[Seth-Trips] Learn to ride a Segway at Segway of Oakland

[Seth David Schoen]

Recently I had the pleasure of riding a Segway, and the people through
whose generosity I got to ride it gave me several coupons from the
business from which they had rented it, Segway of Oakland.

http://www.segwayofoakland.com/index1.htm

The Segway is a much-hyped upright electric scooter with a very
high-tech interface which mostly relies on leaning in the
direction you want to go.  Since the Segway balances for you, it's
very hard to fall over.

I'm skeptical of the Segway developers' suggestions that Segways will
displace cars (or walking), or that cities will be redesigned to
accomodate Segways.  I think that, for almost everyone, a bicycle
will be more cost-effective and practical than a Segway.  And a
bicycle is also much better for fitness; a Segway offers almost
no improvement over a car from the point of view of improving physical
fitness.  So, for most people, a Segway is probably not going to be
very useful.

I guess the exceptions would be people with certain disabilities or
injuries, and people with certain kinds of jobs that require moving
short distances quickly in crowded or confined areas.

On the other hand, riding a Segway is a lot of fun.  I really loved it!

So I'd like to take these coupons and go do the "Learn To Ride a
Segway" class with some seth-trips readers over at Segway of Oakland
on a weekend day sometime this spring.  Segway of Oakland is about 3/4
mile from the Lake Merritt BART station.

With the coupons I have, the class and rental will be $25 per person
(regular $35).  That's about one hour of Segway instruction and then
two hours of rental (for touring around Lake Merritt).

I think I'll only go when I can get at least a couple of other people
to come with me, so who's interested, and when could you go?  I have
to be in Oakland anyway this Sunday (the 15th), so that's one
possibility for me.

-- 
Seth David Schoen <schoen at loyalty.org> | Very frankly, I am opposed to people
     http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/   | being programmed by others.
     http://vitanuova.loyalty.org/     |     -- Fred Rogers (1928-2003),
                                       |        464 U.S. 417, 445 (1984)