Gliding Across Chicago’s Lakefront
By Bill Paige
I
have seen the future of human transportation, and its name is Segway. Okay,
okay, so that bit of hyperbole is designed to capture your attention. In reality,
most of us bipeds would be quite reluctant to trade in our perfectly good
legs for a set of wheels—no matter how maneuverable they might be. Legs
(not to mention feet) are just too damn useful, naturally balancing and all,
and despite tremendous advances in robotics, scientists have yet to develop
a machine that can execute simple tasks with the elegance of the human body.
(Even the computer graphics freaks who starred in Will Smith’s summer
blockbuster I, Robot look like Central Casting rejects from Herbie Hancock’s
1983 video, “Rockit.”) Still, that hasn’t discouraged us
from trying, and the Segway provides a strong argument for continued efforts
to come up with creative man-machine combinations.
In the two years since it was first introduced, inventor Dean Kamen’s pollution-free, gyroscopic scooter (originally code-named “Ginger” and “IT”) has yet to fully find its place in a culture cluttered with transport options. Of course, few of us have an extra $4,000-5,000 to purchase their very own Segway. But now, for just $65, anyone in Chicago can sign up for a three-hour training class and Segway tour that is likely to erase any doubt regarding the potential of this revolutionary personal transportation device.
City Segway Tours opened its Chicago franchise in mid-July, and ever since its eight Segway units have been quite busy gliding across the city’s lakefront twice a day. (Tours also are offered in New Orleans, Paris and Nice.) The tour meets at the Adler Planetarium, and begins with a 20-minute video that explains the science behind the Segway, as well as guidelines for its safe operation.
Moving outside to the Planetarium’s courtyard, the tour guide spends another 30-45 minutes making sure that each rider is acclimated to their own Segway. As soon as everyone is comfortable starting, stopping and turning their Segway, the group heads off to explore the city’s beautiful lakefront in a completely new and different way.
What exactly is a Segway? Quite simply, it is a battery-powered scooter with oversized wheels that moves when you move. Stand in one place, and the Segway stays motionless beneath your feet. Lean forward, just a little, in fact—all it takes is a little toe-curl, really—and the unit begins moving. Lean back and you stop. The scooter also travels backward, but this is recommended only for those with eyes in the back of their head. Twisting the handle grip to the left or right causes the machine to turn in that direction. The Segway has a zero-degree turning radius, so if you happen to be standing still at the time, the machine will quickly rotate 360-degrees in place.
How does it work? The wheels are powered by a battery that propels the Segway along at a top speed of five, eight, or 12 miles per hour (the lower speeds are set for beginning riders), and has a 10- to 12-mile travel range before it must be recharged using any AC outlet.
Segway has found a growing niche among people who find it difficult to walk, especially those with neurological ailments such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and other spinal cord injuries.
According to various technical articles that can be found online, five discrete, solid-state gyroscopic sensors detect the Coriolis force* [see sidebar] generated by angular momentum, and feed this data to the Segway’s onboard network at 100 samples per second. The software is proprietary, but resembles process control software used in industrial applications.
The bottom line is that a rider cannot tip over the Segway,
either forward or backward —the machine just won’t let that happen.
Caution must be exercised when going up hills or large curbs and bumps; the
Segway can handle many surface abnormalities (not staircases, however), as
long as they are approached head-on. Climbing steep surfaces at the wrong
angle, however, can cause the Segway to tip, and attempting to hop on the
scooter without first turning on the power will cause the rider to fall. That’s
what happened to Dubya when he tried to ride a Segway, resulting in a rather
embarrassing photo op. (Perhaps his trainer was a Democrat?)
City Segway Tours takes riders from the museum campus north to Buckingham
Fountain and then to the new Millennium Park, before returning to along the
shoreline bicycle path. Riders stop periodically to answer questions from
curious passersby and pose for photographs, as well as listen to tourist-centric
patter typical of most guided tours. The Segway itself is so obviously the
star of this excursion, however, that the recitation of names, places, dates,
and trivia is wisely kept to a minimum.
People of all ages may ride a Segway, but City Segway Tours requires that riders be at least 12 years old. Riders under 17 must be accompanied by an adult. The only other requirement is that riders be able to climb stairs and stand for an extended period of time. Of interest is the fact that the Segway has found a growing niche among people who find it difficult to walk, especially those with neurological ailments such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and other spinal cord injuries.
The Segway is currently being used by the U.S. Postal Service, as well as on college campuses and in a number of factory applications where larger vehicles such as a forklift might be impractical (the Segway can function as a simple transportation device, or as a delivery vehicle for light industrial inventory). The Segway also is designed to tow carts that can be programmed to intelligently follow the towing vehicle’s path. Eventually, “wi-fi” technology may allow carts to “imprint” on a parent Segway, and follow it around without being physically connected. That should make for an interesting foursome on the golf course!
The future of human transportation? Well, Segway may not be the final answer to reducing pollution from automobiles and trucks, and it certainly has limited outdoor applications in a volatile climate like Chicago’s, but one can only imagine the societal benefits that may one day be derived from this unique scooter. Until then, enjoy the glide.
Bill Paige is a veteran journalist and manager of communications at Oakton Community College. He previously worked for UPI, Playboy, House of Blues Records and a varity of freelance clients. He currently volunteers as music coordinator for the Artists of the Wall Festival in Rogers Park. For more about City Segway Tours, visit citysegwaytours.com.
*the Coriolis force is the inertial force described in 1835 by 19th-century French engineer-mathematician Gustave-Gaspard Coriolis. Coriolis showed that, if the ordinary Newtonian laws of motion of bodies are to be used in a rotating frame of reference, an inertial force—acting to the right of the direction of body motion for counterclockwise rotation of the reference frame or to the left for clockwise rotation —must be included in the equations of motion. The effect of the Coriolis force is an apparent deflection of the path of an object that moves within a rotating coordinate system. The object does not actually deviate from its path, but it appears to do so because of the motion of the coordinate system.