Mmmm.... Taxi lines.
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."
As amusing as it is watching east coasters try to drink enough water in Vegas, it is even more amusing watching east coasters and California coastal people up here at 6,000’ ASL in July, when there is a blowtorch wind blowing through here and the relative humidity is down to 5%.
Here’s a clue for folks who have never been in the high deserts of the west: that headache you feel 12 hours after you got here?
That’s dehydration. Too many people attribute it exclusively to altitude, but it isn’t: most people find that if they’d only drink a couple pints of water in the space of an hour before bed, the headaches magically “go away.”
“he loves the Venetian. The one time I was there, it was for the “Art of the Motorcycle” exhibit”
Thomas Keller’s Bouchon restaurant is in the Venetian tower, and I was peeved that I forgot to go there last time.
Keller is one of the top chefs in America.
LOL. Yes, it all makes sense now!
That is absolutely pathetic.
Where will it end? I hear that in Las Vegas they even have little carts on the golf courses.
I will be returning next February. I’ll be doing a lot of things differently. Thanks for the tip NVDave.
I’m a Florida native. Upon return, stepping off that plane and breathing 90% humidity never felt so good!
Happy Memorial Day!
I love Vegas and the strip. As an east coaster the only thing I notice is my lips will start to chap after 24 hours. Not used to humidity 25% and below. That and the water has a bad taste to it.
Just release a few Daleks to keep order.
We call those Walmartians.
We did a 7-11 water run every time we went out in the car. A half-dozen or more liter bottles to bring back to the hotel. It’s really important to get plenty of water in the LV desert climate.
I did some contracting in Iraq, and around this time of year it’s 110+ degrees, and very low humidity like LV. No matter how hydrated you stay, and how much you’re exerting yourself, you don’t sweat. Actually you do. You can feel yourself sweating bullets, but it evaporates from your skin and clothing instantly. You can feel the moisture being sucked right out of your body.
Once I got really dizzy and woozy (air con went out in our office), drank 1.5 liters of bottled water in 10 minutes, and felt great 5 minutes later.
“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?
How did the military give you heart disease?
My wife and I went to Vegas for our 25th anniversary
The one thing I never realized was the scale of the place.
You look out your window and see the Casino lined up down the strip and never realize the hotel you want to visit looks like it 's down the road a bit, but in reality is like three miles away.
Day one we walked, day two we took the tram
I really don't see the problem with people renting mobility units to get from point A to point B, since exercise to most Americans mean making an extra trip to the frig
The flip side is for us folks who live here and are used to 5 to 30% humidity: when we go to a coastal area, we’re dying from the humidity. Even 60% humidity (I’m sure you’re laughing at the idea of humidity that low in Florida) is extremely uncomfortable for us now. Those 90/90 days in the south feel like the mother of all saunas to us now.
It isn’t just the strip. Here in central/northern NV, we have huge, wide open valleys with 10K’ mountains on either side. In the spring and fall, when the range isn’t burning up, we have crystal-clear air, with no humidity for haze.
Easterners will look across a valley if they’re out here hunting in October/November and say “Let’s walk over there (pointing to the mountains on the other side)” and the Nevadans with him/her will say “How ‘bout we drive over there and maybe get there today?”
Folks from back east are simply not used to being able to see something 40, 50... 70 miles away.
And as Detroit demonstrates, it's even true when someone can't make a profit at it!
Many (most?) water sources in the west are more alkaline than you’re used to, with high amounts of dissolved solids, especially calcium, magnesium, etc. Fairly typical pH’s are in the 7.5 to 8.5 range. Most water/soil east of the Big Muddy is slightly acidic.
That said, water is where you find it out here. If you’ve never hiked/camped/hunted in the west, and you plan to, you’ll either be packing a lot of water, or you’ll get used to some pretty iffy looking water sources.
I’ve even had to use water from cattle troughs out here. Tastes like crap, but it is still water.
I was wondering when you’d chime in one this one.
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