Posted on 05/25/2007 2:05:06 PM PDT by devane617
There's lazy, and then there's Las Vegas lazy.
In increasing numbers, Las Vegas tourists exhausted by the four miles of gluttony laid out before them are getting around on electric "mobility scooters."
Don't think trendy Vespa motorbikes. Think updated wheelchair.
Forking over about $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 centers, 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 5 percent 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 5 mph, 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."
It rarely gets as hot as 120 unless you’re down near sea level, say, near Death Valley (like Beatty), or you’re in an urban area with all that blacktop. Out in the brush, 110F would be pretty hot, and the relative humidity would be under 10%.
When the humidity is 20% and lower, you don’t need A/C to cool a house. All you need is evaporating water. Swamp coolers are quite common in Nevada. You drip water onto a sponge-like mat and blow air across it. At 5% relative humidity, air goes in at 110F and comes out the other side at about 70F, but now at higher humidity. You blow that air through your house and out, being replaced by new air coming in through the swamp cooler. No problem. Much more pleasant than AC, actually. Some houses don’t even have swamp coolers — the older Mormon ranches have thick stone walls, since there wasn’t a lot of lumber for building materials. Some of these stone walls are 16 to 20” thick, and they can keep a house pretty cool in the summer. Many of these places have trees shading the house too — cottonwoods planted 50 to 100+ years ago.
Most ranchers are working outside most of the time, tho, so air conditioning isn’t an issue. Just get your shirt or hat wet and you’re pretty comfortable. Sure, in the very hottest days of the year, say, from the second week of July to the second week of August, you might only work outside from dawn to about 10:30 or 11:00 am, then shade up until about 4:00pm or so. Not a problem.
Some of the old Mormon ranches in Nevada have houses with walls built of stone — sometimes 2’ thick. There wasn’t an abundance of lumber around these parts. Stone walls keep a house pretty cool in summer.
Attraction of living in rural Nevada? Same attraction of living on any ranch in the west. Ranches don’t all look like the yuppie palaces of Montana or Jackson Hole. Nevada has hotter summers, places like Wyoming or North Dakota have colder winters (like down to -40F). Texas has humidity as well as heat; in return, Texas has better pastures. It’s just a coin flip which you prefer. As long as you’re running 300 or more cows, you can make many of these places pencil out. Nevada probably has more places off the grid, because 87% of all land in Nevada is controlled by the federal government (quite incompetently, I would add). As a result, there are many ranches completely locked in by BLM land and there will never be a town rising up around them to make it worthwhile to install power or other utility infrastructure.
Sorry for the redundancy — it’s late and I still have more work to do.
I visit LV once in a while to play craps. I always win a few thousand but it’s hard. You have to watch about 14 things at the same time. Your brain tells your body to go away in about 8 hours. Lay down to get rid of the intense headache, get up and pig out.
By virtue of Mike’s link, and a few hours of internet crosschecking, I just picked up the X-treme XG-470 for $279, including the shipping. 50 lbs and foldable (supposedly). Wanted a full electric, but I live in a land of rain and hills.
My job is only a mile and a half away, and, since it’s under 50 cc, in my state, no motorcycle endorsement is required.
http://www.advancedelectricscooters.com/
I believe I could never live year round in the desert. My genes aren’t cut out for it.
Sure is beautiful though! Can’t wait to return.
Thanks for the info. I’ll be thinking of you when I stare out the window on my Vegas flights.
Tip: For your own health, please don’t drink water from the ice buckets. Sometimes, people puke in those things. Gross, I know, but some time back in the LV press, there was a case of someone who got horribly ill (as in “required hospitalization for a month”) from drinking water out of the room’s ice bucket. I’d absolutely agree that the best course of action is to call guest services and get the bottled water.
By now, I’m sure you’re getting the idea that we don’t spend a lot of time in Vegas. You’d be right if you make this assumption. The whole town just has this patina of slime and corruption about it, and that’s before we start a serious examination of Harry Reid’s political wheeling-dealing with the real estate industry (Del Webb) down there.
I get nosebleeds all the time, especially when we get into the super-dry period of the summer and the alkali dust starts blowing off the playa around here. It is like breathing in lapping compound. Worse yet is when I’m baling or stacking alfalfa hay and the weather is super-dry and the leaves are shattering into a fine, abrasive powder. Snort a little bit of that up your schnozz and you bleed just standing still.
Many thanks for the link, Jeff! Looks like exactly what I’m searching for. There is a freight company within ten miles where I can pick it up.
Regarding the nose bleeds, it took me two weeks to heal.
The only reason for going to Las Vegas was to host a PMA show for Nikon Europe. They moved the convention from Orlando to Las Vegas. Since I’d never been, I took the spouse and our daughter. We don’t gamble and instead took advantage of the great restaurants at the Venetian where we stayed. The best thing was a helicopter tour at night. The lights were amazing.
Your are right about the overall sleaze factor of Las Vegas though and Harry Reid fits that bill perfectly!
The show will return there next February and so will I. I think we’ll go a few days earlier so I can consume a few hundred gallons of water prior to shopping the strip.
I will say, winter is beautiful in Nevada. Cool nights and day temps in the 70’s. The lack of humidity is my enemy out there. I’ll be much more prepared next time around.
NVDave, you might try an allergy mask while baling that alfalfa! I wear one during the spring oak bloom here while mowing the ever growing grass. The stuff is suffocating during March/April.
Good luck and thanks for the advice. Try visiting Florida in February. You might be pleasantly surprised!
It might be just the thing you need.
One person asked me about the electric model because their commute to work was only one block! A lot of people might be “disabled” if they didn’t have that minimal boost to get them over the threshold to full functionality.
