Pedicab article in NYTimes
Looks like the Pedicabs are getting closer to a regulation agreement with the city. Its a complicated issue. They need licensing to stay alive in NYC which is a good thing cause pedicabs are a non-polluting form of transportation. The horse drawn carriages don't want them in central park cause they steal business. GOOD. We should have given up these antiquated uses of animals in the 1800's. HELLO. Those carriage drivers in the park are a bunch of dicks anyway. Ever watched them operate? They should get off their fat asses, put the horses in a nice field of grass and start riding a bike. Then you've got this party bike which the police seem to target cause they got nothing better to do. Ok, ok, so the thing is kind of dumb. But isn't funny how that bike is a problem but the city doesn't care about those stretch hummers that drive around polluting the environment or vehicles that are just roving billboards. Ah yes, the motor vehicle is God!
Here is an article form the NY Times that explains the current issue.
In New York, Calls to Regulate Cabs Powered by Legs, Too
Wendy Scher was at the helm of a PartyBike on Saturday as a pedicab passed by in Times Square. The police have impounded several of the bikes. Photo by Dima Gavrysh for the New York Times
Article by Sewell Chan
Published: May 8, 2006
The Bloomberg administration has put forward a comprehensive proposal to regulate the city's decade-old pedicab industry for the first time, seeking to bring order to the human-powered for-hire vehicles that have become increasingly popular on Midtown streets, particularly during the warm months.
The proposal would confer legal recognition on the pedicabs, which are similar to rickshaws, except that they are pedaled instead of pulled. Nearly 300 pedicabs operate in the city, but until now there have been no formal safety standards, rules of operation or licensing requirements.
The regulations would also outlaw a popular round bicycle built for seven, a multiwheeled contraption in which six riders pedal while the seventh, the driver, steers from the rear. The Police Department has called the bike — sometimes marketed as a PartyBike or a Superbike and mostly used around Times Square — a hazard that chokes off traffic, and has impounded several of the vehicles.
"It's not the bike itself, it's how it's operated," James S. Muessig, owner of Superbike, which owns four of the vehicles, said yesterday. "We do it safely and responsibly."
The proposal, drafted by the Department of Consumer Affairs over several months and presented to the City Council on Friday, would require pedicab owners to pay a $125 licensing fee each year, and $70 for each additional cab, and to carry an insurance policy covering up to $1 million in liability.
Each pedicab would be limited to two adult passengers with one child 3 or younger. Each vehicle would have to have water-resistant hydraulic or mechanical brakes, emergency brakes, battery-powered headlights and taillights, turn lights, reflectors, side-mounted rear view mirrors and passenger seat belts. The pedicabs would be prohibited in parks, on bridges and in tunnels. Owners and drivers who violate the rules could have their licenses suspended or revoked, face fines of $200 to $4,000, and have their vehicles seized.
Some owners of taxis and horse-drawn carriages have called for a ban on pedicabs, arguing that they are unsafe and that a carriage license or taxicab medallion confers the exclusive right to respond to street hails. "Pedicabs are like illegal street peddlers, and they're stealing passengers away from taxi operators," said Joseph E. Giannetto, who represents owners of taxi fleets.
Councilman Leroy G. Comrie Jr., a Queens Democrat, has set a hearing on Thursday to discuss the proposal.
Pedicabs have been operating in New York since 1995. The drivers typically pay $200 a week to rent a cab and make up to $150 in a seven- or eight-hour shift. The cost of a cab is $3,600 to $7,000.
"We need to legitimize the industry so that cabbies stop blowing their horns at us and so people start taking us seriously as a form of clean-air transportation," said Robert E. Brennan, 36, an actor and freelance editor who began driving a pedicab three weeks ago.
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Here is an article form the NY Times that explains the current issue.
