Segway Two-Wheeler Conquers Hard-Driving 'Automobile' Editor

DETROIT, Feb. 7 -- The latest convert to inventor Dean Kamen's much-hyped Segway Human Transporter -- a.k.a. ``IT'' -- is none other than Primedia's ``Automobile'' magazine Editor-in-Chief Jean Jennings, a woman accustomed to motoring well beyond legal speeds. In her monthly ``Vile Gossip'' column in the March 2002 issue of ``Automobile,'' Jennings recounts how she fell for Ginger (yet another nickname for the personal transportation device) when she test-drove it recently.

The Segway, a motorized footpad with wheels on either side with a handlebar at waist level, is outfitted with sensors that monitor changes in the rider's center of gravity 100 times per second, thus anticipating the rider's intended direction. While the device was conceived for such lofty goals as cutting pollution and congestion in urban centers, Jennings simply found it so much fun that once she got on, she didn't want to get off. A self-professed ``lummox'' who claims that ``driving a car is the only athletic thing'' she does well, Jennings added that she loves the fact that the Segway is rigged to be fall-proof.

Several industries and municipalities are already poised to capitalize on the possibilities of the Segway for faster foot traffic. If it can win over an ardent automobilist like Jennings, IT's got possibilities.