STORY BY DANE GOLDEN PHOTO BY TERRY HANKINS

If you’ve ever been by the Petaluma Municipal Airport to go flying or have lunch at the Two Niner Diner, you may have seen Stewart Munson’s Segways parked out front. Munson is the proprietor of the airplane supply shop The Prop Stops Here.

And if you’ve ever expressed interest in the Segway, that two-wheeled marvel of transportation, you probably received a free lesson from Munson. He estimates he’s given instructions to thousands of people, sometimes more than 10 in a single day.

Now he’s planning to offer Segway tours around Petaluma, which should begin departing regularly from the Visitor Center in the near future. The tours will be offered Friday through Sunday and will take three people at a time (plus Munson as the guide) and travel around downtown on a three-hour tour. He estimates the cost will be $65 per person.

But don’t jump back with alarm if you see these vehicles coming down the sidewalk. After a 10-minute instruction, Munson has had numerous people using them like pros. His guided tours will be modeled after similar services offered to visitors at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf, in the city of Sonoma and elsewhere.

“The vehicle has proven itself in a pedestrian environment,” Munson says. “It’s not going to be like skateboards, but a much more docile, congenial and stately form of transportation.”

In fact, he says, “It’s as intuitive as the pedestrian himself.”

Personally, Munson can never ride it enough. Often, when a pilot comes into the store to buy a case of oil, he offers to deliver it out to their plane — on a Segway, of course. He also rides one from the airport to downtown a couple of times a week.

“I ride the Segway every single day,” he says. “To be quite frank, I’d rather ride it than walk.”