In New York, Calls to Regulate Cabs Powered by Legs, Too
Wendy Scher was at the helm of a PartyBike on Saturday as a pedicab passed by in Times Square. The police have impounded several of the bikes. Photo by Dima Gavrysh for the New York Times
Article by Sewell Chan
Published: May 8, 2006
The Bloomberg administration has put forward a comprehensive proposal to regulate the city's decade-old pedicab industry for the first time, seeking to bring order to the human-powered for-hire vehicles that have become increasingly popular on Midtown streets, particularly during the warm months.
The proposal would confer legal recognition on the pedicabs, which are similar to rickshaws, except that they are pedaled instead of pulled. Nearly 300 pedicabs operate in the city, but until now there have been no formal safety standards, rules of operation or licensing requirements.
The regulations would also outlaw a popular round bicycle built for seven, a multiwheeled contraption in which six riders pedal while the seventh, the driver, steers from the rear. The Police Department has called the bike — sometimes marketed as a PartyBike or a Superbike and mostly used around Times Square — a hazard that chokes off traffic, and has impounded several of the vehicles.
"It's not the bike itself, it's how it's operated," James S. Muessig, owner of Superbike, which owns four of the vehicles, said yesterday. "We do it safely and responsibly."
The proposal, drafted by the Department of Consumer Affairs over several months and presented to the City Council on Friday, would require pedicab owners to pay a $125 licensing fee each year, and $70 for each additional cab, and to carry an insurance policy covering up to $1 million in liability.
Each pedicab would be limited to two adult passengers with one child 3 or younger. Each vehicle would have to have water-resistant hydraulic or mechanical brakes, emergency brakes, battery-powered headlights and taillights, turn lights, reflectors, side-mounted rear view mirrors and passenger seat belts. The pedicabs would be prohibited in parks, on bridges and in tunnels. Owners and drivers who violate the rules could have their licenses suspended or revoked, face fines of $200 to $4,000, and have their vehicles seized.
Some owners of taxis and horse-drawn carriages have called for a ban on pedicabs, arguing that they are unsafe and that a carriage license or taxicab medallion confers the exclusive right to respond to street hails. "Pedicabs are like illegal street peddlers, and they're stealing passengers away from taxi operators," said Joseph E. Giannetto, who represents owners of taxi fleets.
Councilman Leroy G. Comrie Jr., a Queens Democrat, has set a hearing on Thursday to discuss the proposal.
Pedicabs have been operating in New York since 1995. The drivers typically pay $200 a week to rent a cab and make up to $150 in a seven- or eight-hour shift. The cost of a cab is $3,600 to $7,000.
"We need to legitimize the industry so that cabbies stop blowing their horns at us and so people start taking us seriously as a form of clean-air transportation," said Robert E. Brennan, 36, an actor and freelance editor who began driving a pedicab three weeks ago.
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posted by Michael Green at 5:36 PM
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2 Comments:
The cabs need the legitimacy that regulation would provide, I sort of feel this way about messengers too (not a popular opinion I know). Especially because they transport people, a basic level of safety and service should be provided. It would also give a grievance channel for passengers who feel they have been ripped off.
But the city seems to be using regulation as an opportunity to ensure that the pedi-cabs are noncompetitive with the yellow cabs, and to effectively make it impossible to operate as a viable business. To ban them from bridges and parks is just ridiculous. The yellow cabs are what should be banned from the park, there is no reason what so ever to drive in CP.
As for the bridges, why? Are they worried about congestion? Every time I've seen a pedi-cab on the Queensboro they have had electric assist and can go up the bridge faster than most the other cyclist on the path. If there is not enough room, maybe the city needs to widen the paths. Maybe by taking away a lane of car traffic? I know that will never happen, but a boy can dream can't he?
As for the party bikes, they have no business on a road with normal traffic. Maybe if Time Square was a pedestrian mall. All they do is snarl traffic at 5mph.
As for the bridges, why? Are they worried about congestion? Every time I've seen a pedicab on the Queensboro they have had electric assist and can go up the bridge faster than most the other cyclist on the path. If there is not enough room, maybe the city needs to widen the paths. Maybe by taking away a lane of car traffic? I know that will never happen, but a boy can dream can't he?I want to know more such suggestion in nearby future.
Pedicab hire
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