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The Segway To most people the word "segue" means to move seamlessly from one thing to another, like good deejays do with songs; one ends, another begins and the transition is as natural as flowing water.
rolls into town
The electric transporter will
be put into use by security
personnel at Ko Olina ResortBy Erika Engle
eengle@starbulletin.com
With a spelling makeover, Segway is the brand name for a transporter its maker labels an Electric Personal-Assisted Mobility Device. The bureaucratic-sounding name was developed by the company to assist governments and municipalities in regulatory efforts, according to Stas Wolk, director of western U.S. sales for New Hampshire-based Segway LLC.
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Wolk showed the vehicle's capabilities.
Ko Olina Resort is the first resort in the United States to bring in Segways -- the $8,900 two-wheeled, gyroscopically balanced vehicles introduced with much fanfare in December by inventor Dean Kamen.
"We have agreed to purchase five initially," said developer Jeff Stone, "and we'll purchase an additional five when the next hotel opens at Ko Olina" -- specifically, the JW Marriott Vacation Club, in the first quarter of next year.
In use by the U.S. Postal Service, National Park Service, theme parks such as Disneyland and DisneyWorld and companies such as Amazon.com, the battery-powered vehicle Ko Olina will use is the Segway HT (human transporter) E Series. The maximum any company can order now is 10, due to production logjams.
It has a maximum speed of 12.5 miles per hour and a range of 11 to 17 miles on a single battery charge and is capable of carrying a 250-pound person with up to 75 pounds of cargo borne in saddlebag-type storage apparatuses.
Members of Ko Olina's Aloha Team, or security staff, will use the vehicles in making their rounds.
The Segway was demonstrated at the JW Marriott Ihilani Resort and Spa yesterday by Wolk, and it was taken for test drives by Stone and state Sen. Colleen Hanabusa (D, Waianae).
Stone took the vehicle off the resort's cobbled sidewalks onto a lagoon beach nearly to the water. On the way back up the hill as the sand grew deeper, there was a bit of a wobble, but he stayed upright. The Segway was pulled over a hump of sand and was pulled back onto the sidewalk.
"I thought those things were pretty cool," Stone said. A smiling Hanabusa declined a second spin around the demonstration area.
The Segways are part of the resort's plan to be as wireless and earth-friendly as possible, Stone said. He also likes that the Segways are quieter than the electric vehicles now in use on the property -- providing "more stealth," he said.
Some Aloha Team members also roam the grounds on foot and on bicycles.
Segway LLC is not selling the vehicles to the consumer market yet, pending development of "Segway etiquette," Wolk said, which is being developed by users among its government, warehouse and corporate clientele in the course of vehicle usage.
Hence, the vehicle is unlikely to show up in the next Sharper Image or Hammacher Schlemmer catalog. "We're very conscious of our brand," Wolk said.
An appearance by Segway was permitted for an episode of the NBC-TV show "Frasier," but the company declined a request for its use in an "Austin Powers" movie, with a smaller version to be used by the "Mini-Me" character. The company didn't want the vehicle to be perceived as a toy, Wolk said.
The Segways are various shades of gray, which Stone plans to change with some sort of aloha-print design similar to the currently popular car-seat covers.
