LAS VEGAS (AP) — There’s lazy, and then there’s Las Vegas lazy.
In increasing numbers, Las Vegas tourists exhausted by the six kilometres of gluttony laid out before them are getting around on electric “mobility scooters.”
Forking over about US$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 centres, 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 five per cent 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 eight km/h, 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.”
I was just in Vegas for a weekend, back at the beginning of the month (I had put up a post about it, looking for advice). Saw plenty of those scooters... whatever floats your boat.
My buddy and I walked a LOT... it was actually a nice break from being indoors. Some of the bigger casinos are spread pretty wide... like from Mandalay to Excalibur is only two casinos down the strip, but it takes about 20 minutes to walk between the two.
There are trams that take you between casinos too, but they can be crowded...
We had good weather too, not too hot, so maybe that's why walking was okay... I guess if it's really hot, those scooters would be cool, but wouldn't you have to worry about them getting stolen every time u went in a casino?
BTW: Won $500 playing craps the first night there, and lived off that $ the rest of the weekend ....
May 22, 2007 -- A wheelchair-bound man stunned police when they pulled him over for using the road and allegedly found he was 10 times over the legal alcohol limit for drivers.
“He was right in the middle of the road,” said a spokesman for police on Tuesday. “The officers couldn’t quite believe it when they saw the results of the breath test. That’s a life-threatening figure.”
The 31-year-old told police he had been out drinking with a friend and was a mile from home when a police car stopped him.
Police said that because the man was technically traveling as a pedestrian, he could not be charged with a driving offense.
“It’s not like we can impound his wheelchair,” the spokesman said. “But he is facing some sort of punishment. It’s just not clear yet what exactly that will be.”
If you're a battery, you're either working or you're dead....
May 22, 2007 -- A wheelchair-bound man stunned police when they pulled him over for using the road and allegedly found he was 10 times over the legal alcohol limit for drivers.
“He was right in the middle of the road,” said a spokesman for police on Tuesday. “The officers couldn’t quite believe it when they saw the results of the breath test. That’s a life-threatening figure.”
The 31-year-old told police he had been out drinking with a friend and was a mile from home when a police car stopped him.
Police said that because the man was technically traveling as a pedestrian, he could not be charged with a driving offense.
“It’s not like we can impound his wheelchair,” the spokesman said. “But he is facing some sort of punishment. It’s just not clear yet what exactly that will be.”
Cafe Home
Fantasy Football
Fantasy Basketball
Fantasy Hockey
by sox 06 » Fri May 25, 2007 2:38 pm 
