Summer on Summit

A hearty thank you to the SARPA volunteers who planted the urns on the bridge over Ayd Mill (that's "the Shortline" to old school St. Paulites).

Summit got a fresh coat of white wash on its bike lanes this week, just in time for some of the best biking weather of the year. Perhaps we will have Garden Stroll attendees on bicycle this year? Or...

If you are in search of a novel way to explore Summit, there are options! For the technologically inclined--the SEGWAY Tour, or for active socialites, there's the PEDAL Pub.

Summit Segway Tours

I found this article in the 6/4/2009 Pioneer Press:

Segway tours are set to roll down Summit Avenue this summer

By Julio Ojeda-Zapata

If you're strolling on Summit Avenue sometime soon, look out for Segway stampedes. You're actually in little danger, but pay attention as drivers of the upright scooters roll by — likely with smiles on their faces.

They're partaking in a global trend: the Segway history tour, now coming to St. Paul.
Segway creator Dean Kamen thought he would revolutionize inner-city transportation with his gyroscopically balanced one-person vehicle, but this never came to pass. Like other consumer technologies, though, Kamen's invention has been put to unforeseen uses.
Entrepreneurs like Bill Neuenschwander, of Minneapolis, have snapped up dozens of the scooters and used them to offer history tours for visitors and others who want to see cities from a fresh vantage point.

This month, Neuenschwander, who has been leading Segway expeditions along the downtown Minneapolis riverfront for years, will realize his longtime dream of expanding into the east metro with Summit Avenue scooter tours.

His partner in this endeavor, the Minnesota History Center outside downtown St. Paul, is letting him use the facility as a staging ground with easy access to points of interest, such as the James J. Hill House and the Cathedral.

Segway tours offer unique advantages, Neuenschwander said. "We can go into alleyways and little nooks" along Summit that are not accessible on bus tours while covering much more ground than walking tours allow.

Segway tours won't replace other, traditional ways to see the metro sights, said Wendy Jones, manager of the History Center. But she said Segway tours provide "a hook you can use to get people engaged in history and connected to their neighborhoods. I think you should use that hook."

The History Center has followed Neuenschwander's Segway exploits for years, partly because his Segway Magical History Tours in Minneapolis stop at the Mill City Museum. The History Center even was inspired to buy a Segway of its own, Jones said. That scooter is being used by facility staffers to teach visitors about transportation.

"The kids are fascinated by the Segway," Jones said. "And this will get them to look at other things in the exhibit."

The History Center has no role in determining how Neuenschwander's tours will be conducted, Jones said, but it has allowed him to use a room in the facility for Segway orientations before participants head off on 90-minute journeys.

This formula is being repeated hundreds of times around the world by Segway entrepreneurs who are finding this to be a profitable business formula "if done properly," said Carol Valianti, vice president of global communications for Bedford, N.H.-based Segway Inc.

The company monitors and regulates the Segway tours organized by its scooter dealers "so we can hold them to certain standards, such as training and helmet requirements," Valianti said.
Segway takes a more hands-off approach with independent operations, such as Neuenschwander's Mobile Entertainment, that only offer tours and do not sell Segways.
Segway tours first appeared in Paris after the scooter's 2001 debut and quickly spread around the globe to state parks, beach areas, historical monuments and inner cities.

"It's not only what you're seeing" on such a tour, "but a new way to see it," Valianti said.
She pointed to one prominent Segway tour operator: Disney. Segways have seen increasing use at the company's Walt Disney World theme park in Orlando, Fla., initially in the futuristic Epcot area, and more recently in other parts of the operation, such as the Fort Wilderness Resort.
Segway Guided Tours, an online Segway tour directory created by Twin Cities native Joe Brown, recently tallied its 300th such listing, Adventure Tours of Idaho, based in downtown Boise.
Florida leads the nation with 29 tours, according to the site, followed by California with 28 locations and Texas with 16. (Mobile Entertainment is the sole Minnesota listing.) The site lists 115 locations in this country, along with tours in such far-flung locales as Latvia and Zambia.
In Minnesota, Neuenschwander plans to beef up his fleet of 85 Segways with 20 more scooters to accommodate his east metro clientele (with tours starting June 15). He is up from about 20 of the vehicles when he started his company in July 2003.

Despite a tanking economy that is causing consumers to rein in discretionary spending, Neuenschwander said he is seeing continued demand for tours with a significant surge last month compared with the same period in 2008. Clients include tourists, companies having team-building exercises and residents seeking to give out-of-town visitors a thrill. "People are willing to pay for an experience," he said.

The ever-entrepreneurial Neuenschwander, meanwhile, is looking beyond Segways. He's looking to invest in a fleet of scooter-like electric bicycles with more speed and range, allowing him to conduct daylong tours of the metro area with meals included.

"It's going to be a hoot," he said.

Summit Pedal Pub "Tours"

Photo by Pedalpub LLC

According to its website, PedalPub is a bicyle-like vehicle designed by the Dutch that you can rent for tours. They have several routes your can chose from around the metro area. The route that travels on Summit for seven blocks on its eastern side is not really a Summit Avenue tour; instead the real destinations of the tour are the local watering holes on Selby Avenue, Grand Avenue and Dale Street. You can book your own tour, however, so for the truly intrepid, you could pedal the entire 4.75 miles of Summit--caution, though, at an average speed of 5 mph, the round trip is going to take at least a couple of hours.