Segway came to the rescue

By Dave Churchill (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Friday, July 6, 2007

One afternoon perhaps five years ago I was killing time — and having some not-so-yummy meatloaf — in a diner in downtown Manchester, N.H. The friends I had been visiting over the weekend had all gone off to work, so I had little to do but sit and look out the window until it was time to go to the airport.

Outside, pedestrians hiked past, their breath steaming in the January cold. Yet several times the flow was marked by an incredibly tall-looking person, gliding along seemingly without effort.

I moved closer to the window and eventually saw that the occasional glider was actually riding a Segway — or, more accurately, a Segway Personal Transporter.

We don’t usually run photos on the Opinion Page, but there is one accompanying this column, because a Segway is just not easy to describe.

They have been around for perhaps a half-dozen years, in small numbers, and I was seeing them in Manchester because they are manufactured near there.

I was not exactly captivated by the Segway, but I was interested enough to read about them when a news item caught my eye. They have been mildly controversial because, although highly convenient for short-distance transportation, some officials worry about their safety in mixing with foot traffic. As far as I know, those worries have never come to fruition.

Recently the New York Police Department said it plans to add Segway-mounted officers to augment its foot, car, horse and air patrols.

Last week, a family gathering took me to Door County, Wis. If you’re not familiar with the Door, the large peninsula that juts into Lake Michigan north of Green Bay, Wis., suffice it to say that it is absolutely loaded with ultra-cute shops and restaurants.

Sitting around outside ultra-cute shops is OK for a little while. But before long a guy starts looking for something else to do. Something less cute. Segway to the rescue.

I signed up for a two-hour Segway-mounted tour of a lakeside state park, which allows me to report that these are absolutely fantastic machines.

Our tour guide gave us about 10 minutes of instructions, then led our group of five riders off into the park.

I don’t ride horses, but imagine Segway-riding would be similar, although smoother. The machine’s forward and backward motion is controlled by the rider’s lean. Push your hips forward a bit and the Segway rolls forward; lean more, go faster, up to 12.5 mph. Lean back and stop, or further back and go into reverse. It sounds hard, but within minutes it’s nearly as natural as walking.

Cruising along, a shift of body weight left or right causes the Segway to turn gently. For sharper turns, use a rotating knob on the left handle bar.

Because it is stabilized by gyroscopes, the battery-operated Segway is virtually tip-proof when it’s in “stability” mode. The hardest part of learning to ride one is learning to trust its built-in stability.

Although I had signed up for the tour primarily because it sounded like something cool to do, I left thinking about how much the Segway, or something like it, could do to reduce fuel consumption.

The platform can be equipped with saddle bag-like accessories for carrying briefcase-type items or small quantities of groceries. And it is capable of handling a certain amount of rough terrain (a special all-terrain model can handle really rough stuff, we were told). A downside, for those of us in the north country, would be winter ice. Because of the way the Segway works, we were told, a patch of ice causes the wheels to spin up and possible lead to a spill.

Our guide is winter-time California resident, and rides his Segway to work every day.

At the moment, the climate issue and base cost for a Segway — about $5,000, we were told — would seem to limit the market. But I can sure see this sort of transportation becoming a real answer for short-range commuters in the future.

As gas becomes scarcer and more expensive, we may all be looking for interesting and effective transportation alternatives — and not just because we need something to do.

Journal publisher Dave Churchill’s column runs on Fridays.