I’ve seen the future of transportation, and it looks something like the Segway.

While I have some serious reservations about this overhyped new form of transportation, many detractors do not understand it.

The Segway is a sophisticated electric-powered “Human Transporter” that debuted last December. It is like an automated rickshaw on which you stand. In the words of R. Gary Bridge, Segway LLC’s vice-president of marketing: “It’s a robot.”

And a compact robot it is. While the unit can weigh a hefty 65-80 pounds, “the footprint of the p model (p is for personal) is 15x21 inches – the width of the average male’s shoulders and only three inches longer than my foot,” Bridge told me recently.

The marvel of the unit is its intelligent balancing and propulsion technology, which inventor Dean Kamen first developed for a power chair, the Independence 3000 IBot Transporter. The FDA in the United States is testing it. Putatively, the wheeled chair climbs stairs and can balance on only two of its four wheels, thanks to gyroscopes and tilt sensors.

Business attire is OK on the Segway

In the same way, Segway components take tiny cues from the rider, especially the direction and degree to which he or she leans, to balance, twist, move, and stop – a separate motor powering each wheel.

“The neat thing about the balancing technology is 100 times a second we measure your centre of gravity,” Bridge told me. “And we move the platform forward or back so it always stays centred underneath your centre of gravity.” (For video of the Segway in action, pictures, and specs, visit www.segway.com.)

Not everyone believes in it. I’ve heard much criticism: Bikes are better and healthier; it’s too much like a scooter; it will be banned on sidewalks and roads; it’s not fast enough; it’s too fast; it’s going to make people fat.

But these concerns carry little weight. For one, Segways are designed for sidewalks. This automatically makes them less dangerous than bicycles, which, by law, cannot use sidewalks. Even on relatively safe bike paths, bicycles can cruise at bone-crushing speeds. Segways cannot surpass 20 km/h, the speed of an average runner, and hardly threatening.

Comparisons with scooters are ill-informed. Electric scooters (i.e. Go-Ped, Xootr, Razor) can go faster than Segways and they require strength, since they force riders into an open-legged, knee-bent stance. Few people would consider riding a scooter wearing a skirt or heels. Scooter wheels, being so small, are unstable on bumpy ground and impossible in snow.

Can you imagine a disabled person riding a scooter? With a Segway, the elderly and infirm can manage, since the robotics provide stability. It even automatically climbs stairs when being pulled like a cart (in “follow-me” mode). Fundamentally, this device, or one similar to it, should succeed because it will create efficiencies for businesses and savings for individuals that will be impossible to overlook.

For years, I’ve had difficulty with certain applications of car technology. Cars are expensive and dangerous, as insurance premiums attest. For one occupant, even small cars are excessively bulky. Infrastructure requirements compound the costly picture.

Cars will never disappear. After all, they can’t be beat for conveniently hauling big, heavy, or large quantities of goods fair distances. They also move smoothly at high speeds, while protecting occupants from the elements – a considerable factor here in Alberta.

But as fuel, insurance and roads become increasingly expensive, fewer and fewer people will be able to afford more than one vehicle. As the advantage of toll roads catches on (see my last column), a day is inevitably approaching when people will have to examine new ways of getting around. Public transit, motorcycles and bicycles are not sufficient.

Apart from safety concerns, bikes are not compatible with “business attire.” Stuffing a suit in a backpack for cycling to work generally results in a wrinkled suit. Segway operators can wear a fur coat or formal shoes, and the machine can end up beside their desks. A Segway fits in a crowded elevator (just stand on it) or on the LRT.

A top-end Segway can carry 75 lbs. of cargo in addition to a 250-lb. person. Postal carriers, for example, can save their backs and time. It easily negotiates sharp corners, bumps, ice and snow, standing by itself when the rider steps away – no need for laying it down or propping it up.

Commuters can save money, delivery folks can save time, and disabled shoppers may be able to save cab fair to the store. What’s not to like?

Well, a few things.

It is expensive (the best version costs roughly $8,000 US). It’s going to be hard for most of us to justify that price unless the Segway has a long lifespan, and it’s too early to judge that. Bridge informed me that the first country to see production outside of the U.S. will be Canada. Hopefully, this will bring costs down.

The Segway is also unproven in extreme cold. Though the battery is easy to change, as of today no one really knows how it will perform in our super-cold winters. Battery life will certainly diminish.

Will pedestrians feel threatened? Will cities ban them from the busy downtown core and pedestrian walkways (like in-line skates) where Segways promise the greatest benefit? Only time will tell.

But the big downside, at least for me, is the effete nature of this machine. It’s so intuitive that it has little appeal to the technophile or mechanically inclined. Cars demand considerable ability. Bikes require virility. Until the Segway poses more of a challenge for the rider (20 km/h maximum, pshaw), it may become known as a glorified walker.

My hope is a more difficult-to-use model comes out, perhaps one with manual transmission.

And regarding that concern about getting fat: anyone who was really worried about fitness would first turn off their TV and then throw away their junk food. Carrying around a 65-lb. Segway wouldn’t hurt either. How many Segways can YOU carry?