Whichever way you look at it, buying a mobility scooter is one of the biggest and most important decisions anyone will ever have to make in the course of their life. It’s really not until these kinds of walking aids are needed that it becomes apparent just how life-changing they can be. The right mobility aid at the right time has the very real potential to not only restore a person’s mobility, but to essentially give them back full control of their lives.
It’s easy to take the simplest things in life for granted – anything from a stroll in the park to catching a bus into town or doing your own shopping. But if and when the time comes that these kinds of activities become either difficult or impossible, it soon hits home just how different your life may now be if you don’t take the necessary action. And while it’s never a pleasant thought to know you may be reliant on walking aids for the rest of your life, it’s better to invest in the right aids and live your life to its fullest than sit around and dream of the days when you still had your freedom.
Making the Right Choice
The good news however is that these days there are more scooters on the market than ever before and no matter what your needs, taste or budget, you’re 100% guaranteed to find the perfect model to suit. Needless to say, there’s quite a lot to take into account seeing as this will be the kind of thing you’ll be counting on day in and day out to help you live your life, but at the same time it doesn’t need to be a difficult selection process. Instead, it’s a case of keeping a few of the most important points in mind and making sure that your chosen scooter or walking aid fits your life and your daily needs right down to the ground.
Where You Plan to Use the Scooter
For example, perhaps the single most important consideration of all is that of where you plan to use your scooter after picking it up. These days, there are scooters on the market to suit every purpose so it really doesn’t matter where you live or where you plan to go, you’ll find one to suit. For example, if you live in an urban area and will be required to tackle a fair few curbs on every journey you make, you’ll need to take this into account when buying your scooter. Likewise, if you live in a more rural area and are likely to be using the scooter on grass, dirt or loose surfaces, this will make a big difference in terms of what makes the right scooter for you. It’s a good idea therefore to think about where you are, where you want to go and what kind of terrain you’ll be tackling along the way.
How You Plan to Use Your Scooter
Along with determining where you plan to use the scooter, it’s also a good idea to think carefully about how you plan to use it. For example, there will always be those for whom mobility is less problematic than others and so these kinds of aids are only used for longer journeys or perhaps when it’s necessary to carry shopping. At the other end of the scale, others will be forced to use their scooters day in and day out for each and every journey, therefore clocking up vastly greater mileage than others. This should also be factored into your purchase decision as the more intensively you’ll be using the scooter, the more durable, robust and reliable it needs to be.
Portability
Then of course comes the matter of portability, as in whether you’d like to be able to transport the scooter with ease in the back of a car when taking longer journeys away. Some scooters are tiny enough to fit in any standard car, others can be folded down and then there are the much large scooters that can only be carried by way of disabled access vans and people carriers – be sure to factor this in before making your final decision.
Storage
Last but not least, don’t forget to have a good think about where and how you plan to store the scooter as it’s one thing to invest in a fantastically capable and comfortable scooter, but if not then you cannot get it through the front door of your housing block. Think of not only where you’ll be storing it, but how you’ll actually get it to where it is to be stored.