About mobility "scooters"

Apparently Hervey Bay is Mobility"scooter"central. I gues that figures as this place is often called God's waiting room!

Well I have no doubt that many people need these, but I am heartily sick of the number of users who have no regard
for others and, in some cases, no self respect.

Went to the bank one morning before opening time. There were 2 people in front of LOML and I Eventually there were
7 people standing there and #8 arrived on his scooter. He sat back at the verandah post chatting to a couple of the others
but the second the door was opened he was out of that vehicle like Hec Hogan and first through the door!! Bloody amazing!!

Another case: I'm walking across a pedestrian crossing, staying to one size and this rude old bugger roared up behind me
beeping the horn!!:o There was plenty of room for him, and at least one other, on the crossing to get around me.

I've also been abused by awoman going through a roundabout as if she was Jack Brabham!!

And we hear the constant cry that young people have no manners!!:~:~:~

Just about every person I've seen riding those things is obese, sorry to say. Walking never hurt anyone. As they say, use it or lose it.

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Originally Posted by Scott

Just about every person I've seen riding those things is obese, sorry to say. Walking never hurt anyone. As they say, use it or lose it.

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Callous remark :oo:
It certainly does, if your hips, knees or back are worn out.
I sure wish I could afford one.

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Originally Posted by Scott

Just about every person I've seen riding those things is obese, sorry to say. Walking never hurt anyone. As they say, use it or lose it.

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Ditto on the callous, unthinking comment!

My 88 y.o. dad, whose knees are totally stuffed, and whose heart wouldn't survive a knee replacement op., loves and loathes his scooter.
It gives him mobility, but he would rather have functional knees.

Sure, it's a callous comment but why should I beat around the bush? I'm all for these scooters for individuals who have a genuine disability. But why shouldn't we discuss obesity in the same breath as mentioning mobility scooters?

Secondly, have you seen how BIG and FAST those things go? Users are driving them FULL PELT through shopping centres, along footpaths and anywhere else which has a smooth surface. Why do motorised WHEELCHAIRS for the DISABLED go slower?

I read an article in the paper the other day that the width of seats on mobility scooters has had to be expanded because people are getting bigger. In the U.S. McDonalds are building specific drive-thru lanes for Mobility Scooters.

Obesity is an epidemic. Obese are using these scooters.

What I'm really saying is that the incidence of mobility scooters is a sign of the times, especially where obesity is concerned. I'm not going to sugar coat the use of these things.

By the way. At 87, my wife's grandmother was riddled with arthritis, had a kidney transplant, had congestive cardiac failure and two hip repairs. She got around with the aid of a walking stick.

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Originally Posted by arose62

Ditto on the callous, unthinking comment!

My 88 y.o. dad, whose knees are totally stuffed, and whose heart wouldn't survive a knee replacement op., loves and loathes his scooter.
It gives him mobility, but he would rather have functional knees.

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As a matter of interest, has your father been offered knee replacements under a spinal anaesthetic rather than a general anaesthetic? It's what surgeon's/anaesthetist offer when patients have cardiac failure. It's a very real option. :)

Arthur, one of my brothers lives in Dundowran Beach and has made similar observations.

As to whether folk need or should use scooters, that's between them and their health care pro. I'm not gonna comment (cos someone will then say what's an old phart doing riding a 1000 CC motorbike :rolleyes: ).

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Originally Posted by Scott

Sure, it's a callous comment but why should I beat around the bush? I'm all for these scooters for individuals who have a genuine disability. But why shouldn't we discuss obesity in the same breath as mentioning mobility scooters?

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Exactly what is a genuine disability, and how can anyone judge by looking at someone what caused their disability?
For example what about the beanpole guy that drinks himself stupid and has a car accident that writes his legs off and ends up on a scooter and still looks like a beanpole - shoulda, coulda ???
Or the beanpoles passenger who also loses his legs and then finds it hard to exercise so he becomes obese?
How about if your mum became immobile due to obesity would you deny her a scooter? "No mum I'll do your shopping every week".
As soon as folks with an immobile ( for whatever reason) dependent are inconvenienced enough they're often the first ones organizing scooters.
Given mothers day is coming up perhaps if we treated everyone like our mums the world might be a kinder place.

