My Latest Pet Peeve: Hover-rounds In Traffic!

Posted by Vulnadia on Jul 30, 2010 at 12:19 AM For the longest, I honestly thought these darn machines were meant to help disabled folk out in the home, in stores & on sidewalks. I even had to use one while pregnant with my trio so that I could get the Christmas shopping done and the necessities for the babies purchased & such. I learned that folks who drive them aren't given a wide berth or even noticed in places such as stores and all, in fact people oftentimes made it difficult to get anywhere at all no matter how polite one tries to be. But recently, I've noticed an alarming trend. At first, I thought it was just limited to Highland for some reason...don't ask me why, I just did... That's the primary place I've noticed the problem occurring, actually. At first, I noticed people driving them down the gutter literally as if they were biking or something. Keep in mind these carts do NOT go very fast at all and do NOT maneuver well either for that matter! But, for some reason, a portion of our population seems to feel that these carts should be used IN THE STREET! AS A MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION!!! Kid you not, they have taken to the streets, driving in and out of traffic, causing very scary traffic conditions as if some streets aren't hard enough to navigate without having to worry about cats or doggies darting accross the streets or watching for small children or worse, seeing a loan ball roll into the street knowing there is a child somewhere about to follow it.... But now, now we have to watch for hoverrounds...something that cannot go very fast, and isnt really meant for all-terrain (ie potholes etc found in streets) yet people feel compelled to go out into the street with them regardless of how nice the sidewalk is...or now nice the little ramps in place of curbs may be.... Today, I watched a little old hunchback of a man literally jaywalk accross Airline drive...he was about a quarter of a block down from the stoplight and just darted out into traffic with his little hoverround, never even thinking of the oncoming traffic or the traffic turning from the other streets... I don't know how anyone survived this, I really don't. I watched 5 cars come to screeching halts because they had been in the process of turning the corner with the arrow only to find this little man toodling accross the street at a snails pace... Can you be ticketed for jaywalking if you're technically riding your hoverround? I mean, he's a pedestrian, and not driving a street-legal vehicle by any means...Sure pedestrian's have right of way, but there are laws that are supposed to be being followed...what if someone had had a wreck trying to avoid hitting this little man? How awful would it be? And it's not regulated to the elderly either, i've seen many a young person driving these darned things around the streets too, for I don't know what reason...I mean, is it soo much to ask that they ride their bikes or walk like other folks? We're not talking disabled even, in fact I saw a group of folks pull up to someone's porch on their hoverrounds and hop off & all hang out just fine in the front yard talking, each fully capable of functioning normally...all appeared spry and in decent health (as well as one could see anyways in passing.) So what is it with these folks? Is this the wave of the future? Should there be some sort of regulation or enforcement with these carts being used on the street and in traffic? Have you nearly hit one recently or noticed them being used for purposes other than the original intended use? What do you think? I think it's my newest latest pet peeve!