Novel Transport Vehicle Makes Its Montclair Debut [Archive]

ftropea

10-04-2002, 05:48 PM

quote:
Novel Transport Vehicle Makes Its Montclair Debut
Thursday, October 03, 2002

By KEN THORBOURNE

Montclair businessman and real estate developer Paul Zimmerman is the first on his block to own “The Human Transporter.”

The motorized two-wheeled vehicle, developed by the New Hampshire-based company Segway LLC, could represent how residents in urban settings will scoot around town, cut down on car congestion, and help preserve the environment in the future. It could also be just the newest way for adults to feel like kids again.

Zimmerman smiled broadly as he zipped up and down a Montclair parking lot on Monday, demonstrating his latest toy for a few friends.

He leaned back, the vehicle rolled backward. He tilted forward, the vehicle moved straight ahead.

The key to relaxing on the vehicle, Zimmerman said, is knowing that it’s impossible to fall off.

“The sensors are under your feet,” Zimmerman said. “The vehicle will compensate for topography.”

Five computer chips embedded into the platform that the rider stands on act as a gyroscope, Zimmerman said.

Zimmerman leaned back, and the machine scampered into an upright position. He leaned forward, and the machine maneuvered itself under the rider’s center of gravity.

As friends of Zimmerman tested out the Segway HT vehicle, it quickly became clear why the transporter is so much fun to ride: it operates as an extension of the driver’s body.

A slight tilt forward and the machine moves straight ahead. A more severe tilt and the machine moves forward faster. A lean back, and the vehicle rolls backwards. A perfectly upright stance brings the machine to a halt. Top speed, Zimmerman said, is 14 miles per hour.

Everyone who test-drove the “Human Transporter” was wowed.

“Ecstatic. Tickled. Enthusiastic. Sold,” was Scott Kennedy’s reaction after his first spin on the two-wheeled vehicle. Kennedy and his wife, Pilar, are owners of the Bloomfield Avenue print shop Alpha-Graphics. “A little bit of the future has come to Montclair. I could see an open shed at the train station with all of these things locked up. I absolutely thank PZ [Zimmerman] for bringing it to town.”

Zimmerman owns a shopping center in New Hampshire and lives in the state part of the year. Zimmerman said he planned to have the shopping center’s security detail zip around on the Segway. “It’ll be a novelty,” he said.

The Segway is the latest invention created by Dean Kamen, an engineer who holds more than 150 patents. Before he created the Segway, Kamen invented a wide range of medical technology that includes the first insulin pump for people with diabetes, a dialysis machine, and a motorized wheelchair designed to ascend stairs. He founded FIRST, or For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, an organization that promotes to young people the importance of learning science and technology. FIRST sponsors a national robotics competition.

Before Segway would sell the transporter to Zimmerman, he had to sit through a daylong tutorial on what makes the vehicle tick. Zimmerman attended the session Tuesday last week.

Zimmerman said that that the transporter runs on two rechargeable nickel-cadmium batteries that carry the average rider 17 miles. Plug the machine into any wall outlet for roughly four hours and the vehicle is ready to rock for another 17 miles.

The 93-pound machine is equipped with a 2 1/2 horsepower brushless motor, Zimmerman said. The transporter can carry passengers weighing up to 250 pounds along with cargo up to 75 pounds.

Zimmerman said that the vehicle can be used lawfully in 31 states. In those states, it’s the legal equivalent of a wheelchair.

“You should have liability insurance,” Zimmerman advised, “but you don’t need a driver’s license.”

Postal carriers are trying them out in various cities around the nation, Zimmerman said. The product hit the market roughly a year ago, he added.

Zimmerman bought a deluxe model. His transporter is equipped with hunky mail pouches, the equivalent of a transporter bumper, and fenders on both wheels. Zimmerman’s model will stand by itself. The residential vehicle cannot stand on its own, he said. The bare-bones residential model costs $3,000, Zimmerman said.

Kennedy immediately saw the utility of owning the unique contraption.

“I live four blocks from work,” Kennedy said, “and I take a 3,000-pound vehicle back and forth, back and forth.”

Local architect Ira Smith was immediately taken with the novel vehicle.

“It was exhilarating,” said Smith. “It feels like an extension of your natural thing.

“It’s a private moving sidewalk that promises a whole new way of moving around the world,” Smith added. “It’s the most useful toy I’ve ever seen.”