Riding a ‘swegway’ in public? You could be breaking the law

But whereas their fictional counterparts had only to avoid water, today’s teens have to avoid roads and pavements too if they want to stay on the right side of the law, rendering the boards virtually unusable.

The regulations have not been altered, but owing to the increasing popularity of boards, often sported by celebrities, police issued a new warning on Sunday. So what’s a person to do with an ironic self-balancing scooter and nowhere to ride it? As they aren’t licensed or registered under the European or British vehicle approval scheme, that rules out using them on roads too. British police aren’t sure what they are either, but they’re sure of one thing: these insane contraptions are illegal to use on public streets, based on a 180-year-old law. The Metropolitan Police pointed to the section 72 of the United Kingdom’s Highway Act 1835 which categorizes “personal transporters” like Segways “as motor vehicles, subject to road traffic laws”.

But in England, Wales and Scotland, it is also an offence to take it for a spin on the pavement, as it can prove to be a unsafe hazard for others.

‘The Department for Transport would advise that appropriate safety clothing should be worn at all times’.

As previously mentioned, the use of hoverboards is legal in private spaces as long as they’re permitted by the landowners. But in 2011, a South Yorkshire man was fined by a district judge for riding his segway on the pavement.

The wheeled Segway-esque vehicles have become wildly popular over the past few months, showing up everywhere from National Basketball Association locker-rooms to the YouTube and Vine videos of social media stars.

Across the Atlantic, American rapper Wiz Khalifa, whose real name is Cameron Jibril Thomaz, was handcuffed by USA customs officials in August after refusing to get off his hoverboard at Los Angeles Airport in California.

Lexus even released a teaser for SLIDE, their own actual hoverboard that levitates from the ground.

This is a hoverboard: Despite being dubbed “hoverboards” the devices have two wheels.