Now, let's move on to disabled parking bays :D

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Originally Posted by Scott

Secondly, have you seen how BIG and FAST those things go? Users are driving them FULL PELT through shopping centres, along footpaths and anywhere else which has a smooth surface. Why do motorised WHEELCHAIRS for the DISABLED go slower

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I think this is really the key issue. Irrespective of who has the right to have one for whatever reason they are almost at a point where they are an alternative to a car.

Yesterday while riding my push bike to work I was waiting at the lights to make a left hand turn. I look over to the footpath where there is a motorised scooter taking the corner and heading down the street. It wasn't all that long before the lights changed and the scooter was well and truly half way along the next block. The standard walking speed is about 5 km/h where as this scooter was much faster than that on a footpath. I cant ride my bike on the footpath as I go too fast and I am dangerous to slower moving foot traffic, where as a motorised scooter seems to be able to travel much faster than the foot traffic without any fear.

As with all sectors of society you are going to get the nature of person who feels that it is their right to jump the line, or think they own the footpath, and I don't think you can label all scooter users with the same tag. There is the issue however just how quickly they do travel, and not only safety for other footpath users but also the scooter users. I recall for some reason some time ago reading about the number of accidents that scooters are involved with and it was alarming.

I think it great that they can provide the users with independence, irrespective of their medical conditions or reasons for use, however given they are intended to replace walking, why do they need to go so quickly? Limit them to 5km/h top speed.

About 15-20% of the pop'n has a disability. Many of those disabilities aren't visible.

If it comes down to a mobility disability in my case, I'll put the 1000 CC motor into the scooter :D

(I'm also a subscriber to the principle that victimless crimes shouldn't be penalised; insured? yep.)

I love my mobility scooter.
Can get around shopping centers, go out to my
sons football. Get out of the house and car.

I am obese - was before I fell off the bike.
Would love to get back on my motorbike...............:C

I can walk for a bit but it aches and carries on.
Not all operations are 100%
Specialist says I need another op but as pain killers do not
work on me, I don't want it. (Morphine - no effect)

By the way. They are speed limiter to 10kph

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Originally Posted by DavidG

By the way. They are speed limiter to 10kph

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So still twice (if not more) the speed of the foot traffic around them for those irresponsible enough to go fall throttle!

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Originally Posted by DavidG

By the way. They are speed limiter to 10kph

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The speed that the scooters are capable of is not the issue. It is the speed that they are driven at that is the problem.

My car can go at 200 km/hr but it would be irresponsible to drive it at that speed in most circumstances, and illegal anywhere except on private property.

We have speed limits on our roads because not everyone has the common sense to drive at a safe speed, so this is enforced by law.

I have yet to see a speed limit sign for mobility scooters at the entrance to a shopping complex. So when common sense fails they drive them as fast as they want to. Sometimes I wonder if a lack of common sense should be classed as a disability too.

Doug

Perhaps Sawstop can do a deal and have them fitted so that explosive bolts stop them when they come into contact with another person?

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Originally Posted by BobL

Perhaps Sawstop can do a deal and have them fitted so that explosive bolts stop them when they come into contact with another person?

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:rofl::rofl:

You should start negotiations with the makers Arthur! Excellent idea.

Nice. I will install one on the front of mine to
.......................................CENSORED.................
........................................................................
people who step in front of me. :~

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Originally Posted by DavidG

Nice. I will install one on the front of mine to
.......................................CENSORED.................
........................................................................
people who step in front of me. :~

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David, to make it fair there would have to be a conditional setting. Lets say that if you are travelling at 6 kmh or faster and hit someone it blows up your scooter. If you are travelling 2 kmh or slower and hit someone it blows them up. Between 2 and 6 kmh it adjudicates a debate between the pair of you and destroys the loser. :D

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Originally Posted by doug3030

David, to make it fair there would have to be a conditional setting. Lets say that if you are travelling at 6 kmh or faster and hit someone it blows up your scooter. If you are travelling 2 kmh or slower and hit someone it blows them up. Between 2 and 6 kmh it adjudicates a debate between the pair of you and destroys the loser. :D

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this sounds a lot like a darlek to me




EXTERMINATE ...

EXTERMINATE ...

EXTERMINATE ...

Mobility scooters have a Hand speed control and also a maximum setting knob. (10K max).

I travel on max on the 1k trip to the shops (where possible) and set to about 1/3 setting when near people and about 1/10 when it is crowded.

It still amazes me that people will still walk up beside you and then step in front and start chatting to some one.

I need a good set of air horns.......

