When Buck Ward opened Segway Tours of Delray in November, he was ecstatic. The Pineapple Grove business’ grand opening was a festive event, attracting a crowd, including Delray Beach City Commissioner Gary Eliopoulos.
A few days later, Ward discovered that his business was in jeopardy because the city bans Segways on its streets. Since then, he’s been trying to work out an agreement with city officials to amend the ordinance.
And, after the Jan. 11 City Commission workshop, he is a step closer. City officials didn’t give him their ultimate endorsement, but they left the door open for a compromise.
“We don’t want to throw you out. We want to look at this, but we want to make sure we don’t hurt anyone in the process. A crucial issue is everyone’s safety,” said Delray Beach Mayor Nelson McDuffie.
Ward’s attorney, Michael Listick, said he could work with a proposed ordinance drawn up by Delray Beach City Attorney Brian Shutt — except for one key point: the banning of Segways on A1A. “They have to go somewhere along A1A or they are missing Delray Beach,” Listick said.
An A1A ban would be especially troubling to east Atlantic Avenue based business, The Electric Experience — who also offers Segway tours.
The proposed ordinance discussed at the workshop, modeled after one in Sanibel Island, bans Segways from all public areas of the city, but allows tour operators to obtain conditional use approval from the city. In Delray Beach, that could mean banning the two-wheel vehicles along A1A from the north end of the municipal beach to Casuarina Road and on Atlantic Avenue from the beach to Swinton Avenue.
Delray Beach City Manager David Hardin suggested the possibility of allowing the Segways along the west side of A1A, where he said “there is very little pedestrian traffic.”
Meanwhile, the city is allowing the Segway tours to continue while the details, including number of guides required per tour and routes, are worked out. The guided tours, which steer clear of Atlantic Avenue and A1A, are offered three times daily in areas including Veteran’s Park, Banker’s Row and the Marina District, Chris Dove, the manager at Segway Tours of Delray, said in late January, adding that he and Ward are “confident things will be worked out.”
A date hasn’t been set yet for the commission to review the issue. “We are trying to move it along, but make sure we do it right,” Hardin said.
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