeill.
From Paris to New Orleans, the group has stumped some city council each time it has introduced its popular tours. The mishmash of rules reflects the confusion.
"It really varies. Right now in D.C., the age limit is 16. But in every other city, it's 12. In San Francisco, we can only go on the waterfront. We had a really hard time in New Orleans," McNeill said.
In New Orleans, tour operators haggled for months with city officials about where the machines could travel, he said.
In many cases, city officials worry that Segways are unsafe. President Bush famously fell off one that he mounted before its balancing mechanism was turned on. But McNeill said the D.C. group has had to call 911 only three times since tours began last year.
"Once, a guy fell and scraped his elbow a little, then passed out when he saw the blood," McNeill said. The other accidents were minor scrapes involving riders who weren't paying attention and bumped into other riders. "The injuries weren't as bad as something you'd get riding a bike," McNeill said.
"It's a whole different world of physics and isn't anything like a bicycle," said Chris Walker, a Utah Segway rider who is one of the founders of SegAmerica, a national group. He has testified before a borough council in New York and advised a rancher in Montana, among other actions, in his quest for Segway-friendly legislation.
Walker compared the situation today to the early 20th century, when some cities banned motorcars, ordered drivers to light flares every mile to warn of their coming or even required that a motor vehicle be hidden if a horse-drawn cart was approaching.
At a meeting Thursday, Metro considered barring Segways from rush-hour trains and buses, but board members were split.
"I ride the system every day, and I haven't seen a problem," said Dan Tangherlini, the District's transportation director, who said that establishing regulations for the Segway is creating a solution for a problem that doesn't exist.
But Richard A. White, Metro's general manager, said a policy should be in place because he believes the system will soon be overrun.
Some thought Segways should be treated like bicycles or strollers or luggage.
Board member T. Dana Kauffman of Fairfax County moved to approve the rules, "before I get my toes crushed by one of these things."
That brought a swift response from Neil Schuldeinfrei, a Department of Energy lawyer who commutes on his Segway every day.
"If it ran over his toe, it would be less painful than if I stepped on his toe," Schuldeinfrei testified. "I hate that people make these assumptions about the Segway without being informed."
After much debate, the Metro board couldn't decide what to do and sent the issue back to the safety committee. "For more research, or something," said board member Jim Graham of the District, joining the state of confusion that the machines have created among policymakers.
