
pixrobin Canley All posts by this member | 1 of 107 Sat 21st Jun 2014 3:49pm Member: Joined Mar 2014 Total posts:1103 Since joining this forum earlier this year I have spent lots of time looking at Google Earth Street Views around city. With my now limited mobility I generally check if I could get to different places of interest using my mobility scooter: dropped kerbs, ramps, etc. I have been amazed just how much of Coventry would be available to me.
Here in Accrington things are so different. I have to choose my routes carefully. Though I can get into the town centre easily there are many places which are off-limits. I have yet to find a suitable route to the local hospital which is less than a mile away. Use the bus? One has to get a bus pass for which you need to demonstrate your skills at manouvering the scooter - and to do the test you have to go to Burnley but without the pass you can't take your scooter on a bus to go there to take it. ![]() |
Public Transport and Travel - Mobility Scooters | |
NormK bulkington All posts by this member | 2 of 107 Sat 21st Jun 2014 5:43pm Member: Joined Jan 2012 Total posts:827 I am only too aware of the problems in some cities for scooter users, like having to go to the end of a road to cross and then come back on the other side in order to get down a side road. In Coventry we are fortunate to have drop kerbs at most junctions. ![]() Milly rules |
Public Transport and Travel - Mobility Scooters | |
pixrobin Canley All posts by this member Thread starter | 3 of 107 Thu 24th Jul 2014 3:12am Member: Joined Mar 2014 Total posts:1103 As there has been a lot of criticism of people on mobility scooters I thought I would start a thread on the subject. Perhaps I can explain why we are such cantankerous old b.................... ![]() ![]() |
Public Transport and Travel - Mobility Scooters | |
Dreamtime Perth Western Australia All posts by this member | 4 of 107 Thu 24th Jul 2014 4:29am Member: Joined Jan 2010 Total posts:3478 Hi Pixrobin, Sounds like something out of Monty Python. I don't own a mobility scooter, and I do sympathise with your encounter with the lift. Only the other week I got left behind in one on the ground floor after my daughter stepped out and the door immediately closed. I left her chatting to the door asking if I could hear her but I pressed for the third floor and then pressed for the ground floor again and the door opened for me to see my daughter and another 'passenger' waiting to use the lift. He must have thought it strange seeing someone talking to the lift door. So I can imagine your plight and think the librarian in question needs a few lessons in good manners. I suppose the idea is for you to go in backwards, and be quick about it!!!!! ![]() |
Public Transport and Travel - Mobility Scooters | |
scrutiny coventry All posts by this member | 5 of 107 Thu 24th Jul 2014 11:10am Member: Joined Feb 2010 Total posts:754 On about mobility scooters, try mine. TEKMELF should be interested in this one.
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Public Transport and Travel - Mobility Scooters | |
pixrobin Canley All posts by this member Thread starter | 6 of 107 Fri 25th Jul 2014 12:41am Member: Joined Mar 2014 Total posts:1103 Mine's in space dock at the moment, having its lithium ions boosted. ![]() |
Public Transport and Travel - Mobility Scooters | |
TonyS Coventry All posts by this member | 7 of 107 Fri 25th Jul 2014 10:37am Member: Joined Jan 2011 Total posts:1549 On 24th Jul 2014 3:12am, pixrobin said:
...Finally I get in the lift. OK, where are the buttons. They're behind me. I can't reach them. My back wheels are only inches from the door. I back up those few inches. I still cannot reach them. And, where's the emergency button? Just BELOW THE REST OF THEM! I sit there a few minutes...
Maybe I've missed something, so forgive me, but what was preventing you from STANDING UP and pressing the desired button? These are mobility scooters, not wheelchairs!
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Dreamtime | 8 of 107 Fri 25th Jul 2014 10:46am |
TonyS Coventry All posts by this member | 9 of 107 Fri 25th Jul 2014 11:11am Member: Joined Jan 2011 Total posts:1549 The problem there Dreamtime is one of mechanical engineering - I don't believe these scooters possess a reverse gear - so the user would need to get off and push it into the lift ![]() ![]() |
Public Transport and Travel - Mobility Scooters | |
NormK bulkington All posts by this member | 10 of 107 Fri 25th Jul 2014 12:09pm Member: Joined Jan 2012 Total posts:827 OH YES THEY DO!! ![]() Milly rules |
Public Transport and Travel - Mobility Scooters | |
TonyS Coventry All posts by this member | 11 of 107 Fri 25th Jul 2014 12:38pm Member: Joined Jan 2011 Total posts:1549 Do they really Norm? Well, you learn something every day. Dreamtime, you were right (as always!) - maybe he should have reversed in! (or simply stood up) ![]() |
Public Transport and Travel - Mobility Scooters | |
TonyS | 12 of 107 Fri 25th Jul 2014 12:40pm |
NormK bulkington All posts by this member | 13 of 107 Fri 25th Jul 2014 1:30pm Member: Joined Jan 2012 Total posts:827 On 25th Jul 2014 11:11am, TonyS said:
The problem there Dreamtime is one of mechanical engineering - I don't believe these scooters possess a reverse gear - so the user would need to get off and push it into the lift
There is nothing Mechanical involved, it works Electrically with a reversable motor, fwd on one side of the steering and rev on the other. ![]() ![]() ![]() Milly rules |
Public Transport and Travel - Mobility Scooters | |
pixrobin Canley All posts by this member Thread starter | 14 of 107 Fri 25th Jul 2014 2:14pm Member: Joined Mar 2014 Total posts:1103 Hi Tony
I have an arthiritic hip which gives severe pain when articulated. But, there are many amputees who prefer mobility scooters to wheelchairs - though generally they have access to both. Aside from the 'portable' models, the scooters often have a much longer range than motorised wheelchairs and are more stable. If I had been using a powered wheelchair (or even a three-wheeled scooter) yesterday they would have been making funeral arrangements for me today as a poorly designed 'dropped kerb' would have thrown me under the back wheels of a passing truck. Even then I had to find a quiet space and smoke a couple of cigarettes before I could continue my journey. I'm not frightened of leaving this world, but I don't wish it to be through someone else's incompetence or lack of thought.
Other 'scooterists' I know are, like me, fiercely independent. They hate the fact that they have to use one. They hate the fact that some places they used to go on a regular basis are now denied them. They don't wish to have a constant companion to 'look after' them. Our disabilities are physical not mental. We don't live in our own world, we live in yours. It used to be our world too.
I live on my own in a small two-bedroom, former cotton-mill worker's, house. There are some days when I cannot make it down the stairs. So, with help from a friend, we have converted the second bedroom into an independent living space. I have a second computer (networked to a couple of NAS drives downstairs to access any files I may require), small fridge - with supplies to make cold snacks, telephone, and kettle. So, even on my bad days, I can keep in touch with the outside world.
My 'helper' comes in once a week to tidy, and use the vacuum cleaner (another item I cannot use because of my hip). Her help has nothing to do with officialdom: I have known her 20 years. (If only I were 30 years younger ............... ![]() |
Public Transport and Travel - Mobility Scooters | |
pixrobin Canley All posts by this member Thread starter | 15 of 107 Fri 25th Jul 2014 3:19pm Member: Joined Mar 2014 Total posts:1103 Mattash
I had a visit by a salesman from the dark cluster in the middle of the night. He sold me these.
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Public Transport and Travel - Mobility Scooters |