Now that businesses are so kindly offering fully accessible premises and lots of electronic carts/scooters for the mobility-impaired — well, why not exploit them?
On a recent afternoon at Walt Disney World, Dennis Robles was cruising around on an electric “mobility scooter” that the park usually rents out to people with disabilities. Mr. Robles doesn’t have a problem walking — he says he was simply saving up energy for late-night dancing.
“I’m pretty healthy,” says the 37-year-old truck driver from Brooklyn, N.Y. “Just lazy, I guess.”
The power scooter is an increasingly ubiquitous sight, with an estimated 1.2 million in use nationwide. But while the $1,000-plus vehicles have been hailed as a boon for the infirm and the elderly, they are now finding a new constituency: able-bodied people who simply don’t feel like walking. In addition to theme parks like Dollywood and Minnesota’s giant Mall of America, the scooters are popping up everywhere from Las Vegas casinos to grocery stores. When scooter demand outstrips supply at Wal-Mart, greeters
“evaluate the situation” and make sure that people using the scooters can demonstrate a legitimate need, according to a company spokesman.
I mean, I can imagine teen-aged kids thinking it would be fun, like racing around the store in a wheelchair — but grown adults? And for places like WDW which have large fleets of the things — and rent them for a pretty penny — shame on both parties for encouraging this sloth.
To hell with blaming McDonald’s on the nation’s “obesity epidemic.” “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our fast food purveyors, but in ourselves, that we are fricking lazy lard-asses.”