For the Best in Transportainment, Try a Pedicab

140782656_7e2a3c75fd.jpg 

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

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Do Pedicabs Belong in Bike Lanes?

|
A pedicab (sort of) makes use of the Broadway bike lane. Photo: Brad Aaron Last week’s collision between a pedicab and a yellow taxi in Brooklyn was followed by a renewed, or at least better publicized, interest from Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council in enforcing long-awaited pedicab industry standards. The rules, initiated by pedicab […]

Political Deal Results in Bad Pedicab Regulations

|
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 […]

City Council Passes New Pedicab Regulations

|
Reported in the New York Times: Chad Marlow, who represents the New York City Pedicab Owners Association, said the association agrees with much of the legislation, but plans to file a lawsuit challenging some elements of it. He said it believes that the Council was within its rights to impose a cap as the city […]

Pedicabs Protest New Regulations

|
Pedicabs took to the streets yesterday to protest the City’s new regulations on New York’s greenest for-hire transportation industry. In a press release, The Green Transport Association says that City Council Speaker Christine Quinn "dealt pedicabs a crushing blow capping our number at 325 city-wide" — a reported 35 percent reduction in the pedicab workforce: Pedicabs are […]

Midtown Road Rage Eruption: Is This the Best We Can Do?

|
We linked to a story in this morning’s headlines about yesterday’s brawl between a yellow cab driver and a pedicab operator in midtown. A Fox 5 reporter on the scene covering the sex scandal du jour caught the whole thing on video. Via Gothamist, here it is. It looks like the pedicab driver, tired of […]

Cyclists Ride with Pedicabs to Rally at City Hall

|
The City Council Consumer Affairs Committee is set to vote on regulations that would put a very low cap on the total number of pedicabs in the City and ban certain types of pedicabs from City streets. Time’s Up! joins the Pedicab Owners’ Association against these unreasonable regulations to say: NO CAPS! NO BANS! SAVE THE […]