[Closed] PSA: BBC mobility scooter documentary tonight (shouting at the telly content)

Yes it was on the radio - surprised so many were not actually disabled

A blind fella with one.....should be a one short trip then

surprised so many were not actually disabled

I'm surprised you're surprised

surprised so many were not actually disabled

I thought be fat and lazy did count as being disabled?

I'm surprised you're surprised

In the words of Peter Kaye "why should the disabled have all the fun"?

Donk It was Radio 5 live I think so it must be true 😉
half asleep I think it was a shop saying this but not certain

One bloke banned for drink driving bought one to get back and too to the pub.

brilliant

Donk It was Radio 5 live I think so it must be true

I've nearly been knocked by them twice driving the wrong way down one way street, they are a nightmare in the Gods Waiting room of a town I live in, it's often gridlocked with them, some genuine disabled which you don't mind, but many just fat lazy people. They are everywhere, even in the Supermarket aisles with shouty impatient women if you don't get out of their way quick enough. I find abandoning the trolley and disappearing round the corner works best.

Is there a collective term for mob scooter users so we can whip some proper prejudices? Moberists?

I'm (originally) from the fat capital of Britain 🙂

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/feb/18/obesity-tamworth-fat-capital-britain

They are everywhere. I think when it gets to the point that there isn't even a stigma in an able-bodied person using a mobility scooter just to avoid walking, there is a pretty serious problem.

Also I'm sure it must makes thing worse for those genuinely in need of them as they doubtless all get tarred with the same brush.

One resident in that article above blames the obesity problem on the fact that the town 'hasn't got a sporting hero'. It seems doubtful that if someone from the town had won a bronze medal in the long-jump than all of a sudden everybody would be doing triathlons every weekend but maybe I'm just being cynical.

I'll never forget sitting in a pub in Lincoln on a corner in the pedestrian, gazing out the window and seeing an old bloke drift a mobility scooter round the corner on the wet pavement.
Looked like he was having a great time!

Some of them are road legal. Called the cops as I nearly took one out round a corner once. Called the local cop shop who sounded very resigned to the fact that; yes they knew who it was, and no; there was nothing they could other than advise folk to be on the look out and yes; they had spoken to him about driving down the centre of the road at a zippy 3-5mph

Police are now keeping KSI stats on accidents involving Mobility scooters.

Too fat and lazy to get about?

But thats most of the UK driving population.

When I started driving I think my weight went up circa 1stone.

Nowadays I'll walk round to the shop.... my next door neighbour drives there. They also drive to walk their dog in the nearby park.

Bonkers.

One bloke banned for drink driving bought one to get back and too to the pub.

There used to be a bloke who drank at the Hyde Park in leeds who then drove his three wheeler scooter back round the block to his sheltered accommodation. On several occasions we had to scrape him up out of the road and wheel him home after he launched himself off the curb and onto his face.

O/T but I saw a 90yr old in Spar in Hope yesterday buying booze to drink. She said she loved having a drink during the day.

Made me chuckle 😀

The more of this thread I read, the more the humans in Wall-E seem like a chillingly accurate prophecy.

Heres another- we share a carpark. In the other office theres a large lady who always parks as humanly close to the entrance of the carpark as possible (to enable as shorter walk). She will actually partially block the entrance so.... I've had to put up a plastic road barrier where she'd normally park.

Shes too lazy to move it so just parks mm's from the obstruction.

Duggan - Member
I'm (originally) from the fat capital of Britain

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/feb/18/obesity-tamworth-fat-capital-britain /p>

They are everywhere. I think when it gets to the point that there isn't even a stigma in an able-bodied person using a mobility scooter just to avoid walking, there is a pretty serious problem.

Also I'm sure it must makes thing worse for those genuinely in need of them as they doubtless all get tarred with the same brush.

One resident in that article above blames the obesity problem on the fact that the town 'hasn't got a sporting hero'. It seems doubtful that if someone from the town had won a bronze medal in the long-jump than all of a sudden everybody would be doing triathlons every weekend but maybe I'm just being cynical.

Its where we're all headed apparently 🙁
[img] [/img]

stumpy01 - Member

I'll never forget sitting in a pub in Lincoln on a corner in the pedestrian, gazing out the window and seeing an old bloke drift a mobility scooter round the corner on the wet pavement.
Looked like he was having a great time!

I have this mental iomage of an old gezer in a flat cap rely leaning into it.. he was probably on his way to get some bigger rims with spinners on them for it.

Is there a collective term for mob scooter users

Last year my then 2.5 year old spotted one in town and said, "Daddy, why is he in a man tractor?"

Today 22:40 BBC One except Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland HD, Scotland, Scotland HD, Wales, Wales HD

So, um, it's only on in England then? 😉

There's one guy near me with a massive ganga-leaf sticker on the back of his chair. Dunno what's wrong with him but I sometimes hear the local shopkeepers moaning about him "up to no good, and 'whizzing around' baked out of his mind" 😀

Who cares if they're not disabled, most people need a car to propel themselves, at least these are better on emissions & less dangerous. If we could get most of the car driving public onto these it'd be good no?

You'd not get a bike carrier on one or want to ride one to the Alps

On one of the country lanes near Swadlincote a couple of months ago, one old biddy on her mobility scooter on the pavement, another on the road, going up a long gentle hill. It was like watching snail racing.

My 10 year old thought we had caught them filming "Off Their Rockers" and was genuinely excited. Just needed a sweary black nun on a scooter to complete the effect.

I've seen them adapted into go-kart type machines, look great fun!

I bet they don't even pay road tax.

loads in this area as well.

Doe anyone know the law as relates to these things, are they allowed on the road...I assume not? and what is the max speed they can do on the pavement, and who has right of way on the pavement?

Being honest here. I've looked at those motorised things parked up at the front of supermarkets and I'd happily slouch in one whilst doing my shopping.

How bad is that? 🙂

you would probably buy one of those that was too small and find the chair to uncomfortable to slouch in 😛

I'll never forget sitting in a pub in Lincoln on a corner in the pedestrian, gazing out the window and seeing an old bloke drift a mobility scooter round the corner on the wet pavement.
Looked like he was having a great time!

Brilliant! Sign me up for a go in one!

IIRC, there was an ongoing issue with a bloke in Clacton who'd got one of these. He'd spend the afternoon in the pub, get drunk and abusive and then sometimes charge at randoms on his scooter. The Fuzz couldn't do much because he needed it for mobility apparently and he didn't have a driving license. This was almost twenty years ago now, so he's probably gone to the great Wetherspoon's in the sky. Any Clactonians around to comment?

Mind you, I'd go one of these:

[img] [/img]

Everyone is getting one these days 🙂

Watching it now, it is hilarious.

Right - I'm only half watching this but about 10 mins in did that training bloke who slipped an obstacle behind the old dear with the tubes (which she crashed into) really say "It could have been a child's face"?

What tyres for a mobility scooter?

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,

Another way in which the predicted future failed to arrive:
[img] [/img]

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.

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 ****less (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.

http://aseasyasridingabike.wordpress.com/2014/06/19/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?’..."

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.

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.

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)

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

[img] [/img]

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.

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.

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.

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?

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. 😀

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.