Delivery a Little Different

People stare, some point and some just giggle as Joel Mehr moves silently through the rush-hour crowd on Clarendon Boulevard.

“I feel like a big drag queen,” the restaurant owner said. “You see a drag queen walking down the street and you want to look, but you’re trying not to look, but you can’t help but look… it’s kind of like that.”

Mehr delivers pizzas from his restaurant, , on a Segway and gets a lot of reactions on the sidewalk.

He uses the Segway for deliveries within a mile in the dense urban area where it’s hard to find parking to make deliveries.

“If a delivery driver can’t park to pick up, then what are we going to do?” said Mehr, 43.

He began delivering in July and has since been training employees to ride the Segway.

The restaurant, the company’s third, opened in Clarendon in April. A few weeks later a customer suggested using a Segway for delivery, Mehr said.

“Originally I thought the idea was a little out-there, especially for the cost of the equipment,” said co-owner Tri Nguyen, 40.

“I was proven wrong because the Segway has paid for itself,” Nguyen said.

The Segway saves on driver’s insurance and gas, and a single 20-cent charge can last up to eight hours.

At 12 mph, the Segway can deliver the pizza quickly while being a marketing device for the restaurant.

“They should put a giant sign on it,” said Kristen Roberts, 33, of Takoma Park.

“What a great idea. They don’t have to worry about stoplights or traffic. Just get there faster,” Roberts said.

Co-owner Thomas Marr, 40, had to build a custom platform on the Segway out of PVC pipe to carry the pizzas.

“I crashed it already,” said Mehr, who bruised only his pride when he ran over something in the dark.

Pete’s New Haven Style Apizza averages five Segway deliveries a day, although Mehr expects that to increase to 100 in six months.

That’s a lot more Segway rides, and a lot more stares.