So… global warming is caused by carbon emissions, and cars emit a lot of carbon, and NY streets are congested, so we\’re going to make it harder for people to take alternate transportation.
Good thinking.
I\’m glad we all acknowledge places like NY and LA as the bright beacons of progress we should all emulate.
Are you actually taxi lobbyists in disguise? C\’mon, you can tell me, I work in politics. ;)
So, there\’s alot to this story you folks aren\’t hearing, and probably won\’t hear \’till this hits the courts. But all you smart capitalists out there, I just have one thing to ask you – can you follow the money? I sure can…
As to what those two folks said, maureen probably works for the comittee for taxi safety (who have spent much time and funds advertising the one ever occuring pedicab accident in nyc in over 11 years), and gill I bet is somehow assosiated with james gennaro (d – queens) who is bizarre enough to claim pedicabs cause congestion.
Also, every operation in this city is a member of a business association, the NYCPOA, which has a standard of operation for it\’s members. They are a responsible industry, with responsible workers, and safe machines.
In closing, this article felt one sided. I applaud the author for doing the job well.
we should be happy that they want to regulate this, we had 2 ee\’s of a non profit that were in one of these pedicabs and they were struck by a hit and run driver and were severely injured. the Pedicab operator pulled right out in front of the hit and run vehicle and of course the Pedicab had NO INSURANCE!!!
To be clear, I wasn\’t arguing for zero regulation.
I just think it\’s a little ludicrous to start taxing downtown traffic, declare congestion and poluution to be unbearable, and then make it harder for these cabs to operate.
When pedicabs are outlawed, only outlaws will have pedicabs. When I visualize pedicabs all over New York, I see gridlock. They probably dont have liability insurance to protect their
clients or other road users. Where do they park while waiting for a fare? How
safe are pedicabs. Buses, taxis, carriages, streetcars – all insured, regulated, checked for safety.
For crying out loud, where do you think we are, Thailand?
and again, as an insurer and engineer, cannot invision too many pedicabs in the steets of New York. Modern traffic engineers would have never planned for that mode of transportation when laying out turn lanes. Pedicabs PROBABLY don\’t have the weight to trigger traffic light prompts (changes red light to green) and again, how are citizens protected for liability in the event that the pedicab injures a fare or other vehicle? For your part green transporter, you sound like someone who may not understand much about moving large numbers of people.
Just out of curiosity, where does one store 350 pedicabs when they are not in use. How and where are they maintained?
Again, who regulates maintenance. Cars now require airbags and seatbelts. Do pedicabs?
Dear Gill Fin,
Perhaps you don\’t understand much about the logistics of moving large numbers of people yourself. For if you did, you would realize that devoting over 120 square feet and 3000 pounds (rough estimates based on federal definitions of compact cars; discounting the existence of Hummers and Expeditions as well as Minis and motorcycles) to the transport of INDIVIDUALS (the vast plurality of vehicular traffic in NYC remains single-occupancy) is ludicrous. As for storage, one can fit 4 pedicabs into the space of one compact automobile. As for safety? The industry itself wanted a regulatory bill to ensure driver responsibility and personal safety, as well as to provide insurance coverage in the unfortunate event of a driver brazenly failing in their legal responsibility to other vehicles as in the example Maureen describes of a pedicab being struck by a HIT-AND-RUN driver FROM BEHIND. However, this new law oversteps its bounds. To cite a specific example – over $1000000 in liability coverage required for vehicles that have recorded this SINGLE major incident and NO fatalities in 11 years on New York City streets? You think there may be a bit of a double-standard when taxicabs are required to carry about a third of the coverage that pedicabs have been mandated to? Before you respond, you might want to look up THEIR safety record…
and believe you when you state the safety record for taxis is not good. All the more reason not to add human powered vehicles at five miles per hour to 40 mile an hour traffic. One given traffic
engineers would like to include is that most of the traffic are traveling at mostly the same speed. Why not just have pedestrians walk around out in traffic?
Wouldnt that be even better than pedicabs?
Whats wrong with regulating pedicabs?
\’gill I bet is somehow assosiated with james gennaro (d – queens) who is bizarre enough to claim pedicabs cause congestion\’. I have never heard of this bloke, but have to agree that anything not able to keep up with buses, trolleys, taxis, trucks and cars may cause gridlock.
It doesnt cause gridlock now, you say? Probably because there arent enough of them, yet. Whats the population of Manhattan (presumably thats the part of New York where pedicabs intend to shut down the city). If pedicabs are the solution, then why not rickshaws, horses, mules, camels, pogosticks and stilts? I suppose its bizarre enough to think those conveyances too would cause gridlock. Like green transporter wrote, follow the money. I wonder where his comes from.
