Mandatory license and insurance for mobility scooters

This.

Heavier and faster models should come with something more even if just training to help ensure wider public safety.

DH has an electric assist bike - it's light but it does get up quite a speed - so training and insurance doesn't sound like a terrible idea to me there either.

Ah OK. I am insured but I don't pay for it directly. I wouldn't pay for it though. Because where does that end? We don't ask blind people to insure their sticks in case it brushes against our leg on the way past and startles us. People with walkers don't have ro get them insured in case they topple over on the bus and ding us on the leg. If it's an essential item that someone needs to live then adding a mandatory cost is immoral imo.

Edit- I'm aware that I'm venturing into whataboutism. I just don't think that there is a league of uninsured scooter users terrorising the country. Most people are insured and the law sweeps up the rest when it comes to accidents.

I had to use a mobility scooter a few years ago on holiday, when my MS was bad. It was for more difficult than driving a car! I had two crashes.

I only mentioned cars because you claimed you wouldn't get insurance for a mobility scooter because you 'haven't hurt anyone or anything yet'.

The insurance is there in case you ever do and I pointed out that I should not need car insurance if I used the same argument as you.

This - absolutely this.
And I'll add to the list of things that need to be changed - dog owners who use extendable leads so their dog is wandering all over the cycle path (I live in a town with fantastic cycle path access to most places). And for the love of God can Asda please change their chiller cabinets back to that you don't have to open a door to access the items? I can't physically open them because the front of my scooter blocks the door IYSWIM. Oh and shops that have multiple items stacked at the ends of the aisle so turning the corner becomes impossible and you have to reverse right back up the aisle - looking at you WH Smith (only post office in town).

I use a 4mph scooter. It's my lifeline and the only way I can potter around the shops. I'm not old or infirm, my legs just don't work as they should (Fibro). I do think there needs to be more regulation around the larger 8mph+ scooters. There's a man in my town who has one that looks like a Harley - it's easily as big as a motorbike. He zooms around the pedestrianised town centre like a race track and swore at me on the cycle path the other day as he couldn't overtake me.

I understand that. But a car does not replace a basic function like being able to walk around your home, workplace and places in the community. Without his car, can your son visit a toilet inside a large public building that he is already inside of? Obviously that's a rhetorical question. Comparing a chair or scooter with a car is a strawman/derail.

Just to add that NHS wheelchair services power chairs have their own insurance.
Chairs and scooters from Motability are leased and have their own insurance.
Chairs and scooters from places like Millercare are either leased or on hire purchase and you have to have their insurance or prove that you have your own.
There will be a small minority of people who are uninsured and they are not outside of the law. If another wheelchair or scooter user ran over my small child I'd do the same thing as I would if a fast walking biped knocked them over.

My sons car is a motability car. Obviously, he has insurance but he does have to give up a portion of his PIP, so it is not free.

If you claim PIP, you should be able to get a mobility scooter under the motability scheme.

Maybe you missed it up thread but class 3 mobility scooters are road legal.

I was on crutches for six months in early 2022 due to something that no doctor has yet explained (yes, qualified people with more letters after their name than whats in yours).

There didn't seem to be an end in sight and I gained two stone in that time, compounding my original problem because I fell into the very easy trap of continuing to eat as though I was still mobile and yes, through boredom and for comfort too.

The knee doctor said in the summer of 2022 that there was nothing wrong with me and that I should get moving. I fully admit that I cried on the way home from the hospital but the very next day, I got my bike out and started riding. It was as tough as hell but within 3 months I was back at work, albeit in a great deal of pain.

The excess weight fell off and made the pain easier. As of today, I still have discomfort rather than pain but I imagine my mobility will never be as it was.

If you are able to actually read posts, rather than react to what you think they say, you will realise I never said anyone was lazy or greedy. I simply pointed out that getting a scooter is as easy as buying a bike and that it is an easy trap to continue to eat as though you are mobile and that, perhaps, a prescription should be needed to get one.

I am sure you agree that morphine should not be available without prescription, as although it is a powerful painkiller, it is very dangerous and very easy to become addicted to or overdose on.

Perhaps you will accuse me of being 'painist' or something and cry to the mods about that.

