Illinois Institute of Technology

[Penguin]

Fall semester of 2003 IPRO-340 was entitled “Exploring Ways to Integrate the Segway HT into IIT Campus Life.” It was a success in sharing the Segway HT with the IIT population and demonstrating at many events. Members of the IPRO team were featured in newspapers and even on television providing positive publicity for IIT. The school is proud to be the first “Segway HT Friendly Campus” – in the world.

The main objective of this simesters EnPRO team is to develop an on-campus Segway HT rental and tour business. In accordance with the above objective, the EnPRO team shall endeavor to achieve the following goals:

• Working with IIT administrators to formally establish Segway Policies and Procedures and finalize the “Guide to the Glide – The IIT Handbook of Segway HT Etiquette”
• Create awareness and promote the Segway HT as a viable transportation tool for students, faculty and staff.
• Support outreach efforts to the Chicagoland Segway community and the community at large.
• Develop a business plan for an on-campus Segway HT rental and tour business.
• Understand who and why an individual would rent a Segway HT.

We are starting this forum in order to start a dialog with the Segway community beyond just the Chicagoland area. We will be keeping this forum updated on projects that the class is currently working on and be happy to answer any questions that people have about our organization.

James Foote

[SegwayUtah]

Cool, James. It seems like the HT is a perfect fit for college campuses.

Chris

[Segway City]

Yup, tried to become a member of the Yahoo group associated with this project because it is so noteworthy. (Got rejected ;-p). Didn't know it was students-only.

It will be great to see how the answers to the various issues that a campus program generates might segue into the commercial environment.

Keep us educated, so we can educate the world!

[Mr_Laurenzano]

Is there some meaning to this/

Find the way. Everything comes full circle.

[Penguin]

I forgot to mention the campus segway website. segway.iit.edu

Segway City, sorry, about you not being able to join the yahoo group. We tried to keep it to just the people in the class and a few people in the segway comunity that we knew and were currently working with. If no one in the class knew your e-mail it would get refused.

James Foote

[Segway City]

Yeah, but it seemed so cool!

(Note to self: become IIT student.....) :-)

[Brooster]

Welcome to SegwayChat James. You guys have an awesome program, and I've been pleased to meet with your team a couple of times to learn more about it. But I do still distinctly remember seeing Segway LLC--on their Web site in the very early days--declare Worcester Polytechnic as the world's first "Segway-friendly" college campus. Might want to double check on that one, as I think it was well before the HT was even released to the general public. Keep up the great work ... and again, welcome to the Chat.

Brooster

[Brooster]

Correction ... they were the "first to use" the Segway HT. Not necessarily Segway Friendly, but probably pretty friendly. :)

http://www.segway.com/aboutus/press_releases/pr_121602.html

Brooster

[fathertime]

Several members of the Chicago SEG group are involved with the IIT effort and have become very intrigued by what the students are doing on campus. It has been my pleasure to be one of the mentors of the ENPRO program and would like to encourqage all of you to engage the students in discussions. Any insight you may offer them will help their explorations and ultimate learning experience. This is a good program and it deserves our support![^]:D[8)]:);)[:P]

JR

[Penguin]

"Segway Friendly" was more so a title then realy meaning anything at the time when we became the first to get it. Part of what we did last simester, along with introducing the HT to the campus, was to define for ourselves what it ment to be "Segway Friendly". In doing this we created an IIT "Guide to the Glide" book which, although its purpose is to aply to the IIT campus itself, we hopped would also be used as a guide book for when other facilaties become Segway Friendly. The book is still undergoing some final revisions but a prelimanary copy of it is availible on our website.

http://segway.iit.edu

James Foote

[Florida Ever-Glides]

I was happy to assist with the ENPRO team in their request for information in their 'business plan'.

Tom Jacobson

[LarryL]

Like Tom, I too have been asked to help with their planning and business plan. It is nice to be able to help them. They also plan to expand out from the campus and into the city with a rental center. It will be interesting to see how this works from a student operation.

Larry

[GadgetmanKen]

quote:"Segway Friendly" was more so a title then realy meaning anything at the time when we became the first to get it. Part of what we did last simester, along with introducing the HT to the campus, was to define for ourselves what it ment to be "Segway Friendly". In doing this we created an IIT "Guide to the Glide" book which, although its purpose is to aply to the IIT campus itself, we hopped would also be used as a guide book for when other facilaties become Segway Friendly. The book is still undergoing some final revisions but a prelimanary copy of it is availible on our website.


I admire your efforts at IIT and Enpro and I wish you well on your business plans for the Segway. I know you are a new member and I might get blasted for this but, I was wondering if you would do us all a favor before you publish your etiquette guide. Please do a spell check on it before you go to print. Your quote/paragraph above has eight misspelled words in it. If I got this handbook with such poor spelling I think I would not give it much credit and toss it into the trash. Sorry about this comment, I've already had a bad day :) I don't know what the deal is but I even did a spell check on this and etiquette even comes up misspelled on the spell checker even though its spelled correctly. Whats up with that? I know, maybe you were in a hurry. But do the guide right, please.

"Wouldn't it be cool, if?...is like Folgers in my cup"

[BruceWright]

Great site. I love the handbook.

One mistake in your online FAQ:

quote:# How fast can the Segway go?
# About 17 miles (28 km) on even ground, with a single charge. Taking uneven terrain into account, Segway's designers estimate the vehicle has a range of 11 miles (17 km) on a single charge.


You've confused distance with speed.

Segway owners have faced problems in our communities from people who think that Segways can travel 15mph-20mph. Short of adding very large wheels, that isn't the case.

-Bruce Wright

Segway: Vehicle of Dream

[GadgetmanKen]

I know you probably don't want to hear from me again after my last post, but, the picture you have on page five of the I-series is actually a picture of the P-series. Hince the smaller solid wheels. The drawing on page 14 of the how it works I think is also incorrect. I believe that it states that it has two motors and if one fails the second one takes over. I think that it should read "It has two motors and two control boards. If one control board fails the other board takes over." Or something like that. Not, the other motor takes over. If one motor actually fails you would be going in circles. With the other board you have a backup for controling the second motor in case the other board fails. I think if the one motor would actually fail you would get a fault error and shut down. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, please.

I like the Segway rack. Who designed it and do they sell them for off campus use? Could you have flip over latches with padlocks installed on it as a security /theft prevention device? With potentially many HT's parked side by side on campus, I think part swapping or theft and part swapping would become common. Have you thought of these issues?

"Wouldn't it be cool, if?...is like Folgers in my cup"

[SegwayUtah]

G-Man-Ken,

:)

The motors have redudant sets of windings as well if I remember right. So even the "motor" can fail, technically, and it will kick into Emergency Shutdown mode and bring you to a smooth stop.

Chris

[Matt]

Technically, because the motors have redundant windings, each one is considered two motors, so if we are going to split hair, they are right.

[Penguin]

Thanks for all the input on the errors in the handbook and on the website, if you have anymore suggestions don't hesitate to let us know.

James Foote