Headline of Cindy Loose's story in Sunday's Washington Post about touring on a Segway Human Transporter.
I recall a similar story, also appearing in the Post (I think) about two months ago, about a company in Paris, France that conducts tours of the City of Light the same way. The author of that piece raved about the experience.
Loose loved hers as well: she wrote, "I've never had a better tour of a city than I had on Sarasota on my Segway."
More and more cities - the article lists New Orleans, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Spokane, Las Vegas, Montreal, Vancouver, Nice, and London - are offering Segway tours, and you can rent one and go off on your own in many others. I can't wait until I get to a place that offers them. You can bet bookofjoe, with cellcam and moblogging enabled, will be posting on the fly if it's at all possible.
Loose notes that the Segway is perfect for tourists: the intimacy of walking, the comfort and ease of a bus or trolley car. As a bonus you get a sense of power. She found the machine very easy to use, almost intuitive.
Dean Kamen thought his invention would revolutionize transportation: not likely. At $5,000 a pop (since reduced to $4,495 on amazon.com), he's sold about 5,000 so far, compared to initial projections of 100,000 in the first year. Still, the device will turn out to be very popular and useful, in specialized areas like travel. Once they get the price down to $1,000, they'll be good to go.
In the meantime, you can buy a Segway Tail Light for $14.99, put it on your forehead, and pretend you're a futuristic android transporter.
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