Snail-pace bureaucracy and police intransigence has put a firm stopper to tourist trips in Copenhagen on environmentally-friendly electric Segways.

One of two Segway tour operators, offering tourists popular two-wheel electrical tours around the Danish capital, has had to stop operations after police officers ordered the tour guide and his tourists to get off their vehicles and hand-roll them back to the office lot.

“It was an embarrassing situation and rather strange that officers decided to act now – I’ve been giving these guided tours for a year without bothering anyone,” says Seamus Daly.

Daly invested in nine Segways just over a year ago and was told by the importer that it would take a mere six weeks for the Segways to be approved – an approval process that is still not finished and, in all, has taken about three years so far.

Denmark’s Road Safety and Transport Agency, the National Police Commissioner’s Office and the Ministry of Justice appear to be having trouble deciding how to classify the battery-driven, ecologically-friendly two-wheeler.

“People are always saying both here and abroad that Copenhagen is a Green City – and yet you’re not allowed to use these CO2-friendly electrical two-wheelers. It doesn’t make sense,” Daly says.

Daly is not the only Segway operator to have been forced to stop operations – his competitor Segway Tours has also parked his vehicles until approval has been given.

Copenhagen Police Spokesman Mogens Knudsen says that police action in stopping tourists and tour operators is the correct thing to do.

“The vehicles are illegal. They have not been approved by the Road Safety and Transport Agency,” he says.

Segways are currently used in many major cities around the world – and Düsseldorf, Miami and Shanghai already have Police Patrol Segways.