Segway Strides

I seemed to have noticed a lot of campus police with segways these days and i really do not understand the point of them. Why cant you just use a golf cart or something? With all these thoughts in my head, I figured that the best way to figure out what is so great...or not so great about these dodo like machines is to figure out how they work.

By using gyroscopic sensors and advanced computers, they detect when the Personal Transporter (PT) is off balance. This occurs when the rider leans forward or backward or from left to right. Motors, controlled by on-board computers, and attached to the wheels spin in the required direction to get the PT back in balance. In terms of technology and usability, the segway is ahead of its time, however,I have to admit, there is an eco-friendly aspect of this intriguing device.

The segway runs solely on electric power and uses no gasoline or bio fuels of any kind. Thus there is no pollution emanating from this device. According to segway.com, "If we are able to replace 10% of 900 million 3 mile car trips with an eco-friendly Segway PT there would be:

• 6.2 million fewer gallons of gas consumed
• 286 million fewer pounds of CO2 emitted everyday

In terms of the environmental aspects, the segway has a lot to offer, especially in our current economic situation where gas prices fluctuate as much as the stock market.



So maybe the segway isn't that bad of an invention after all, the only down side is that people still see it as a toy, per se, and not necessarily as an economical and useful method of transportation. Perhaps time will tell if we really embrace this piece of technology. However, judging from college campusses, it seems like the trend is generally positive.