(FORTUNE Magazine) – While pedestrians do their best to avoid sidewalk warriors riding the Segway Human Transporter, insurance companies are grappling with another vexing issue: how to insure the new $5,000 vehicles.

Allstate and State Farm have put Segways into the same class of vehicle as snowmobiles and ATVs, while Progressive deems them closer kin to electric motorcycles. Allstate's tab for full coverage (with standard liability limits and deductibles) for a 40-year-old married man starts at $190 a year in Indiana and $294 in Michigan. Progressive, which prices policies using everything from driving records to credit ratings, charges from $71 a year in suburban Cleveland to $173 in downtown L.A. (if you haven't taken a motorcycle safety course, the L.A. price jumps to $220).

Insuring vehicles that top out at 12 mph seems to be a pretty good business. Fewer than one hundred policies have been issued, but none of the majors have paid any claims yet. Says Allstate's Brian Guthrie: The Segway isn't exactly a high-risk "crotch rocket type of vehicle." --Nelson Wang