Forget the big blue and white vans.

The Office of Physical Plant (OPP) now has a new way for its maintenance workers to move around campus -- Segway Human Transporter scooters.

Two weeks ago, OPP brought the scooters to University Park to provide a more efficient, cost-effective means for its maintenance workers to get around, said Larry Mayes, OPP supervisor of services in Area 2, which covers most of the northwest part of campus.

There was some concern that the scooters would be seen as "gimmicks" when the concept was first discussed, but most of the employees were very satisfied with the Segways after trying them out, Phillip Melnick, OPP assistant operations director, said.

"In fact, one gentleman got upset when we took [the scooter] away," he said.

Alan Shaffer, an OPP maintenance employee who uses a Segway, said students he passes are always amused by the scooter and sometimes ask if they can use it.

When students see Shaffer riding a scooter on campus, they often comment on OPP's efforts to help the environment and appreciate the steps they are taking, he said.

Introduced in December 2001, Segway scooters have been adopted by a number of universities, including Carnegie Mellon University, Louisiana Tech and Stanford University, as well as police departments in cities from Seattle to Atlanta.

The university bought seven scooters for about $4,800 each, Paul Ruskin, OPP spokesman, said.

The industrial models OPP bought also have saddlebags that can store up to 60 pounds of tools and equipment, Melnick said.

OPP has found that on average, these scooters save employees 30 to 60 minutes per day, and at that rate, the scooters will pay for themselves in two years, he said.

Also, the Segway LLC Co. estimates the equivalent in miles per gallon for the scooters is close to 450 miles per gallon of gasoline, which make the Segways an extremely energy-efficient form of travel across campus, Melnick said.

He added that the scooters can travel up to 15 mph and require only about 10 cents of electricity to completely charge the batteries.

There are also no emissions from the Segways, aside from the power required to charge the scooters from the university power plant, Melnick said.

Ruskin said the choice to use Segways was a choice for the environment.

"We are doing it because we felt that it was an environmentally good thing to do," he said. "We are keeping with OPP's environmental strategy, and these Segways are just another iteration of that strategy."

Mayes said the scooters can save a lot of time in the field.

"One of my workers may get a call for a job in the Beam Building, then may have to leave there to deal with an emergency at Waring Commons, then may have to go to Keller Building and then Pattee Library," he said. "I have one plumber for 35 facilities, and I really believe that we have found a very cost-effective and efficient way to do things better."

When the maintenance workers walk from building to building with 20 to 30 pounds of equipment in a backpack, they become tired and less productive by the end of the day, and the Segway scooters help solve that problem, Mayes said.

Ruskin said that although they may look like toys, they are as complicated as a laptop computer. They use five gyroscopes to remain balanced and are totally electric.

"These Segways also have an innovative human-machine interface that senses the way the body leans -- the further one leans forward or backward, the faster the scooter goes in that direction," he said.

Melnick said that last spring at the Clean Energy Expo, the scooters were on display; after trying them out, OPP began to investigate their feasibility on campus.

OPP found these scooters do not run well in snow, sleet or extreme weather, but Melnick said he believes they can be used between 200 and 260 days out of the year.

One of the main safety concerns, Melnick said, is riding the scooters during class changes on campus.

OPP employees using the scooters are trained to operate them safely and are instructed to go the speed of the crowd in any congested situations, he said.

"I certainly think they will be evaluated over a period of time, and we will see how they work," Mayes said. "We don't want to overreact, but we will see over time if the scooters are something we should invest in further."