Geezers Going Like Maniacs: Mobility Scooter Speeds Reach 70 MPH
D. Aamoth; Time.com; 2/8/2012
Calvin, the title figure of the very-excellent Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, once remarked to his tiger pal Hobbes, “You can bet when I’m a geezer like Dad, I’ll be going like a maniac.” “Ever notice how the more mature people get, the slower they do things?” he questioned. “I wonder why that is. I would assume that the less lifetime you had remaining, the faster you’d want to do everything, so you could pack more into the remaining years.” He had a point. That going-like-a-maniac comic strip first ran in July of 1990, more than 2 decades before a video being submitted to YouTube. It shows Colin Furze of Sky 1′s Gadget Geeks fame ripping through an open area of snow – snow! – on a heavily-modified, gas-powered mobility scooter “which can evidently reach speeds of up to 70 mph,” according to CubicleBot. Sure, placing our senior citizens behind the handlebars of mobility scooters capable of maintaining pace with the majority of regular automobiles may eventually turn out to be a blunder of monstrously unsafe proportions, but it’s the least we could do to help them “pack more into the remaining years.” Do it for the seniors. And if not, do it for Calvin. |