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Originally Posted by DavidG

I need a good set of air horns.......

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Yeah right...the moron in the motorised wheelchair or scooter who thinks they can blow a whistle and sound a horn so everybody who is patiently waiting their turn to get through the congested area or into the crowded event feels an obligation to get out of their way. I give people less fortunate than myself every consideration that is reasonable, but they are sitting down and the rest of us are standing up and we are all waiting to get to the same destination. Give me a break. in that situation, with me standing in pain and them sitting in relative comfort, it takes great restraint to not hit them over the head with my walking stick.

Doug :punching::club:

Doug
I wrote a reply but decided it was not worth it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DavidG

Mobility scooters have a Hand speed control and also a maximum setting knob. (10K max).

I travel on max on the 1k trip to the shops (where possible) and set to about 1/3 setting when near people and about 1/10 when it is crowded.

It still amazes me that people will still walk up beside you and then step in front and start chatting to some one.

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that's what pedestrians do, it's both the advantage (people can walk around you) and frustration (the ones who stop after taking just one step off the escalator) of being a pedestrian

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I need a good set of air horns.......

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:rolleyes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scott

Sure, it's a callous comment but why should I beat around the bush? I'm all for these scooters for individuals who have a genuine disability. But why shouldn't we discuss obesity in the same breath as mentioning mobility scooters?

Secondly, have you seen how BIG and FAST those things go? Users are driving them FULL PELT through shopping centres, along footpaths and anywhere else which has a smooth surface. Why do motorised WHEELCHAIRS for the DISABLED go slower?

I read an article in the paper the other day that the width of seats on mobility scooters has had to be expanded because people are getting bigger. In the U.S. McDonalds are building specific drive-thru lanes for Mobility Scooters.

Obesity is an epidemic. Obese are using these scooters.

What I'm really saying is that the incidence of mobility scooters is a sign of the times, especially where obesity is concerned. I'm not going to sugar coat the use of these things.

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I'm surprised you didn't throw in an Americanisation conspiracy also as an excuse for saying something daft.

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Originally Posted by Chippin Away

I'm surprised you didn't throw in an Americanisation conspiracy also as an excuse for saying something daft.

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You may not like that post but it's not such a daft thing to say. It may be view that you don't share but your criticism seems inappropriate.

Maybe you don't know that Scott is a dedicated nurse and worked in Emergency and in many other areas of our hospital system. So he has first hand experience of the difficulties that obesity causes to the many patient's health that he has nursed.

This may not be a specific Americanisation conspiracy but obesity was not such a crises before McDonalds and KFC brought their easy fast food outlets here.

Peter.

Scott,
What you need to remember is that not all people are obese by choice or by bad lifestyle.
A friend of mine is blind and suffers from ADHD, her lifestyle in terms of food etc is among the healthiest I have seen, she works, and as far as her conditions allow gets as much exercise and lives as healthily as she can.
Yet she is on the large side of obese.

As for the scooters, like everything else it is about attitude.
I live on Bribie Island and we have a hell of a lot of them round here, I've seen people use them with courtesy and manners, I've seen some people be complete and utter a**holes in them, and I saw a woman holding a 6 month old baby nearly get flattened by one when the old guy in it didn't look backwards before reversing.
The fact is that I could take something as innocuous as a sheet of printer paper and be a complete a**hole - it's all about attitude,

I will also state that it's not just scooters.
The last few months I've been seeing more and more motorised (both electric and I/C) push bikes on the footpath - I even saw one old man riding on the footpath a road going 50cc scooter, the scooter had no rego plate, he was wearing a foam push bike helmet and those scooters are capable of 50kph.

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Originally Posted by Scott

Just about every person I've seen riding those things is obese, sorry to say. Walking never hurt anyone. As they say, use it or lose it.

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It's a good thing my brother doesn't read this forum.
Walking does hurt some people - my brother is about to turn 45, he played AFL and rugby league from his early teens through to his early 30's.
During that time he also raced motocross and worked as a plumber - he still does, and doing mainly domestic work most of his jobs simply don't have the space to use a mini excavator without trashing the customers garden so his digging is by shovel.
He is waiting on a double knee reconstruction, while he is waiting he still works, partly because his likes his work and partly because no one else will feed his family or pay his mortgage.

Walking for him is agony, to sit hear and see you say walking never hurt anyone.....
Mate, I respect you as a person, but in this instance your opinion is crap.