“We think that [City Council is] anti-environment, anti-small business and completely inconsistent with the mayor’s long-term sustainability initiative, Plan NYC,” said Caroline Samponaro of Transportation Alternatives.

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=67203

Lucky for the environmental good guys (i.e., pedicabs, as opposed to cars), in Times Square, one of pedicabs’ main loci, there is no such thing as “unusually heavy…traffic,” and “heavy traffic” is NEVER “exceptional” in Times Square! I’m serious. Heavy auto/ped traffic there is the norm, so, seriously, it should not be cited by a cop or City agency as a reason to kick pedicabs out from that area.

I haven’t read the whole thing (and I haven’t kept up with the issue, nor have I read the latest draft of the originally superior bill, 75), and so I don’t know if I’ve quite come around to supporting Int. 331, but there are two things in it that I think are improvements over earlier drafts:

1. the cap of 325 is supposed to sunset after two years! I know, there shouldn’t be a cap at all unless yellow cabs’ numbers are also cut, but it’s a sign of some improved hope!

2. there is no longer the asinine, infuriating “no pedicabs in Central Park” provision.

In my so-far-superficial reading of the bill, I pick up two more good laughs:

1. “The pedicab vehicle itself is manufactured in various incarnations, including a version called the ‘party bike[.]‘” Get out of town. Pedicabs are transportation; the “party bike” is a teenagers’ novelty. Uh, seriously, I mean it, get out of town. You have no place drafting legislation if you think the party bike is a pedicab.

2. If the law is passed, various City agencies will together produce a report that discusses, among other things, the law’s success in “minimizing the the effects of pedicabs on traffic and congestion.” Well, pedicabs’ effect on traffic is to make it more efficient. So it’s a pity the law seeks to MINIMIZE that effect.

The ubiquity of this particular aspect of Conventional Thinking is a real blight on humanity: something’s ingenious? Fun? Entrepreneurial? Efficient? Superior? And just a little too different from the older thing it’s competing with? KILL IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

thanks for picking up this shameful story!

OUT-OF-WORK PEDICABS ROBBING TOURISTS IN NEW CRIME WAVE

(j/k…but this new bill is nothing to laugh about)