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Q! Why would you want one?

A. Round round get around, I get around. Yeah. --the Beach Boys, 1964.

Two words: Pedestrian Amplification.

Crank up MY volume. Volume here being the number of linear feet covered per minute. It won't beat a bicycle, doesn't throw you to the pavement as my in-line skates often did, and it doesn't take up a parking meter or drink gas or add to the local pollution.

Riding a bicycle means buying into something of a blood sport. Every bike draws blood someday. Motorcycles; more so.

Walking around gets you here and there with great safety on the average, but really slowly. Slow and steady wins the race, but if you wanted slow and steady, you wouldn't be reading this on the Internet, eh?

The longer the walk, the less you want to keep walking, unless you are doing it for the exercise or you are chasing a distant goal.

"HURRY UP! The Louvre closes in an hour!"

Add up the UV index, sweat, tired feet, and most people end up using their automotive pollution generator instead.

My walk-to-lunch barrier is about four blocks, tops. If the restaurant is farther, crank up the car. But with the HT, my effort radius is now a mile or two, easy. Lunch never looked so good.

The HT fills in a missing middle ground that electric scooters try to fit into: the   two   mile round trip. Put your own mile number in that sentence, but keep it under ten.

The HT gets you farther, faster. No sweat. With a little cargo, a refreshed attitude (because riding it is enjoyable, too) and zero pollution. Its super-efficient electric motors don't even produce enough heat to feel.

At about 1 cent per mile worth of juice, it plugs in anywhere using a standard three-prong power cord. Perhaps you can give the Maître D' a quick lesson and recharge during dinner? Teaching him/her to glide on it with a five minute demo lesson is a bigger tip than money.

Moreover, it is designed to be safe for both the rider and the world around him/her. With steering, moving, stopping and turning reduced to the simplest, most intuitive of actions, much of what the rider/glider achieves works below the threshold of consciousness.

As pedestrians, we don't have to think about stepping forward to go or stopping as we walk among people. It's intuitive--part of the skill set of walking around. The control system of the HT is designed to be that intuitive.

"There is nothing more serious than pleasure."

--Claude Terrail , owner of the restaurant Tour d'Argent in Paris.

* Not to be confused with ear to ear carpet.

Q! Why are they so popular?

A. Try it. I give frequent demonstrations on mine.

People grin from wall to wall*. Nearly universally (better than 95%), they express a basic package of reactions:

• This is so cool!
• I want one!
• I love it!
• Oh, I can see how good this is!"
• Thank you VERY much for the demonstration!

Every once in a while, somebody declines to try it, but then caves in and within five minutes they join the above categories.

About 1.37% of the population sees it as a "toy" and dismisses it as having no desirability for them. Of course, I'm not doing follow-up studies or controlled polling of these people, but it would be interesting to see what their reaction is after their subconscious mind glides them through a few sleep cycles.

Many people compare it to flying dreams. Except you can only fall 8 inches.

Kids jump up on them for the first time and seem to "get it" quicker than some adults. The recommended minimum weight for a rider is 100 pounds, according to Segway, but the machine seems to have no particular difficulty with 80 pounders.

From an owner's viewpoint, gliding on the currently available Segway HT i167 (its official model designation) has opened up a world that is limited by prior forms of locomotion including walking, skating, bicycling, scootering, driving and unicycling. Anybody--and I mean ANYbody--who isn't up to walking a mile each way for a Starbucks, a newspaper, a bagel, a lunch, a meeting, or any other of the standard urban reasons to move about, can now expand their range with safety, convenience and security.

When one glides around in an urban setting, one finds that a decided portion of the population is rolling about in wheelchairs and rolling electric seats of various designs. For them, the ride is vital to their ability to get out at all, but some of them can stand and balance. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

How many of us are interested in closing down our world and limiting it to a smaller range than before? None. But how many of us would benefit from amping up our feet? Okay, I don't see anybody who did NOT raise their hand...

Q! What will you do with it?

A. Go. Aside from the fun factor, which likely will fade someday after you get used to it, the HT extends your range around any starting point by a factor of three or more. Usually much more.

The Segway site shows a map of your area as a 20 minute walk, and alternatively as a 20 minute glide (just put in your address).

The extended circle of places you could access in 20 minutes increases to about ten times the AREA of the walk. Not huge, but a very human scale improvement. In real life terms, you will be able to go quite a bit farther with very little effort on the HT.

In my own office area, downtown Burbank, California, many restaurants that were only visited by car are now within my individual range. Along with a Kinkos, the Post Office, banks, shops, a CompUSA, office supply stores, and many businesses that formerly implied car trips.

For someone in a similar situation, the HT is a very appropriate alternative transportation system and one that puts me, physically, more into direct access and participation with my community.

One of the more revealing uses came from a recent first-time glider I met at the Toluca Lake Bob's Big Boy Glide. He has a sail boat. And he looked at the HT as the perfect land-lubbing transportation to pack into the boat. Once in dock; no need to rent a car, just zoom. It gives new punch lines to those plank-walking jokes.

Want more distance? Get a bike or car.

Live in a city? Save many thousands of dollars or euros a year and don't get the car. Get an HT.