New York City Bans Hoverboards on the Subway and We Can't Imagine Why

Impact

New York City's Metropolitan Transit Authority is implementing a ban on hoverboards on its subways and buses. And not only can't you ride them on public transit, the MTA also prohibits standing on or even holding them.

Read more: Videos of Hoverboards" on Fire amd Exploding May Mean It's Time to Rethink That Gift

The ban was announced in January. On Thursday, a photo of the MTA announcement surfaced online, the style of which will be familiar to New Yorkers.

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"There have been reports about exploding batteries and certainly, you don't want anything like that in a crowded subway car," MTA vice chairman Fernando Ferrer told the Daily News.

And Ferrer isn't wrong. 

In addition to the obvious risk of incompetent (or drunk) hoverboarders tumbling onto the electrified subway rail, the device itself has been tied to explosions often linked to the overheating of its lithium-ion battery. By the end of 2015, the Consumer Product Safety Commission found that between Dec. 1 and Feb. 17, 52 hoverboard fires had caused upwards of $2 million in property damage. 

h/t Mashable