We've all seen the commercials before: Rascal Scooters for the elderly to enhance their mobility. Well, the other day when I was on the bus, I saw a couple of people on the scooters waiting for bus. Both were probably in their mid 40s, lower middle class-looking white folks. (The description is not meant to be disparaging, but given the neighbourhood and their appearance, I'd say it's a pretty good guess.) The lady had no idea how to drive it. It took her about 3-4 minutes to get on the bus (repeatedly hitting the fare box). And then she realized that she was facing the wrong direction. It was another 3-4 minutes before she finally successfully made a Y turnabout (repeatedly hitting the seats on both sides of the bus). She kept on apologizing for being "new at this thing," but finally settled into her spot and crossed her legs as if to signify to everyone that she was now officially comfortably situated. Then it was the guy's turn. He knew how to steer his scooter, but because the other scooter was already on the bus, he didn't have enough space to manoeuvre and turn about-face. So what did he do? The guy gets off the scooter, picks it up high off the ground, and flips it around all by himself. After latching up the scooter--again all by himself--he then sits back down on it and waits for the bus to start. It's obvious that they're both very able-bodied and do not qualify as "elderly" or "disabled." They shouldn't have had to right to displace passengers sitting in the front section of the bus just because they have their own personal scooters to ride around in--it's a shame that they were allowed on the bus at all. I wouldn't be allowed to ride a bike onto the bus and expect people to clear their seats for me. Even costing $2000 apiece, those scooters were probably a worthwhile investment... if their goal was to piss other bus passengers off. Ugh.