Viewing 15 posts - 41 through 55 (of 55 total)
  • PSA: BBC mobility scooter documentary tonight (shouting at the telly content)
  • totalshell
    Full Member

    farce.. clearly the things are being used by folks who can’t control very much at all never mind an 8 mile an hour 300kg projectile. appauling oversight in the regulations.. how on earth a blind man with a stick is allowed to use one on the road/path legimately i cant believe,

    drlex
    Free Member

    Another way in which the predicted future failed to arrive:

    There are two types of scooter.
    I only know because we had a recognition chart at work, a bit like the ones issued to anti-aircraft gunners during the war, to let them know which ones were allowed on buses.
    From what I remember, the smaller 4mph ones are allowed on the pavement and on buses, the bigger 8mph ones with lights and indicators, are allowed on the road.

    I’ve always thought of them, not as disability scooters, but fat & lazy scooters. Although I would never mention that, you know how easily offended some people are.

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    sangobegger
    Free Member

    Loved the “sweet little old lady” who completely denied that there was a problem. Even said to the lass handing out flyers whose son was subject to a scooter hit and run, that it was the kids own fault for being on the pavement.
    The young ladies restraint in not shouting at the old bint was admirable, especially when “granny” said that the yoof were at fault for everything.
    In my experience (retail) the biggest ar** holes are over 50. And kids are invariably less aggressive, less confrontational and way more articulate than their betters.
    Have to say though, did they go to scooter central to film the programme. Ive never noticed that many scooters near my local mall and my worry is that programmes like this will only encourage the stupid and feckless (of any age) to go and get one.
    Actually, maybe its all my fault as Ive been selling them chips, pies and burgers for nearly 20 years, and obesity does seem to be somewhat of a challenge these days.

    bails
    Full Member

    The trouble with our physical environment

    Quite a good read I think.

    “A device that offers mobility to people who have great difficulty walking, that is limited to a maximum speed of 8mph, and poses little or no danger (at least relative to other forms of transport like the private car) should never be framed as a problem. Yet somehow the BBC contrived to do so on Wednesday night, with a programme entitled The Trouble with Mobility Scooters.

    The tone was set from the very beginning, as a terminally ill lady with chronic lung disease, who could not walk for more than a few paces, slowly reverses her mobility scooter out of the garden, the presenter asks ‘do I need to be worried?’…”

    Cougar
    Full Member

    Some woman in one nearly ran me over at lunchtime. I was getting something out of the car via the passenger side door, shut the door and turned round to have her near-silently whiz past a couple of inches from me. Fair head of steam she’d built up.

    I never quite worked out where they’re supposed to be, whether the road or the pavement is the least dangerous.

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    Who cares if they’re not disabled, most people need a car to propel themselves

    And that is the elephant in the room really – pretty much everyone uses a mobility scooter. Cars are just big wheelchairs even if we kid ourselves that they’re something more than that, given that they are defined as having “four wheels, and to be constructed principally for the transport of people rather than goods” – wheels and chairs, thats all they are. Whats odd is a bunch of people who use one kind of mobility aid (and I’m not sure how you’d describe a bicycle as anything other than a mobility aid, its a lazier way of travelling between two points than walking) guffawing at a bunch people who use another.

    Coyote
    Free Member

    I told my lad (5 at the time) that old people on mobility scooters were actually Daleks. The introduction of Davros into Dr. Who merely served to reinforce my theory. 8)

    Houns
    Full Member

    There’s this guy near me, has a trailer attached and goes around collecting scrap

    slowoldman
    Full Member

    Actually, maybe its all my fault as Ive been selling them chips, pies and burgers for nearly 20 years, and obesity does seem to be somewhat of a challenge these days.

    There’s a thought. Are the mobility scooter and fast food industries in cahoots? Nice comfy chair, basket on the front for burger or fish and chips. I don’t think I’ve seen a cup holder on one yet. Missing a trick there.

    TurnerGuy
    Free Member

    Props to that lady with ms who was trying to get out and walk more, with her frame.

    I think it is the bigger 8mph ones that are the issue, that’s a lot of quickly accelerating and fairly silent mass sharing space with pedestrians.

    TurnerGuy
    Free Member

    And also to the guy with the airlift that obviously could control one well, but recognised the issues and limited himself to a smaller 4mph one.

    bails
    Full Member

    350kg of scooter and user at 8mph has the same energy as 100kg of bike and rider doing 15mph. We have plenty of shared use paths (which have a design speed of over 15mph IIRC), are they really that dangerous?

    GrahamS
    Full Member

    we had a recognition chart at work, a bit like the ones issued to anti-aircraft gunners during the war, to let them know which ones were allowed on buses.

    Until this thread I was unaware of the noble sacrifice of the brave anti-aircraft bus conductors. 😀

    TurnerGuy
    Free Member

    We have plenty of shared use paths (which have a design speed of over 15mph IIRC), are they really that dangerous?

    bikes don’t zip round shopping centres at 15mph normally…

    Look at that old lady who had her pelvis shattered by one. That is an extremely serious injury at her time of life, the mortality rates for old people who break a hip are not good at all.

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