Posted on Sat, May. 14, 2005

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A new tour: See the city by Segway

Starting this morning, the individual, battery-powered scooters can be
rented opposite the Art Museum. They're sights in themselves.

By Julie Stoiber

Inquirer Staff Writer

It's a bit shaky for novices at first - remember learning to ride a bike? -
but there's a new way to see the sights in Philadelphia.

Starting today, Philadelphia will join a growing parade of cities - from
Bangkok, Thailand, to Corvallis, Ore. - in which sightseeing can be done
from the platform of a Segway Human Transporter.

Gliding along on one of the futuristic, fat-wheeled, battery-powered
scooters, the driver actually becomes an attraction as visitors on tour
buses whip around in their seats to stare and pedestrians call out: "Is that
thing easy to ride?"

Replies Lew Robbins, 32, chief executive officer of I Glide Tours & Rentals
L.L.C., based in Bensalem: "It's very easy and a lot of fun."

This morning at 10, he will launch the reservation-only service across from
the Philadelphia Museum of Art, at the foot of a statue of George Washington
riding a horse.

The three-hour, 3.5-mile excursion costs $69. The tour takes in Boathouse
Row, the Water Works, and some Kelly Drive sculptures, then winds along the
Schuylkill recreation path for a view of 30th Street Station and the
skyline.

But first, tour-goers (who will depart twice each day in groups of up to 10)
must learn to ride the self-balancing vehicles: Lean forward to go forward.
Lean back to back up. Straighten up to stop. Twist the left handgrip to
turn.

"It's like Elvis - it's all in the hips," said Robbins, a hospitality
veteran who has done stints in the Pennsylvania Tourism Office and as
director of marketing for Lights of Liberty. "I've never had anybody I
couldn't train."

I Glide began offering customized tours of Fairmount Park for private groups
this spring. Early this week, Robbins did a test run for the Fairmount Park
Commission, which along with other city officials OKd his plans and helped
fine-tune the Segway guides' script.

"They presented compelling evidence that this was popular in other cities,
so we said, 'Let's try it,' " said Karen Lloyd Borski, executive director of
the park, who took the tour. "It's just a neat contraption."

I Glide wanted to include the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Borski said, but
she discouraged it.

"There is so much traffic," she said.

As it is, gliders, who will ride single-file with a guide at speeds of about
5 m.p.h., must navigate the pulse-quickening crosswalks around the Art
Museum. Most travel is done on sidewalks and paths.

Each rider will be equipped with a helmet, a chartreuse vest, and a headset
through which the rider will hear instructions and tour notes interspersed
with Philadelphia-themed music. Robbins said his company has "very
comprehensive" insurance coverage.

The hook for sightseers is that they can cover more ground in a shorter time
than they could on foot - and with a shiver of excitement that's missing
from a driving tour.

"To walk this area would be tough for some people, and time-consuming,"
Robbins said. "And 50 percent of the experience is riding the Segway."

The first Segways were sold as clean-air transportation alternatives, with
much fanfare, in November 2002. Months later, a bike-tour company in Paris
added them to its fleet.

Segway tours now are offered in more than 20 U.S. and nine foreign cities,
according to www.segwayguidedtours.com.

Axel Schine's Los Angeles-based tour company, Segwow Inc., was one of the
first to use Segways in the United States beginning in the fall of 2003.

It has 12 itineraries, including a cemetery tour and a golf course trip on
Segways equipped with racks that can carry a full set of clubs.

The celebrity homes tour is the most popular.

"You can smell the flowers," Schine said.

Tourists in vans find Segway riders fascinating, he said. "We are often
photographed and videotaped as we go along."

*********************

www.segwayguidedtours.com

http://www.segcanada.com/

Rental Package
Price ($CDN)

Orientation Package for first time renters

Safety Video & Product Introduction (10 min.)

Indoor Training with certified Segway trainer (20 min.)

Total Time: Approx. 30 min.
$19.95

30 minute Segway Rental
Customers must have previously completed the training & orientation package.
$29.95

60 minute Segway Rental
Customers must have previously completed the training & orientation package.
$49.95

Per minute Segway Rental

Customers must have previously completed the training & orientation package.
$1.50

Try a Segway Special

Guided instruction in our indoor facility with a certified Segway trainer
$10.00

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SEGWOW, INC. © 2005 All rights reserved
Segway is a registered trademark of Segway LLC
A Segway is a self- balancing, electrically powered, human transporter,
that can turn in place and carry one person between approximately 100 and
250 pounds up to 12½ mph. A handgrip controls left and right turning, but
all other movements, forward & backward, starting & stopping, and speed are
controlled with center of gravity- basically by leaning slightly in the
direction you want to travel. Feels like magic, but it is technology in
action. Remarkably intuitive and amazingly easy to learn.

First becoming widely available in 2003, now selling for $4495 (i Series),
it was developed over a 10 year period by inventor Dean Kamen at a cost of
more than $100 million. Manufactured by Segway LLC of New Hampshire, it
relies on a combination of five gyroscopes and two tilt sensors plus an
array of sophisticated electronics to always remain balanced.