How To Live Without Gas

Enlarge Photo How To Live Without Gas

Fri, Aug 8 05:30 PM

Andy Greenberg, Forbes.com

The Segway, that marvel of two-wheeled balance and electric mobility, may someday solve America's dependence on gas-powered engines. But first, it will have to solve the suburbs.

That was the lesson of my short-lived experiment in gas-free living, an ill-fated attempt to explore the latest in electric tech as an alternative to $4-a-gallon gas.

In Pictures: Tech Tips For Cutting Your Gas Bill

In Pictures: Green Car: 10 People To Watch

In Pictures: 10 Ways To Tap Wind Power

In Pictures: Top 10 Cities For Cutting Your Gas Bill

In Pictures: Eight Ways To Quit Mousing Around

As pump prices rise and the buzz around plug-in alternatives grows, I vowed to leave behind my privileged public transit lifestyle in New York City and spend three days gasoline-free where it meant something: In my family's hometown suburbs of Durham, N.C.--the depths of car-centric, Nascar-loving America.

The Segway, I had thought, would be my secret weapon in the struggle against the pump-powered lifestyle. According to the company, rising gas prices have driven Segway sales up by more than 50% last quarter, compared with the same period a year ago. "Never fill up again," Segway's marketing materials suggest optimistically.

But I found that gliding my Segway around the suburbs is not the breezy experience the slogan implies. On my first trip, I had successfully ridden about six miles to pick up a DVD when I reached the inevitable: a long stretch of sidewalk-less road. I edged onto the asphalt.

Rain began to drip through my borrowed bike helmet. Cars whizzed by at 45 miles an hour, honking at the two-foot-wide biped awkwardly blocking their lane. I tried leaning forward to accelerate beyond the Segway's 12.5 mph maximum, and the machine responded by lurching its foot platform back--a not-so-subtle way of telling me to slow down.

Instead, I leaned in farther in a panicked attempt to find the nearest sidewalk and escape the internal-combustion engines threatening to crush me from behind. By the time I reached safety, my Segway seemed ready to chuck me off like a spooked horse, and I felt less like a green-tech revolutionary than a very dangerous idiot.

I didn't give up. On my second day, I steeled myself and tried riding the Segway to a friend's house located just 10 minutes away by car. I ended up on a 55 mph backwoods road, trucks careening just inches from my Segway's wide wheelbase. With my organs in a knot, I gave up and called my brother to pick me up in his Prius.

To be fair, Segway's two-wheeled wonders were never intended for this kind of reckless jackassery, even in the name of American progress. Both the vehicle's manufacturers and the helpful folks at Triangle Segway, a dealer in Raleigh that loaned me the machine, had warned against straying from low-speed roads and sidewalks.

Most states prohibit riding Segways on any street with a speed limit above 25 mph, and Bedford, N.H.-based Segway inventor Dean Kamen himself has long suggested his device would solve the "last mile" problem, bringing riders the final leg of their trips once public transit had already hauled them close to their destinations.

But that doesn't change the notion that the Segway simply isn't built for a suburban lifestyle--the one lived by the large majority of Americans. At best, it's an approximately $5,000 replacement for either walking or biking--two activities that, for most suburbanites, have little to do with getting from A to B.

Inside News

Editor's picks