Use of a mobility scooter

My specialist angry conversations are about mobility scooters.
My first one came apart in sections to transport in the car boot. My late husband had no problem setting it up in minutes.. then he got ill..could no longer manage so I bought a larger road worthy scooter registered with the DVLA.. never would I use it on the road. Far to much traffic but I had to give up the car and husband passed away. Thus larger scooter was to get me to town..but the footpaths, overgrown hedges and dropped kerb pointing towards the road rather than straight across was the bain of my life. Cars and vans half parked on the footpaths..even dustbins on bin days were left in the path. In the end I was so worried by what obstacle would I meet I got rid of it too.
Sadly it means I rarely get out.
Councils dont care. It's been a well discussed topic of Facebook forums I've seem. Many younger/ fitter participants get rude if the subject is bought up..
My sister bought one of the newer folding scooters but never used it. She sent it up to me thinking I might at least get to the local shops..that was just as bad..I did get to a very local Tesco express on UT determined to give it another try. I was very slowly moving along the foitpath when a lady ran right in front of me. I braked quickly and avoided her..only to have a man bash into my back..he'd not seen me with his head in his phone.. enough!!!

You are so right, my brother-in-law has a mobility scooter and on talking to him the other day about it and his recent trip out, we mentioned some of the places he could visit and were immediately put straight as they were no goes due to the fact that there are no dropped kerbs.

My husband helped a friend buy a scooter. she bought one that takes into 3 pieces. This makes it easy to put the pieces in the car and to recharge only the piece that hse the battery. without a blue badge in some places it is impossible to park.

Im sorry about the lack of droped kerbs.

You can apply for one on .gov.uk
www.gov.uk/apply-dropped-kerb

Many years ago we had a neighbour who bought a scooter, he struggled with the high pavements, after he got on to the council, they came & dropped every pavement along our long lane.
I think now pavements are dropped routinely.

Cabbie thanks, that is an excellent idea. The next problem is I live in one of the hilliest parts of London, the clue being in the name, so many roads are unsuitable.

I have read about the "light" foldable scooters which go in a car boot, and one I read about can be folded and go on a bus, but I would have to physically try it, as being nearly 82, amazingly, I do not have the physical strength I had even 20 years ago.

I will not be giving up on this.

Ironically, I live in a cul-de-sac and it is the only entrance for miles with a dropped kerb.

Using a mobility scooter on pavements is not always easy, but even if there are no ramps at a T junction, can you travel down a side road until you come to a dropped kerb outside a house, and use that, where there is one opposite, of course, pending action from the council?
DH also found some pavements very uneven and feared his scooter would tip over. (It didn’t). As he became more frail he could not lift the heavier parts into the boot and out again to reassemble it and nor could I.
I believe there are lighter ones now that just click into place, but I imagine they might feel a bit flimsy on rough ground.
I hope you can work this out.

NorSpaghetti unfortunately no. I have lived here for over 20 years, and as a car driver until two weeks ago, I never gave a thought to dropped pavements. There are so many residential roads without dropped pavements—no wonder I have never seen a mobility scooter around here.

My MP obviously does not want to be contacted, as his parliamentary email address is not working, and my new printer is on the blink.

Charleygirl is there a "long way round" you can use? With the dropped curbs?

I hope you find a solution Charleygirl5 must be very frustrating.

I agree, sad but true. I advise people who are hoping for a cancellation so they can be operated on earlier to call the secretary weekly, and with my sister-in-law, it has worked twice.

Keep on contacting and shouting Charley sadly in these times those of us who shout loudest get the most attention,if only to shut us up.

I have two local councillors, and I emailed one of them today. I said I was marooned at home, not strictly true, but I did mention I am 81 with mobility issues.

I will let you know what his response is.

In most houses ramps would be impractical.
Both my doors into the house have “ lips” into which the door fits when closed to prevent draughts.
The ramp would need to be in there sections ,up, across and then down.
Just not possible.
My scooter lives in the garage or would be in the garden shed if I didn’t have one.
You must approach your local council insisting that they fulfil their obligations to the disabled in their locality.

When I first had a mobility scooter I lived in a mid-terrace 1930's type house. Have always had one that breaks down to go into a car boot. At the house the scooter lived on the front driveway, had a waterproof cover for very bad weather (similar to those used by motorbikes). The only thing that came indoors was the battery, just inside the front door where it could be plugged in and charged up.

In a flat now with a garage underneath the building. No long have a car so both the scooter and the wheelchair live in that garage and can be charged in situ.

I would have thought that the portable ramps would be rather large and heavy to drag around on the scooter.

You can ask your local council to make kerb ramps at suitable places; useful for many other users not judt mobility scooters.

This is of great interest to me cos my DH is fast getting to the stage where I feel he will need a scooter. I'm aware of most of the crossing points in our village and cos we live so far up a hill he won't be using it on the side roads. But it might be very different if we go away - we have a touring caravan that I hope we can use for a few more years (I am currently fit enough to manage it) and we use it to visit our DD 200 miles away several times a year. Fortunately there is a free park-and-ride bus near where we stay and I am planning on buying one (new but not overly expensive) that can be dismantled into four pieces that I should be able to manage to get in the car boot. Obvs I need to get all this confirmed first.

The plan is that I will be with him when he is out and about, so hopefully we will manage between us - but maybe I am about to be proved wrong!!!

The main roads are fine, it is the residential roads which will be my problem.

Currently, I am unable to get it in or out of the house because it is too heavy for me to lift, even slightly. Therefore, I am waiting for Amazon to deliver ramps. They are portable and I will take the two with me when I go out.

Where do you keep yours? Mine has pride of place in the kitchen, which can accommodate it, but it's not ideal because of the recharging.

Thanks for the hi-viz reminder.

As has been said it is the duty of care of local authority to ensure accessibility including dropped curbs which should be at every corner. Are you absolutely sure there are none? I use my scooter all the t ime at home and an electric wheelchair when travelling. I have not found any town totally devoid of dropped kerbs. Contact your own local COuncillors if this is the case and point out that they need to get this sorted - yesterday at the latest!!! Find out if this some sort of Disability Action Group operating in your town and contact them. You are correct that the smaller scooters (4 mph) are not supposed to be used in the roads. However, in recent times the state of the pavements often make it quite dangerous to use those and scooters/wheelchairs are forced into roads, usually fine (keeping close into gutter) in side roads, not usually possible in main roads.

Over many years I have found that the over-whelming majority of the public are really helpful, giving way to me on narrow footpaths. helpful if I appear to be in any sort of problem. We scooter users also need to polite and careful. Our top speed is 4 mph, but that can be much faster than many people can walk and they can feel threatened when we come up behind them. Also beware of small children who can just dart out in front of us without thinking.

Also make sure you have some type of Hi Visibility vest either on or my DH has one that straps around the back of seat on his wheelchair. As you would be surprised at how invisible you can become .

Get in contact with your local councillors tell them of your concerns , this is their area and you are a resident in need. But it will take a while to sort out I find the access to dropped kerb is often blocked by cars parking on them so there is no guarantee that even if you had the you would be able to get there and back without some being blocked.

Thanks for that. I could ride to traffic lights, but the majority of local residential streets would be a nightmare.

I cannot understand why the residential streets have
no dropped curbs.
Here, all the houses have dropped kerbs onto their drive.
I use a mobility scooter and have no problems.
If I have to cross a road there is a dropped kerb at each side where I have to cross.
I never have to get off my scooter at all.
Get in touch with your local council and your councillor .
They have to provide accessibility in the same way that all public buildings and shops do now.