I don't want more barriers in the way if disabled people (I would love the supermarkets to be more wheelchair friendly, for starters), but there should be mandatory training for anyone buying a class 2 or 3 scooter. If you are not used to them or your reflexes have deteriorated, the bulky ones can be a nightmare to manoeuvre. I also think some common sense needs to be applied: if a person is visually impaired or has dementia, don't sell a massive road scooter to them with no sensors.

I also support training and insurance for owners bikes and e-scooters: it might save a life. There are idiots on the road at every age, but I like to think most people don't go out of their way to drive recklessly.

Is your car an essential mobility aide? You can't get around any other way? Like I said above, I'm not paying to go outside. That's not the society we live in. My chair is my legs.

There is a design fault that is very dangerous and needs addressing.

To go faster you pull the lever towards your hand, as if pressing the brakes on a bike. Think about what a cyclist does instinctively when stopping suddenly. They clutch the handlebars and their fingers pull the brake towards them. It's not only the instinctive response for anyone who has learned to ride a bike, it's the instinctive response if you're falling off something.

That is exactly how a mobility scooter is operated if you want to accelerate. WTF were they thinking?

To slow down you have to let go. Handy if you're prone to falling asleep perhaps but nothing else.

I'm not that enthusiastic about society as it is, based upon your attitude. I like to think that it isn't like it everywhere, and hope that you don't suddenly succumb to a painful or degenerative condition that means you would be reliant upon a mobility scooter in order to access hospital treatment and monitoring. I also hope that you aren't on the receiving of a cleaner declaring that it's just you being lazy and greedy/fat and she reckons you'll be dead soon. Or on the receiving end of government policy that you've only escaped due to not being ill or disabled.

I know I certainly wouldn't want to be the wife of the bloke you're running an NHS Trust death pool on and read what you've said here about him. I would think that you wouldn't like to be spoken about like that, either.

Can I use the same excuse not to get car insurance?

Yes 👌 I would love a sturdy scooter so I could explore the beautiful countryside where I live. Sadly they're out of my price range. One day! At the moment I can barely get around pavements and I have an epioc (electrically powered indoor outdoor chair). Honestly if I was required to get insurance I wouldn't because I've never caused anyone any harm or damaged anything other than myself.

That's one person. It's nor fair to tar us all with the same brush. And having insurance or a license doesn't mean that wouldn't have happened. Otherwise nobody would ever be done for driving offenses. Are you seriously saying that because of the actions of one person you would make the lives of millions of disabled people more difficult?

OK maybe I'm not done 🙃 This is a subject very close to my heart. I'm not paying to do something non disabled people can use their legs for. Wtf.

Off roaders enable disabled people to access their gardens, see to animals, go fishing or access sporting activities, unadopted roads, beaches, the countryside, steep hills, anywhere in inclement weather and a lot of standard roads/paths where they live.

Disabled people are not all confined to city centres with completely level access everywhere.

Ableist? You are just one of those people that throw 'ists' around to get conversations and people cancelled.

Labour haven't won yet. It will be a horrible society after they probably will do.

What risk should I expect my 6 year old child to be in in a book store? That’s where we were when a lady on a massive mobility scooter narrowly missed ploughing into him, if I hadn’t yanked him out of the way he would have been injured. She then yelled at us, because clearly we were in the wrong, for standing looking at the shelf of books as she came speeding around the corner.

Perhaps they ought to have the same level of technology most new cars have - like adaptive cruise control so the scooter automatically adjusts to walking speed of crowds. Anti crash technology so the scooter beeps and breaks if it gets too close to others.

Some people really are a menace on them. I think only the flimsy ones that only go slowly should be sold and allowed in places such as shopping centres, shops and town centres as the big quad bike style ones that go much faster are dangerous.

I'm out 😄 As if society needs another way to treat disabled people like a menace. I'd like to see statistics on how many wheelchair users are injured by other people's negligence or dangerous parking/driving, versus how many wheelchair users injure others.

Cardiac issues, such as those caused by Covid, often present with rapid weight gain due to fluid retention. You'd know that if you were medically trained or able to use the internet to be more than just ableist.

Yep them too. Insurance and a licence to drive one. Obviously there would be a much lower age limit and probably parents would be responsible for paying the insurance but they should definitely have to have it.