You can track how an airline handles missing or damaged luggage, so shouldn’t you be able to find the data about how carriers deal with wheelchairs? A new rule that would mandate airlines to report information on wheelchairs and scooters in the same way they track other luggage has now been delayed, prompting a group of veterans to sue the Department of Transportation. [More]
scooters
After Deadly Fire, Government Warns Against Using LayZ Board Hoverboards
By 5.2.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Two months after a charging “hoverboard” scooter sparked a tragic fire in Pennsylvania that claimed the lives of two young girls, federal safety regulators are warning consumers to stop using LayZ Board hoverboards. [More]
Vespa Is Making An Electric Version Of Its Classic Scooter
By 11.9.16
You’ve seen it in movies, you’ve seen it on TV shows, and soon, you may see it plugged in to charge: Vespa’s parent company has announced that it’s making an electric version of its classic scooter. [More]
Segway Trying To Make Hoverboards Happen Again With $999 Scooter
By 6.1.16
It’s only been a little more than three months since hoverboards — a term that should not apply, as no hovering is involved — disappeared from Amazon after the Consumer Product Safety Commission determined that the self-stabilizing scooters were not unsafe unless they met certain standards. Now Segway, the company who tried to start the dorky standing scooter craze with its namesake device, is hoping to be the high-price future of the hoverboard market. [More]
U.S. Marshals Raid CES Booth To Seize Alleged Knockoff Scooters
By 1.8.16
We’ve seen lots of odd things at CES International over the years — live kangaroos, stormtroopers, boxing matches, Seth Rogen — but one thing we’ve never seen before is U.S. marshals seizing knockoff products for alleged patent infringement. [More]
Target Temporarily Pulls Swagway “Hoverboards” Over Safety Concerns
By 12.15.15
Just days after Amazon handed a blow to “hoverboard” manufacturers, pulling the self-balancing scooters (that don’t actually hover) from its marketplace over safety concerns, another major retailer is following suit: Target took down listings for the scooters on Monday. [More]
Some “Hoverboards” Vanish From Amazon Amid Safety Concerns
By 12.14.15
Between injuries, explosions, lawsuits, and being banned by several airlines, one of the year’s hottest gadgets might not be much longer. Continuing the chain of bad news, Amazon reportedly pulled several “Hoverboard” scooters from its marketplace over the weekend because of safety concerns. [More]
Ad Watchdog: Scooter Commercials Show Too Much Unsupervised Fun
By 4.29.15
Zooming along the sidewalk at up to 13 miles per hour on an electric-powered scooter sounds like a lot of fun. However, one scooter company has run into trouble by running its ads that show an unsupervised teen zipping around the neighborhood during shows for inappropriately young kids. Their commercials caught the attention of the ad watchdogs over at the Children’s Advertising Review Unit of the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council. [More]
Scooter Sales Are Vrooming
By 6.30.11
It’s not just Tom Hanks and friends riding them in the new movie Larry Crowne, US scooter sales have revved up 50% Q1 2011 from a year ago. High gas prices are helping drive the trend towards scooters, which can get 70 mpg and only need filling every 2-3 weeks, depending on your use. Plus they’re cute. But there is one key difference between this year’s boom and the one three years ago: [More]
Can You Save Money By Motorcycle Commuting? Not Really
By 9.11.09
Sure, switching to a motorcycle or scooter for your highway commute might seem like a good idea, especially if you want to save gasoline and fantasize about gridlock-defying, illegal traffic maneuvers. But while motorcycle commuting has some good points, it probably isn’t going to save you much money over commuting by car.
Man On Scooter Denied Drive-Through Coffee Service
By 6.16.09
Here’s pretty much the same story about a customer on a motorized scooter not being allowed to use the drive through, this time at a Tim Hortons coffee establishment in Nova Scotia. He’s not going to sue, but plans to appeal to Nova Scotia‘s Human Rights Commission.
By 2.23.09
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Spring is coming! Consumer Reports tests scooters and motorcycles for the first time since 1981. [Consumer Reports]
22 Children Died Toy-Related Deaths In 2006
By 12.16.07
Toy injuries were responsible for 22 deaths and 220,500 emergency room visits in 2006, according to a report from the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The report looked at injuries affecting children under 15 and found that most deaths were caused by asphyxiation or collisions associated with riding toys, scooters, toy pegs, and rubber balls.
Scooters Say Self-Propelled Locomotion Is For Suckers
By 1.5.06
In the second issue of Harvey Kurtzman’s Mad (before the Comics Code hit and it ostensibly became a “magazine”. You know, like Cracked or The New Yorker), Wally Wood illustrated a story called “Blobs”. In it, gelid human midgets flew their flying robot scooters around a futuristic Fritz Lang cityscape without the slightest use of the flaccid appendages of their arms and legs. They had been made superfluous by the forward progress of science. The eponymous human blobs also wore gigantic vacuum-tube computers on their heads that spoke their thoughts aloud in a capital letter robot font, and by merely pumping a quarter into a vending machine, they could make out with a Rita Hayworth titanium robot.
