Streetsblog New York City

This week's Time Out New York offers advice on the best ways to navigate the city (all of them sans private automobile). In addition to tips on cheating the MTA out of a subway fare and knowing when the bus is better, TONY explains that pedicabs aren't just for tourists.

“I’ll get you anywhere in midtown in under ten minutes, or I’ll pay you,” says Gregg Zukowski, driver and owner of pedicab company Revolution Rickshaws. “For example, Grand Central to Penn Station takes me seven minutes.” What if there’s gridlock? “Then it might take eight,” he brags.

“It’s ‘transportainment,’” says New York Pedicab Association president Peter Meitzler. “It’s cheaper than a limo but just as much personal attention. I like to think of it as a pedal-powered limo service.”

Just don’t breathe too deeply -- think about all those fumes pedi passengers must inhale as they zip around idling cars. “I know, I know,” sighs Zukowski. “It’s a bitch. I’m trying to get those automobiles banned.”

Photo: ultrahi/Flickr

Attorneys representing the pedicab industry have succeeded in getting a temporary reprieve from restrictions adopted by the City Council earlier this year, including a cap on the allowed number of operators and a ban on electrically-assisted rigs, until their lawsuit against the city can be heard in court.

From a September 19 Public Advocacy Group press release:

Attorneys for the New York City Pedicab Owners’ Association (“NYCPOA”) and New York City’s Corporation Counsel agreed today to temporarily suspend implementation of Local Law 19-2007 (the “Pedicab Law”) and the Department of Consumer Affairs’ (“DCA”) pedicab regulations until a full hearing on the NYCPOA’s lawsuit against the DCA and City of New York can be heard by a New York County Supreme Court Justice.

Speaking on behalf of the NYCPOA, Chad Marlow of The Public Advocacy Group LLC, whose firm serves as NYCPOA’s General Counsel, said “we are very pleased that Corporation Counsel has agreed to a pause in the implementation of thePedicab Law and regulations until a court can properly determine DCA’s responsibilities under the law and whether it has failed to meet those responsibilities.”  NYCPOA President Peter Meitzler added, “the New York City pedicab industry has been thrown a lifeline, albeit a temporary one.  For now, I am grateful that the hundreds of New Yorkers who earn their livings in thepedicab industry will still have a business to run or a job to go to tomorrow.”

Marlow, who is president of the Public Advocacy Group, was recently named one of the "40 Under 40" -- a list of NYC's rising young political stars -- by City Hall News (scroll).

Photo: NYCArthur/Flickr

More on tomorrow's rally and press conference on the city's proposed pedicab regulations: Chad Marlow of the Public Advocacy Group, the pedicab industry's lobbyist, sends along this press release arguing that Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Speaker Christine Quinn's proposal to put a cap on the number of pedicabs and ban electric-assist technology harms the industry and compromises safety while, really, helping no one in particular. We don't like publishing press releases verbatim, but this one is really pretty good reading. You get the sense that these new pedicab regs were designed with the same level of sensitivity and awareness as the city's new school bus system. Here's what the pedicab industry has to say:

New York, New York - February 13, 2007: In an event organized by the New York City Pedicab Owners Association (NYCPOA), concerned pedicab owners, drivers and their supporters will meet on the steps of City Hall at noon to lift the veil off ongoing negotiations to reconcile the Mayor's and City Council's pedicab regulation bills. In particular, the noontime event will highlight how two imprudent "political deals" will needlessly stagnate the environmentally friendly pedicab industry, prevent pedicabs from utilizing the best available safety equipment and exclude the industry's most experienced drivers.

Read more...