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Old 05-25-2007, 11:44 AM   #1
jms
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Default There's lazy, and then there's Las Vegas lazy

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/24/veg....ap/index.html

Quote:
***8226; Indolent tourists disdain walking, rent scooters made for disabled
***8226; Rental costs $40 a day, no health questions asked
***8226; Scooters allowed on casino floors, but not on traffic-choked streets

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AP) -- 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 3 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.

"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."
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Old 05-25-2007, 11:47 AM   #2
Rock_Strongo
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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."
...and there it is.
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Old 05-25-2007, 11:49 AM   #3
ZMANNH25rs
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walking around in Vegas is my least favorite part of that city...I would totally rent a Rascal if they had them. A Rascal, a 40 of Budweiser in a brown paper bag and the Vegas strip...sounds like a good time to me
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Old 05-25-2007, 12:01 PM   #4
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Originally Posted by ZMANNH25rs View Post
walking around in Vegas is my least favorite part of that city...I would totally rent a Rascal if they had them. A Rascal, a 40 of Budweiser in a brown paper bag and the Vegas strip...sounds like a good time to me
I foresee Rascals becoming the new "in" thing in ghettos. They will be pimped out and such. And there will be Rascal gangs, just like the Seinfeld episode, but with thugs.
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Old 05-25-2007, 12:02 PM   #5
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Apparently someone never heard What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas...
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Old 05-25-2007, 12:29 PM   #6
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Originally Posted by Asinine View Post
Apparently someone never heard What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas...
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