Police to Target Mobility Scooters

Now I don’t know exactly what to make of the Police Specials site, but I was drifting through cyberspace today when I ran across this little tit-bit on their forum:

Whilst at a neighbouring station a few weeks back i couldnt help noticing district priorities and one of the top one in some wards was mobility scooter accidents. So i guess they are a bit of a problem. Anybody had any dealings with Mobility Scooter accidents/incidents?

read the whole thread Now I don't know what districts he is talking about but the idea that mobility scooter accidents being a priority is alarming to say the least. I don't want go over old ground but the mobility scooter menace is VASTLY overstated, and seems to be just another manifestation of the new 'fashion' for demonising mobility scooters and their drivers. Quite why the police are making this a priority (if indeed they are) is beyond me. Whenever people start talking about the 'menace' they either bring up some example of rudeness (unpleasant, but probably shouldn't be criminalised) or the two case that always get trotted out, that while both are certainly tragedies but are extremely isolated. Can you imagine if every time there was an accident involving a bicycle it made it into the papers?

Freerider Royale?

Not any more, nor in fact was it ever. After a flurry of activity from Niagara Health Care's (NHC) marketing department the internet is well on its way to being purged of the name Freerider Royale. The accepted nomenclature is Heartway Royale or NHC Royale. The move does in fact make sense, Freerider is a brand in its self and the only tie between the Royale and Freerider is that they are both distributed in the UK by NHC. While the move makes sense it goes against common usage, a search today on google for "freerider royale" (in quotes to match the phrase) returns 3,570 results, where as a search for "nhc royale" returns only 78 matches. While in the long run this will clarify and simplify things for consumers it is bound to lead to some confusion while people struggle to understand why most dealers don't stock the Freerider Royale any more.

Mobility Scooter Price Match

Now a lot of people who try to buy their first scooter are surprised by several things. The first is the recommended retail price of most mobility scooters. In many cases the RRP of an 8mph mobility scooter could be as much as a small car, around six or seven thousand pounds. The second surprise will be the wild variations in listed prices on some models. Some dealers (less so on the Internet) will NEVER volunteer to discount a product, offer all products at or around the RRP; other dealers however will discount hard, sometimes as much as sixty or seventy percent of the manufacturers recommended price. The third surprise is that some dealers will never list a price at all. For the new consumer of mobility products this seems bizarre and in many ways they are right. Ultimately what drives this strangeness are two things, the manufacturers and the large retailers. Traditionally mobility scooters were sold in one of two ways (if we exclude the Mobility scheme from this discussion), either from shop fronts or by direct marketing. Mobility scooters have always been a low volume product and in order to maintain either expensive property or an expensive sales force it was necessary to make a very large mark up on each unit. In order to get ahead companies would invest in larger properties and more staff in order make sales. Since the advent of the internet this has all changed, now smaller family run businesses are able to take advantage of their low overheads and sell products online at greatly reduced margins. The way to get ahead now for these businesses is to invest in stock and increase volume. This has not been met with joy buy the large established dealers and to finally get to the point, this is what is happening in the market place: in order to maintain market share large dealers put pressure on the manufacturers to keep the prices inflated, the manufacturers put pressure on the small dealers to stop advertising low prices, and in this way the large dealers hope to maintain the status quo for a few more years. Unfortunately for the big dealers the online dealers are getting smarter, some even offering instant mobility scooter price match services that will send you a price beating quote in seconds at the click of a button. The future looks bright for mobility consumers.

Stay out my way fool!

As a follow on to yesterdays post, maybe drug dealers can earn the scooter community a little respect. I'm sure the tutting and eye rolling would stop the first time the oh so annoying little man on the scooter hops off and puts a cap in someones arse (ass?). Why an 8mph mobility scooter is the drug gang's motor of choice I have to say the picture doesn't quite do the story justice. Living in Brixton I am privileged to witness this first hand and the lads who are driving these things are usually about 16 and are resplendent in the usual drug lord finery - baseball caps with labels still dangling, tracksuits based on luggage, and pristine white trainers. The one thing the did seem to get spot on was the ratty old Rascal scooter, it really lets the whole image down. They should be rocking something like the Mercury M48GT . Not only is it a sweet ride, it's weight capacity would mean you could probably pack about 200 lbs of chronic around the frame...

Facebook Not Exactly a Friendly Place for Scooter Users

If you were to search Facebook for the term 'mobility scooter' what would you expect to find? Would it be groups of scooter users sharing tips and discussing issues? Or maybe charities who are dedicated to getting people mobile? Bound to be plenty of dealers trying to flog over priced mobility aids right? Turns out all these things are drowned out by one thing - the groundswell of loathing for the humble scooter user. Some of the groups include:

• F**KING MOBILITY SCOOTERS ! Quote: "Please stay at home and die, as is the natural order of things"
• Mobility scooters should be banned Quote: "YOUR JUST FAT PEOPLE YOU AINT GOT A DISEASE!!!"

And my personal favourite

• i hate people mobility scooters Quote: "dont u just hate the old fogeys? think they have right of way in shopping precincts, worse than bloody taxi drivers."

Now I don't know if this is a new thing, but in the last six months scooter users seem to have been identified as a legitimate target for pointless contradictory whinging (the main complaint seems to be people using scooters on the pavement... except when the complaint is that people use them on the roads). I'm sure this isn't just a Facebook phenomena, I'll have a look around the net over the next couple of days. Just incase this has left you feeling a little depressed, have a look at WE LOVE MOBILITY SCOOTERS AND THE PEOPLE ON THEM! . Might restore a little faith in humanity.