When travelling alone on your mobility scooter there is just usually the regular things to take into consideration during your journey, like being careful when crossing roads, careful on the roads if your mobility scooter legally allows you to travel along them, slowing down when passing pedestrians and generally minding how you go.

But if at times you are out with the grandkids or your dog, you might not immediately consider that they might have trouble keeping up with you, the majority of the time you will be travelling faster than walking pace of most people and if those walking with you are expected to stay close to you, possibly right behind you, obviously you might not be aware of their difficulty in trying to keep up with you.

Yesterday for example i saw what i would guess was a grandmother with two grandkids right behind her, what i noticed though was that both kids were having to occasionally jog, then stop and walk quickly then kinda hurry a bit more, almost jogging again.

As the grandmother was travelling at a decent speed and was in front, she seemed oblivious to what the kids were needing to do just to keep up with her.

On other occasions i have seen mobility sccooter users with their dog on a lead running along the side, not so bad if the dog gets some exercise but still a situation where the mobility scooter user needs to be careful with regards to accelerating, not stopping too quickly and taking extra care when passing other people on pavements and when crossing roads.

Once you get used to a mobility scooter its all too easy to forget that others cant always necessarily keep up and its something to keep in mind next time you are out with family or the pet dog.

There are questions floating around from people wondering where they can take their mobility scooter, with regards to taking them inside certain buildings or on certain types of transport, i hope that you will find the following information helpful and if you are curious about other places that you are allowed to take your mobility scooter please ask using the comments feature below.

1. Question: Can i take a mobility scooter inside supermarkets? Answer: Generally yes, some supermarkets have their own too that can be used by shoppers.
2. Question: Can i take my mobility scooter into shops and stores? Answer: This will often depend on the size of the shop or store that you wish to enter and whether they have ramp access, wider aisles will make for a pleasant and easier experience for you.
3. Question: Can i take my mobility scooter inside hospitals? Answer: Yes, this shouldn’t be a problem, with regards to being allowed to and also having enough space to maneuver, you should generally be ok taking them inside hospitals.
4. Question: Can i take my mobility scooter on a bus? Answer: More often than not they are not allowed to be taken on a bus in the sense of you riding it onto the bus, this is understandably quite a disappointment for many users too, some buses will allow them on though, depending on size etc

There are always exceptions to the situations mentioned above, if you know of public transport and specific stores that are especially accommodating or that dont accommodate very well please share the information with others by commenting.

Whether a mobility scooter is allowed in a particular building can be dependant on a number of factors, appropriate access being one of them, not only access to enter the building but once inside if the building has several floors then ideally you are going to need a way of reaching those floors, quite expected would be for a lift to be in place within the building.

It is common place for supermarkets to cater quite well for mobility scooters and also wheelchairs, indoor shopping centres and stores that allow for a person with mobility needs to move between display units easily.

In many cases it wont so much be a matter of whether a mobility scooter is allowed into a particular building but whether the building can appropriately allow a mobility scooter user to move freely throughout the building and without any unnecessary risks.

Accessibility is something that more and more businesses try to cater for as much as they possibly can, also local councils take this into account when planning development and regeneration within local areas.

With modern buildings there is plenty of thought put into making a building accessible to those with mobility needs way before any actual development begins, whereas with older buildings (depending on the age of the building) they might not be so mobility friendly, and by mobility friendly i mean the original building design and layout, not the people who work within the building.

Where possible though, even in quite old buildings, adaptations are made to make a building more accessible.

So if you find yourself wondering if mobility scooters are allowed in a building it will depend on the particular building that you want to access, whether they have what is needed in place for your safe entry, exit and manoeuvres around the building or whether there might be a special type of flooring in place inside the building or parts of it that could become too easily damaged from a mobility scooter being used on it.