In the old days, by setting the bar too high, we eliminated a lot of people from participation. A few decades ago, they actually made operating a computer as difficult as possible to protect the valuable information inside — until somebody came up with the bright idea that more people would want to use them (and buy them) if operating a computer was virtually idiot-proof.
That’s how the whole world got turned around. Many people don’t have to travel more than a mile or two but going that mile may be a high barrier to achieve.
There was a time in my life in which I could barely walk a block — without sitting down for a few minutes to relieve the pain every 25 feet. One day as I was sitting down in the portable chair I carried with me, I saw somebody else zip by in a standup electric scooter.
When I saw them come up with the seated scooter — on Home Shopping Network a few times (among other places), I thought we were off to the races. A lot of people are “crippled” but not designated and diagnosed so — but could be pretty nearly fully functional if they could remain seated. That is the advantage of the electric model because they’re pretty much the traditional wheelchair on two-wheels and on steroids — as it is prudent to use in that manner.
If you ride it slowly, people think it’s a wheelchair, or give you the benefit of being “disabled.” So you wouldn’t want to be zipping around at top speed in a crowd of unsuspecting pedestrians. so a lot of the protocols for its use has to be worked out.
About a year ago, when I checked this site, prices were about $50 lower but the shipping was over $100 separately — which was a barrier probably until they figured out to raise their prices a bit and throw in the free shipping. Not too many people want to pay as much for shipping as they do for the product — although that is fairly common practice with those “life time free supplies” — -just pay for the shipping and handling, which of course, is enough to make their profit.
But at prices one would pay for a quality commuting bicycle, that’s the crossover point for even a lot of bicyclists to consider shifting over — particularly when they have the range up over one’s commuting distance. That’s all one needs. It expands personal mobility beyond the old mass transit paradigm. A lot of people’s limitations is just getting to the bus stop or rail station.
Then with the enabling vehicle to do so, they might not even need the mass transit to complete their journey.
I’m in a hipster, urban neighborhood, and there are Vespas all over the place. I just wanted something two-wheeled resembling fun without having to drop a grand.
With this thing, if it breaks, well, I’ll just get another one.
And it’s small enough that I can just give it to my nephew if it is unsatisfactory.
You’re right about “mass transit” - a perfect example of the public sector interfering with the free market. Americans (particularly in the West) do NOT WANT to ride the damned thing. We’re independent and car-cultured.
Enjoy. Sounds like just the thing to bungee onto an RV, next to the lawn chairs!
The shipping and “handling”, like Mike said, is where they pencil you. I was just glad to avoid sales tax.
When I get to flatter ground, I might be able to go electric (quiet!). Many things to be thankful for.
I have a fold-down hauling rack on the back, but my lawnchair fits inside an outside compartment with a few other things. The gas grill goes on the outside on trips so the scooter will join it on the back, chained down and locked. I had seriously been contemplating a moped on a cycle trail;er before these options presented. Not having to drag a trailer is a big plus!
An excellent way to describe it. I just like the raw edginess of the place. Subtlety is damned near absent, which can be refreshing.
If you were shopping around a lot online, maybe you could tell me why “electric bicycles” are more expensive than the scooters. Most states won’t charge you $300 to get tags for a scooter, at least I don’t think...
I don’t know ... I was interested in that electric bicycle advertised on the site you kinked. I wonder if the thing will pull a hill with a 185 pound man and his backpack? My right knee doesn’t bend far enough to ride a bike anymore.
These things are still actually classified a toy — so the law really doesn’t have any provisions for dealing with them — at these enhanced performance specs. But obviously, anything rated to support 300 lbs. and go over 20 mph is a category that didn’t exist before.
Previously, the “toys” they made supported 150 lbs max, went 10 mph max, ran for 5-10 miles after a long charge. The disappointment has been in the electric bike category because one expected that hybrid to fill out instead of jumping directly to fully motor propelled. Apparently, that old version of enhancing the bicycle doesn’t make sense — except as a manual back-up system, and most people won’t be miles and hours away from civilization.
One can always get enough exercise after arriving at their destination fully refreshed. I think in everyday transportation, getting there with the least energy expenditure and strain should be the highest objective.
I think it’s even better and more fun for these people living in retirement communities to ride around in this manner than suffer those walks a lot of them take — with bad backs, bad hips, bad knees bad feet — thinking that’s going to make them better. It’s just adding further wear and tear.
And by the look of fun and joy on the faces of people traveling this way, that alone has to be good for them — rather than enduring each painful step. The look of joy and envy on the look of children as you past are particularly gratifying as they point at you to their parent saying, “That’s what I want.” And the parents are thinking to themselves, “Hell, that’s what I want too.”
The look on people’s faces as they recognize that you are where it’s at and heading — is kind of a nice feeling of affirmation in this cookie-cutter world. So in a sense, it is the ultimate toy — and it feels like one knows something everybody else does not, but they immediately recognize it when they see it.
Even people with mopeds (Vespas) are impressed — knowing you’ve gone them one better. If transportation is the only issue — rather than status, security, conformity, etc., it doesn’t take much to be the standout winner.
Did either of you see the ‘eGo’ electric bicycle in your net searches? I’m very impressed by the ads but the weight is somewaht a problem at 130 pounds. A simple ramp to get it up on my carry-all would be needed.
I used to check out electric bicycles but most of them didn’t make sense to me and the prices remained high.
When they add so much weight to a bicycle (130 lbs), all they’ve done is add the motor to transport that weight — so what’s the advantage? I also would think that on a bicycle, the kind of electric motor that would make sense would be one that could be mechanically-cranked.
So I think there are problems and limitations with persisting in that paradigm — rather than going to the minimalist model. A friend of mine up in Alaska created an electric bike by just adding a Weed Whacker motor. I don’t know why they make such a huge problem of it.
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