Posted on 05/25/2007 2:05:06 PM PDT by devane617
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 wheelchair.
Forking over about $40 a day and their pride, perfectly 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, Texas, 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 alone are nearly the size of two football fields. That doesn't count the hotel rooms, shopping malls, spas, convention centers, bars and restaurants.
And that's just inside. For tourists who plan to stroll from one big casino to another, there are crowds, construction sites and long stretches of sun-baked sidewalks between.
A tourist could accidentally get some exercise.
"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 open up to 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.
Las Vegas has other transportation options, although each has its problems. The Strip is regularly clogged with cabs and drive-in tourists. A double-decker bus system, dubbed the Deuce, often gets stuck in the mess. A $650 million monorail with stops at eight casinos has been plagued by poor ridership, perhaps because it runs behind the resorts, well off the Strip and out of sight.
Police and casino workers often use bicycles.
Some find the notion of using a device intended for disabled people unethical.
"It's the same principle as parking in a handicap spot," Mike Petillo, 64, a disabled tax accountant who recently visited from New York City.
Several hotel bell 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. But refusing the self-indulgent is not really an option.
"You can't really discriminate against anybody," said Tom Flynn, owner of Universal Mobility. "We don't require a prescription or an explanation of why they need it."
Michelle Bailey, a slender, apparently healthy 22-year-old, 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.
But Troy Burgess, a 21-year-old optician visiting from Detroit, said he considers it "immoral" for an able-bodied person to rent wheels. And not only that, but "you probably wouldn't pick up too many chicks on that scooter."
While the Strip is only about 3.5 miles long, once you start walking into each big casino to look around, the mileage adds up. Then you have to turn around and walk back or take a bus or taxi down crowded Las Vegas Blvd. If it's really hot, it takes a toll. I won't rent one of these, I'd rather use a Segway.
Saw an older guy driving one of those carts in the music department at Wal Mart like it was a bumper car. He put it in reverse and stomped it without looking back.
That’s why they now have so many pedestrian overpasses. Sorry to hear about your cousin.
Yea, but since when is FAT a disability?
***
I can see a day, in this age of entitlements, when it will be. In fact, obesity may already qualify now as a disability in some situations.
Usually, it’s not the obesity, but the health problems that accompany it, which cause the disability — e.g., heart and lung problems, amputations from diabetes, etc.
Ahh, you have hit upon my personal Chicken-egg quandary
Are they fat because they’re handicapped, or handicapped because they are fat.
The mind can boggle with possibilities.
As I stated above; if you do not have problems using your arms, it is my opinion that pushing a manual wc is the way to go. It is good for you — gives you an opportunity to get exercise when otherwise it may not be possible. I also stated that most elderly will not be able to push a manual wc. Most have respiratory/cardiac problems.
As far as me reigning in my prejudices, I will let that comment stand. Most intelligent people will see it for what it is.
Anyone who has never been to Las Vegas can’t imagine how huge these hotel are but I can’t imagine a 27 year old renting a scooter. We have stayed at the Mandalay Bay and I am sure it was a mile or more from our room to the convention center and that is all inside the Mandalay Bay. Forget walking down the street to the next huge hotel, forget waiting in the taxi line. Maybe there is a shuttle but it’s best to have a car and valet park if you want to see the other hotels on the strip. You will get enough exercise just doing that.
I am “fat” but I also have two VA service-connected disablities (heart disease & high blood pressure). Should I not use one of these to satisfy you?
I believe Obesity is already considered a disability and therefore falls under the ADA.
A car is really not a good idea either. The traffic on LV Boulevard is horrendous.
True story: Friends and I were staying at Mandalay Bay...two of them wanted to drive to the Sahara down the street. I and others said we’d walk. We who walked had to wait almost 45 minutes for our friends who drove.
I’ve felt for sometime that this is the transportation solution/vision of the future — personal transportation devices that supplant the old mass transit model — because as the population ages, all mobility decreases.
What I have in mind is the minimalist electric scooters of two-wheels that can go up to 25 mph, go 25 miles on a 2-3 hour charge, and people can use them for commuting within a city — while traveling on the sidewalks (slowly and carefully) or streets (as is safe and expedient).
That is the Dick Tracy personal transporter device — on wheels, and the minimum that can transport one from place to place — including within buildings.
Walking and running is not the best way for people to get their exercise — because of back pain, hip pain, knee pain, and foot pain. Those are the very reasons many people do not exercise — but if one eliminates that constant strain and stress, they become capable of exercising — because they’ve eliminated the pain from constant weight bearing.
Then their bodies are refreshed to be able to get exercise that stimulates growth and health — rather than just wears them down and out. The body is not infinite in its ability to move and recover. That’s why joints wear out and people no longer are capable of recovering from their injuries or just exercise.
Life is a resource that has to be conserved and used judiciously. This is the vision of transportation of the future whose time has come. You don’t need to transport a ton of material every time we go somewhere; that’s the energy crisis of this time — that is also solved by this approach.
Wow, that’s Vegas. Lived there for 6 years.
We go to LV every fall for the Professional Bullriding Final (the PBR), we are there for almost 2 weeks. The first year we didn’t rent a car and took Taxis and it was a nightmare of waiting and the Taxis take the most congested route so they can get as much out of you as possible. After that we always have our own car and by using a city map you can find ways around a lot of the traffic. Stay off LV Boulevard as much as possible and enter the hotels and parking garages from the back or the side.The walking that you have to do inside the hotels is great exercise for those that can do it.
There are alternatives. You could go to Biloxi/Gulfport instead to have fun & gamble, and you’d be helping the hard-working Mississippians recover from Katrina, to boot:
http://www.playmiss.com/katrina.html
There are world-class restaurants, very nice buffets (usually with all-you-can-eat fresh-off-the-dock seafood), nationally-known entertainers, great golf courses, sandy beaches, Southern hospitality, kids play areas and a slower pace.
Next year some of the hotels plan to install respirators in the rooms so you don’t have to use your own lungs to breath.
While waiting for the bus from the Magic Kingdom to our hotel, we had to wait for several busses because of the crowds and the fact that scooter people get to the front of the line.
They also take up a whole side of the bus, because a whole row of seats have to be folded up for their scooters.
So we waited for one bus, then two scooter people showed up and took up half the bus, then a few people got on, then the line moved up a tad, then we waited another half hour and another bus came and right before we were to get on, some more scooter people showed up and took up half the bus again. Not only do they take up half the bus, but it takes forever to get them and their scooters situated and locked down. After about 20 minutes of struggling with her scooter, driving it back and forth, this young woman finally stood up and picked it up and positioned it into place on the bus.
The real problem I have is why can't get in back of the line like everyone else?
My Dad has Parkinsons. He needs his scooter.
As for Vegas...
More and more casinos are using Steve Wynn design principles and putting hotel elevators a VERY long way from the casino floor, so you’ll think twice about heading to your room for a break.
You weren't really in Vegas.
If you were, you would still be coughing from all the cigarette smoke.
I do not like the Strip at all. Although for some unique things you have to go there.
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