Posted on 05/26/2007 2:02:20 PM PDT by TornadoAlley3
LAS VEGAS -- There's lazy, and then there's Las Vegas lazy.
In increasing numbers, Las Vegas tourists exhausted by the four miles of gluttony laid out before them are getting around on electric "mobility scooters."
Don't think trendy Vespa motorbikes. Think updated wheelchairs.
Forking over about $40 a day and their pride, apparently healthy tourists are cruising around Las Vegas casinos in transportation intended for the infirm.
You don't have to take a step. You don't even have to put your drink down.
"It was all the walking," 27-year-old Simon Lezama said on his red Merits Pioneer 3. Lezama, a trim and fit-looking restaurant manager from Odessa, rented it on day three of his five-day vacation.
"And now I can drink and drive, be responsible and save my feet."
The Las Vegas Strip is long past its easily walkable days. Casinos are nearly the size of two football fields -- and that doesn't count the hotel rooms, shopping malls, spas, convention centers, bars and restaurants.
For tourists who plan to stroll from one big casino to another, there are also crowds, construction sites and long stretches of sun-baked sidewalks between.
A tourist could accidentally get some exercise.
Rental business
"We're seeing more and more young people just for the fact that the Strip has gotten so big, the hotels are so large," said Marcel Maritz, owner of Active Mobility, a scooter rental company whose inventory also includes wheelchairs, crutches and walkers.
Most of those using the scooters are obese, elderly or disabled.
But many are young and seemingly fit.
The number of able-bodied renters has grown in the past few years to represent as much as 5 percent of Maritz's business, he said. The company, which contracts with some casinos, has a fleet of about 300 scooters.
"It makes it a lot easier for people to see everything," he said.
At full throttle the scooters reach about 5 mph, though crowded sidewalks allow little opportunity for such speeds.
They can go anywhere wheelchairs can -- elevators, bars, craps tables -- but are banned from streets. They come with a quick operating lesson, an instruction booklet, a horn and a basket.
"At first, I figured it was for handicapped people, but then I saw everybody was getting them. I figured I might as well, too," Lezama said.
Critics
Some find the notion of using a device intended for disabled people unethical.
"It's the same principle as parking in a handicap spot," said Mike Petillo, 64, a disabled tax accountant who recently visited from New York City.
Several hotel desk workers -- who handle most of the rental requests from tourists -- said they try to discourage people who do not appear to need the scooters from renting.
Michelle Bailey, a slender, apparently healthy 22-year-old from Texas, used a scooter to get around a recent pool tournament at the Riviera hotel-casino.
"Four-inch heels," she explained with a laugh, pointing to her lipstick-red pumps.
Simon Lezama, 27, of Odessa drives his electric mobility scooter at the Riviera hotel-casino in Las Vegas.
You too?
As far as handicapped, the only reason I’d be upset is if there were not enough for the handicapped person to rent, but knowing Las Vegas, I’m sure they have an excess (Vegas is noted for its excesses).
People use the handicapped stall in the bathrooms without giving it a thought. I, frankly am not bothering anybody, and will continue to use my chair without guilt.
How do the batteries hold up? In your case, wouldn’t a 3 wheeled bicycle be better? You can man handle a bike if you have to.
I use the bidg stall all the time. You can’t even turn around in some of the regular ones. It’s great with little kids. I would give my spot up in line for someone handicapped though.
“Good God, what a nation of fat, lazy, worthless pieces of sh!t we’re becoming.”
An apt description.
And look at the guy in picture up above; he is dressed like he is going to clean a chicken coop.
I’d get an air-conditioned bubble to walk around Las Vegas. It’s too damned hot there for me.
If something ever happens that disables your legs you will praise the day these crappy old handy-capped scooters were invented. Believe it!
That was my first thought. Pretty soon they'll be expecting to be treated as though they were handicapped.
I have taken it 6+ miles on one charge. I am trying to determine the limit.
Nor sure I’d be happy with a bike. Utah just passed a law that allows electric powered vehicles (wheelchairs and segways) anyplace a bicycle can go.
There is a problem with the width of the sidewlks in my town that a 3 wheel bike might not be compatible.
You should get 20 - 25 miles out of a charge...
I wasn”t directing any comments to you personally.If you were offended,I’m sorry—
That's one big dog!
/s
Just out of curiosity, do you drive your scooter on the street?
In my state it is not illegal to operate a scooter on a public street even thought they do not require any lights, turn signals, etc. I was driving one day, doing just under the speed limit, and after cresting a hill came right down on an elderly person in a scooter ahead of me. Fortunately, there was no one in the oncoming lane so I slowed down and went around her. But with slightly different circumstances I could have easily hit her.
I'll add that its obscene for people to finaggle those handicap stickers when they are not in a wheelchair, using a walker, or on crutches, or just can't go anywhere......
there are certain diseases/disorders that make any walking unbearable....those people deserve a close in parking spot...
and btw....walking is perhaps the BEST solution to chronic back pain...probably the best solution to weight gain, diabetes, etc...so why docs would give those stickers out to people that NEED to get more exercize is beyond me....
I am talking about people who just can do just fine except its so much easier with the sticker....they can walk entire Costco buildings but they can't walk 50 feet from a regular parking spot....
I have relatives that fit in this category.....sadly....
I see. I didn’t realize a 3 wheeled bike was wider. I was thinking of curbs and such. It would be easier to drag a bike over a curb or across a muddy patch than it would one of those electric contraptions. If it was the peddling that was the problem, there are power assist motors that attach to the front wheel of a bike and they weigh very little. They do run on gasoline though...essentially a weed whacker motor. Some bikes even have suspensions nowdays.
Many of the morbidly obese are unable to walk half a mile. The human body just wasn’t designed to carry around all that weight.
I try to stay off the streets as much as possible, but there are a couple of blocks that I have to go on the street.
I have a bike flag sticking up some 6’, and just today got a couple of strobes (ebay, $9.50 including shipping), and I’m thinking of a slow vehicle sign on the back.
You still have to be aware of cars idling, because you never know if they are going to back up and if they see you.
All and all, it is jist as bad as a bike.
My husband has gotten to the point where he needs one for the once a month serious grocery trip (not because he’s obese, or a frail old man lol he is almost 30 though... LOL...he had an unfortunate meeting with an IED in Iraq in 2003). The looks he gets from people who don’t see that he also has a cane, or see him slowly walking back to the car with his cane after the shopping trip hurt me. The fact that he has had to admit that he needs to ride in the thing is painful to him, without taking into account rude stares. I figure that’s probably the difference between people who don’t really need them and people who do. Those that do need them, wish that they didn’t need them, and those who are just lazy think that they are entitled to them, and that they are the neatest thing since sliced bread.
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