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.
Outrun a human, eh? That I did not know.
Huhu!! Me either, but when I saw this one do it I traded for it.
Already liked it by it’s slick and smooth looks, but the speed and power sold me.
I’ve been in a chair for over 10 years due to old Vietnam wound...They just get weaker as we age. Left leg has had it.
Anyway some of these chairs and scooters are amazing machines when you find out what they can do.
I think the poster made a good point about we give way for the handicapped but indoor walk areas aren’t made for everyone to be on scooters but that’s an internal problem IMO. If casinos get complaints they will place restrictions. That said, why else would you care? If someone doesn’t feel like walking, should that be our business?
Based on your comments I assume you don’t really care about moral standards in our society, or any other societal problem that doesn’t directly affect you?
Why do you assume that? I’m not flaming but I’m just curious about what I posted to give you that impression.
Because you asked why I should care when otherwise healthy people would rather sit on their butts on a motorized scooter than walk. I see this as a problem for the health (mental and physical actually) of our nation as well as the pool of qualified men to fight in our military. I simply believe that physical activity is important and our society doesn’t seem to value it anymore.
Same type of folks who I saw line up to get into this “all you can eat” buffet that my grandmother goes to. Such folks will wind up dead of a heart attack by 50 anyway. It still is GROSS to look at them, however.
Having said that, this is pretty disgusting. Apart from the sloth, hedonism, gluttony and softness implied, these things do inconvenience people around them, they're tolerated as a necessary evil when the handicapped use them but are a self-centered indulgence for the healthy.
Even among those who need them I dare say that half of them ate their way into those chairs, blowing out their heart or joints with their mouths. We'd be better off as a society if we were a little less indulgent of such behaviors.
What sort of citizen do you imagine Mr. Lezama to be? Do you think he's likely to make political choices for the greater good that go against his personal interests? If you found out about this scooter thing beforehand would you hire this man for a job? Would you say it says nothing about his character or is likely to bear on his desirability as an employee?
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