Downtown Business Improvement District buys Segway

BY MICK BURKE
Journal Times

Tuesday, January 29, 2008 3:43 PM CST

RACINE — Amid the walkers in Downtown this summer will be at least one person scooting along on a Segway Personal Transporter.

The Downtown Business Improvement District recently bought a used Segway for the use of this summer’s Downtown ambassadors. The Segway is a two-wheeled, open transport device that a person stands on while riding.

“It’s one of the tools that the public ambassadors use,” said Downtown Racine Corp. Executive Director Devin Sutherland. He said the $3,500, used Segway i2 will help extend the range of the ambassadors who start in May and work through October.

Getting around Downtown’s perimeter takes time, Sutherland noted. Most people walk perhaps 3-4 mph, and the Segway has a top speed of about 12 mph.

A second purpose for the electrically powered device will be to expedite patrols of parking garages, Sutherland said. Walking through an entire parking structure is time-consuming.

“They’ll be able to do it much more quickly and efficiently.”

Finally, Sutherland said, “In the surveying we’ve done, they showed that people didn’t think Downtown conveyed any feeling of high technology.”

Inventor Dean Kamen of Bedford, N.H., released the Segway in late 2001.

Dennis Wanless, owner of Segway of Milwaukee, where DRC bought the device, called the Segway a “self-balancing human transport” device.

“You don’t balance it — it balances you,” he said. “Once you stand on it and relax, it’s as stable as the floor under you.”

Although the i2 model can achieve top speed of 12.5 mph, it can be set to top out at less than that. Wanless said the transporters used for Segway Tours of Milwaukee, which he also operates, are set to go only up to 6 mph.

On those tours, more than 5,000 people have used Segways, Wanless said, “and we have never had one incident.”

Special Offer: Get 5 Weeks of the Journal Times for $7!