Mobility Scooters Ease Transportation Worries for the Disabled

Mobility Scooters Ease Transportation Worries for the Disabled –

Mobility Scooter in Traffic: Don’t Do This in Your Home Town!

Note that the previous two articles were on mobility scooter safety and then what do I come across but some guy trying to take on traffic with his mobility scooter! Really, this guy is trying to get a Darwin Award!

Mobility Scooter in Traffic

This crazy guy takes his mobility scooter into traffic during rush hour in Toronto. He makes a left turn at Front St. and Spadina Ave, then he heads up hill into oncoming traffic and almost gets into a bunch of trouble. Fortunately all the motor vehicles seemed to see him and gave him plenty of space, but what if someone wasn’t paying close attention or had their vision blocked! This is NOT the way to use a mobility scooter!

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• Darwin Awards Candidate… (stustake.com)
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Mobility scooter safety

Here is another article about mobility scooter safety concerns from our friends in England.

Mobility scooter safety warning | Lichfield District Council

“We are also concerned that, because mobility scooter users are not required to complete training or take out insurance before they take to the streets, a serious accident could be waiting to happen locally. …

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• Safety course for mobility scooter drivers following spate of accidents (telegraph.co.uk)

Hit and Run Mobility Scooter Madness

While in the past I have stated that mobility scooters grant users freedom and independence, that can’t come at any price. It appears that driven recklessly, even motor scooters can become a hazard. Check out this article that suggests providing driving test for scooter riders…

Law Actually: Hit and Run Mobility Scooter Madness – The Blog of a …

No official statistics exist for the number of accidents involving the scooters, but there are tales from around the country of old ladies steering into shop windows, mobility scooters trundling along motorways and even people driving …

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• Be Safe on your mobility scooter. (mobilityproducts4u.co.uk)

Mobility Scooters Alleviate Transportation Woes for the Mobility Impaired

Medical mobility scooters offer power wheel chair type options and features that make mobility scooters an outstanding means of transportation for anyone who has sufficient upper body strength but needs occasional assistance.

Many senior citizens, and those who are mobility challenged for other reasons, benefit from and appreciate the help and convenience of a motability scooter. Scooter users can generally walk to a limited degree, but have significant difficulty if the effort is of long duration.

Mr. Alan Thieme of Bridgeport, Michigan, built the first mobility scooter  in 1968.  Mr. Thieme developed this front wheel drive scooter to help out a family member with multiple sclerosis regain a bit of their self-reliant mobility.

The basic components of even the latest mobility scooters are just 2 rear wheels and a seat, a foot rest area that also holds the seat and power source, and a steering column with a tiller or handlebars to steer the scooter with either 1 or 2 front wheels. There’re gasoline powered scooters on the market, although the lion’s share of those made are electric. The more common electric mobility scooters powered with one or two batteries onboard the scooter. If you need additional power to overcome slopes as well as steep hills, you would be better equipped with two batteries that will provide more power than one. These batteries are recharged using a traditional charger that connects to a standard electrical socket.

The steering column is normally called a tiller. The tiller directs forward, reverse and speed by means of thumb paddles, finger controls or a switch.  Scooters are available with rear wheel drive or front wheel drive. Most commonly, front wheel drive scooters are able to be of service a rider up to 250 lbs. and are more suitable when indoors as a result of their smaller size.  Rear wheel drive mobility scooters can be operated either indoors or outdoors and can support a load of up to 350 lbs.  Additionally, there are heavy duty rear wheel drive mobility scooters, that differ from the regular rear wheel drive mobility scooters in that they can support riders up to 500 lbs.

Since scooters as a rule have automatic braking, coasting is not an alternative. You must use the finger, thumb or switch type of controls to be in control of all movement.  You will be required to press and let up on the controls smoothly to slowly increase and decrease speed. There is usually a regulator that will permit you establish the maximum speed as well.

Motability scooters will not be complicated to operate and control as long as you have adequate upper body strength and control and the scooters can be broken down into parts fairly easily making them suitable to stuff into the trunk of a vehicle for a day out with family and friends. Anybody with disabling or systemic body situations that still has the ability to stand and walk a few steps, operate the steering tiller and sit in an upright position without upper body support will be thankful for the assistance of a mobility scooter and the impression of liberty it can give.

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