40 MPH? Wishful thinking. During periods of the highest congestion, 6AM to 8PM (that\’s right, a 14 hour window), the average vehicular speed on major roads in Manhattan is 11 MPH, and just 8 MPH on local streets, with the majority of peak-direction thoroughfares posting lower average speeds than these (Best Practices Model data, New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, Base year 2002). A pedicab easily meets or exceeds these speeds, being capable of topping out at about 25 MPH. As I hinted at in my previous post, the problem of traffic congestion has nothing to do with speed and everything to do with space. Your car might be capable of doing 130 MPH, but if there is a few hundred tons of steel between you and your destination, you\’re going to watch as JOGGERS pass you by… And when there is less traffic, there is more than enough space for pedicabs to operate safely on city streets as cars zip by at THE SPEED LIMIT of 35 MPH.
Is it true that Mayor Bloomberg \”had second thoughts\” during the signing ceremony for the pedicab bill? Based on one account, perhaps it\’s too hard to say. On the other hand, if Bloomberg\’s response was solely to the pedicab drivers making a public stink, it\’s possible. (And sad.)
Yes, pedicabs provide passengers with a way to \”beat traffic jams by weaving through all the cars.\” Any vehicle that does this in Manhattan traffic, no matter how it\’s powered, is going to be at higher risk for accidents. Safety standards are an excellent idea, but compliance might be a problem based on the nature of this type of transportation.
I\’m not for or against pedicabs. An unregulated fleet of passenger vehicles in the streets of Manhattan seems inconsistent under laws that govern even horse-drawn carriages. But the proposed regulatory solution doesn\’t seem to address many of the underlying problems. Will a cap enforce an even distribution of pedicabs throughout Manhattan at any given time of day or night? Will pedicab drivers — models of conformity in general — be willing to comply with the laws?
Maybe the real solution is a fleet of for-hire passenger vehicles powered by a fuel that\’s cheap, biodegradable and in abundant supply in New York. Pigeon droppings.
\”Maybe the real solution is a fleet of for-hire passenger vehicles powered by a fuel that\’s cheap, biodegradable and in abundant supply in New York.\”
Like pedicabs, whose major byproducts are feces and urine, maybe?
So… global warming is caused by carbon emissions, and cars emit a lot of carbon, and NY streets are congested, so we\’re going to make it harder for people to take alternate transportation.
Good thinking.
I\’m glad we all acknowledge places like NY and LA as the bright beacons of progress we should all emulate.
Gill fin and maureen:
Are you actually taxi lobbyists in disguise? C\’mon, you can tell me, I work in politics. ;)
So, there\’s alot to this story you folks aren\’t hearing, and probably won\’t hear \’till this hits the courts. But all you smart capitalists out there, I just have one thing to ask you – can you follow the money? I sure can…
As to what those two folks said, maureen probably works for the comittee for taxi safety (who have spent much time and funds advertising the one ever occuring pedicab accident in nyc in over 11 years), and gill I bet is somehow assosiated with james gennaro (d – queens) who is bizarre enough to claim pedicabs cause congestion.
Also, every operation in this city is a member of a business association, the NYCPOA, which has a standard of operation for it\’s members. They are a responsible industry, with responsible workers, and safe machines.
In closing, this article felt one sided. I applaud the author for doing the job well.
– A green transporter
we should be happy that they want to regulate this, we had 2 ee\’s of a non profit that were in one of these pedicabs and they were struck by a hit and run driver and were severely injured. the Pedicab operator pulled right out in front of the hit and run vehicle and of course the Pedicab had NO INSURANCE!!!
That sucks for your insureds.
To be clear, I wasn\’t arguing for zero regulation.
I just think it\’s a little ludicrous to start taxing downtown traffic, declare congestion and poluution to be unbearable, and then make it harder for these cabs to operate.
When pedicabs are outlawed, only outlaws will have pedicabs. When I visualize pedicabs all over New York, I see gridlock. They probably dont have liability insurance to protect their
clients or other road users. Where do they park while waiting for a fare? How
safe are pedicabs. Buses, taxis, carriages, streetcars – all insured, regulated, checked for safety.
For crying out loud, where do you think we are, Thailand?
Mjolnir-
I seem to recall that someone else posted after you (I am not 100% sure though). Then through the magic of the IJ, the post magically disappeared.
Go figure!
and again, as an insurer and engineer, cannot invision too many pedicabs in the steets of New York. Modern traffic engineers would have never planned for that mode of transportation when laying out turn lanes. Pedicabs PROBABLY don\’t have the weight to trigger traffic light prompts (changes red light to green) and again, how are citizens protected for liability in the event that the pedicab injures a fare or other vehicle? For your part green transporter, you sound like someone who may not understand much about moving large numbers of people.
Just out of curiosity, where does one store 350 pedicabs when they are not in use. How and where are they maintained?
Again, who regulates maintenance. Cars now require airbags and seatbelts. Do pedicabs?
