Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Toolin' Around Downtown

Could Segway transform travel around downtown?
It could make it easier to visit attractions, says county commissioner
Link

"“(The Segway) creates urban density, which makes all of our attractions more accessible in a pedestrian kind of way,” said [Bill] Brown, who paid about $3,800 for a used machine. “I’d always been interested in electric vehicles and I thought the Segway would be perfect for downtown. So I got on the Internet, found a demo in Indianapolis, drove down and picked it up.”"

"Downtown-area motorists and pedestrians have been doing double takes ever since as Brown shuttles standing up between his office in the City-County Building, his Summit City Electric Co. on Hayden Street and a host of other appointments. He’s even ridden the Segway to and from work a few times – a 5-mile trip that takes about 35 minutes using battery power and back streets."

"When he talks about “density,” he means making downtown Fort Wayne more attractive to visitors by bringing its attractions closer together, in how long it takes nondrivers to get from one place to another."

5 comments:

Joe said...

If I could rent one of these (as you can in Indy), I'd gladly tool around downtown at 12 m.p.h.!

RMike said...

That might be fun to try, but bicycles are timeless and still the best way to get around downtown.

Jeff Pruitt said...

According to Robert Enders, Bill Brown has been violating the law by riding his segway on the sidewalk...

Scott Bryson said...

The question is, do we really need one? Fort Wayne's downtown isn't huge. It's what 1.6 miles by 1 mile (Sweeney Park to Harmar St. and Headwater Park to the south railroad tracks.) Wow, an entire 1.6 square miles or so! Get out and walk.

bmgsings said...

Way to say it. Have people also forgotten that Fort Wayne, a city of about 300,000 people (not many), was ranked as the 4th fattest city in the nation in 2004? Let's save lives and walk, please.