Dear Gill Fin,
Perhaps you don\’t understand much about the logistics of moving large numbers of people yourself. For if you did, you would realize that devoting over 120 square feet and 3000 pounds (rough estimates based on federal definitions of compact cars; discounting the existence of Hummers and Expeditions as well as Minis and motorcycles) to the transport of INDIVIDUALS (the vast plurality of vehicular traffic in NYC remains single-occupancy) is ludicrous. As for storage, one can fit 4 pedicabs into the space of one compact automobile. As for safety? The industry itself wanted a regulatory bill to ensure driver responsibility and personal safety, as well as to provide insurance coverage in the unfortunate event of a driver brazenly failing in their legal responsibility to other vehicles as in the example Maureen describes of a pedicab being struck by a HIT-AND-RUN driver FROM BEHIND. However, this new law oversteps its bounds. To cite a specific example – over $1000000 in liability coverage required for vehicles that have recorded this SINGLE major incident and NO fatalities in 11 years on New York City streets? You think there may be a bit of a double-standard when taxicabs are required to carry about a third of the coverage that pedicabs have been mandated to? Before you respond, you might want to look up THEIR safety record…
and believe you when you state the safety record for taxis is not good. All the more reason not to add human powered vehicles at five miles per hour to 40 mile an hour traffic. One given traffic
engineers would like to include is that most of the traffic are traveling at mostly the same speed. Why not just have pedestrians walk around out in traffic?
Wouldnt that be even better than pedicabs?
Whats wrong with regulating pedicabs?
Gill Fin:
\”Whats wrong with regulating pedicabs?\”
Nothing.
Nobody\’s calling for a regulation free atmosphere.
What we\’re saying is that complaining about congestion and pollution and then basically regulating a partial solution out of business is stupid.
By all means- tax pedicabs, regulate pedicabs, insure pedicabs, and make them follow specialized traffic laws.
That\’s fine.
However, don\’t make owning a pedicab so expensive and such a regulatory nightmare that they can\’t function.
That\’s counter-productive.
Regulated with common sense and an eye to reducing traffic and pollution does not equal unregulated.
\’gill I bet is somehow assosiated with james gennaro (d – queens) who is bizarre enough to claim pedicabs cause congestion\’. I have never heard of this bloke, but have to agree that anything not able to keep up with buses, trolleys, taxis, trucks and cars may cause gridlock.
It doesnt cause gridlock now, you say? Probably because there arent enough of them, yet. Whats the population of Manhattan (presumably thats the part of New York where pedicabs intend to shut down the city). If pedicabs are the solution, then why not rickshaws, horses, mules, camels, pogosticks and stilts? I suppose its bizarre enough to think those conveyances too would cause gridlock. Like green transporter wrote, follow the money. I wonder where his comes from.
40 MPH? Wishful thinking. During periods of the highest congestion, 6AM to 8PM (that\’s right, a 14 hour window), the average vehicular speed on major roads in Manhattan is 11 MPH, and just 8 MPH on local streets, with the majority of peak-direction thoroughfares posting lower average speeds than these (Best Practices Model data, New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, Base year 2002). A pedicab easily meets or exceeds these speeds, being capable of topping out at about 25 MPH. As I hinted at in my previous post, the problem of traffic congestion has nothing to do with speed and everything to do with space. Your car might be capable of doing 130 MPH, but if there is a few hundred tons of steel between you and your destination, you\’re going to watch as JOGGERS pass you by… And when there is less traffic, there is more than enough space for pedicabs to operate safely on city streets as cars zip by at THE SPEED LIMIT of 35 MPH.
Is it true that Mayor Bloomberg \”had second thoughts\” during the signing ceremony for the pedicab bill? Based on one account, perhaps it\’s too hard to say. On the other hand, if Bloomberg\’s response was solely to the pedicab drivers making a public stink, it\’s possible. (And sad.)
Yes, pedicabs provide passengers with a way to \”beat traffic jams by weaving through all the cars.\” Any vehicle that does this in Manhattan traffic, no matter how it\’s powered, is going to be at higher risk for accidents. Safety standards are an excellent idea, but compliance might be a problem based on the nature of this type of transportation.
I\’m not for or against pedicabs. An unregulated fleet of passenger vehicles in the streets of Manhattan seems inconsistent under laws that govern even horse-drawn carriages. But the proposed regulatory solution doesn\’t seem to address many of the underlying problems. Will a cap enforce an even distribution of pedicabs throughout Manhattan at any given time of day or night? Will pedicab drivers — models of conformity in general — be willing to comply with the laws?
Maybe the real solution is a fleet of for-hire passenger vehicles powered by a fuel that\’s cheap, biodegradable and in abundant supply in New York. Pigeon droppings.
\”Maybe the real solution is a fleet of for-hire passenger vehicles powered by a fuel that\’s cheap, biodegradable and in abundant supply in New York.\”
Like pedicabs, whose major byproducts are feces and urine, maybe?