Trixi.com
24-04-2005, 14:28
http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/File-Based_Image_Resource/globe_connection_logo_000066.gif (http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/04/24/pedicabs_are_coming?pg=4)
Pedicabs are coming.
The 'cute' 3-wheelers just a trickle, but city officials beginning to take notice
By Ric Kahn, Globe Staff | April 24, 2005
They've rolled down the streets of Savannah and Santa Barbara. New Orleans and New York. Ames, Iowa, and Huntington, W.Va.
Now, Boston appears to be joining Rickshaw Nation. Two new bike-taxi services in the city are vying for the power of the pedal as they circle the streets for fares.
''Beanie Cabs, Inc., is the first-of-its-kind pedal cab company to hit the streets of Boston," owner/operator Jennelle Moore said of her two-bike-taxi company on her website last October.
''We are Boston and New England's largest rickshaw operator," Boston Pedicab owner/operator Benjamin Morris said in the press advance of his five-vehicle debut last month.
With an urgency reminiscent of a storyline last year on Donald Trump's show ''The Apprentice" that had teams managing a pedicab company, both are fervently trying to drum up customers:
Making connections with the city's concierges. Distributing more business cards in Boston than soldiers dropping leaflets behind enemy lines. Lining up tours, wedding parties, and other special events. Following the crowds around the downtown area, from Faneuil Hall to Fenway Park.
But, like a vintage cartoon episode, there is a road full of tacks scattered ahead -- ones that may or may not puncture the plans of Moore and Morris as they seek wheel supremacy of the Hub.
City officials say they are concerned about whether the pedicabs are dangerous and would be overmatched in a collision with a car; whether they should be allowed to squeeze into the cramped, skinny streets of the city; and whether they even have the right to be running at all.
''We're going to be careful about which vehicles are allowed to share the road," says Tom Tinlin, the city's acting transportation commisioner, who is currently reviewing the pros and cons of the pedicabs, including their legal status on the streets. ''I don't want to let people be put in harm's way."
Meanwhile, those behind the wheel of some of the city's 1,825 licensed taxis fear that the pedicabs are already skimming the hacks' downtown fares.
''Are they any different than the [unlicensed] gypsy cabs -- except they're cute?" asks veteran Boston cabbie Bob Turner.
The pedicab owners see themselves as offering a safe, tourist-driven curio that can complement the network of cabs, and say they want to work with officials to find a place in the city's transportation plexus. And even though the bike-taxis are as yet unlicensed -- and unregulated -- their owners vow to continue peddling their product.
''We haven't been removed," says Moore, straddling the statutory uncertainty that pedicab operators are facing in other cities, as well.
Indeed, on Monday afternoon, the pedicabs were out in force, buzzing around Fenway Park during the Red Sox game.
''The rickshaw is absolutely fantastic," says Keith Wilcoxen, a 32-year-old chemist from Medford, after hopping out of a Boston Pedicab at the corner of Boylston Street and Mass. Ave. following a three-10ths of a mile ride.
''It's outside, beautiful weather," says Wilcoxen before taking the next leg of his trip, by T and taxi, to a tavern.
http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/File-Based_Image_Resource/spacer.gif
The current three-wheeled carriage-carting bike cabs that can seat two to four passengers have traveled far. They evolved from their dusty beginnings as hand-pulled rickshaws that historians say were introduced in Japan in the late 19th century.
Evolving from the peasant-powered pull-carts of Asian pathways, today's 21-speed rickshaws that are clothed in advertisements and all-weather coveralls have become a retro-chic symbol for the remaking of many American dead-end downtowns into environmentally sound, pedestrian-friendly destinations.
''They certainly fit . . . the whole push toward new urbanism," says Steve Meyer, owner of Main Street Pedicabs in Broomfield, Colo., who started with one client in Washington, D.C., in the early '90s and now sells pedicabs base-priced at $3,400 to companies in about 100 US cities and towns, as well as in more than a dozen countries. ''We parallel our success with the revitalization of downtown areas."
Boosters say pedicabs can offer walkers a scenic alternative in a bitty city like Boston and pooh-pooh any talk that a handful of rickshaws are a threat to cabbies' business.
''Ah, come on," says Walter Hook, executive director of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, in New York. ''Seven pedicabs?"
Some Boston cabbies agree, shrugging off the rickshaws as roadside runts. Yet others in the taxi industry view the pedicabs as the latest in a long queue of people-carriers eating at their livelihood.
''It's called nibbling," says John Ford, owner of Boston-based Top Cab. ''The liveries are nibbling at you. The shuttle buses are nibbling at you. The limos are nibbling at you. The out-of-town taxis are nibbling at you. Now you have these things. One day you'll find you're missing an arm instead of a fingernail."
Cabbies say that what began as novelty has become, in some places, a nuisance.
In London, cabbies say they are not competitive with the 250 pedicabs, but blame them for clogging the streets and blocking their access to fares, according to a government report issued in February that addressed the ups and downs of the bike-taxis being in legal limbo. In New York, hacks have accused pedicabs of undermining their customer base, according to a recent newspaper account, which says the number of pedicabs has nearly doubled in the past two years to more than 200. They've been left unrestricted so far by the city, which is now weighing a possible licensing requirement, according to a city spokeswoman.
Ford says if left unchecked, the pedicabs could proliferate like fish here, too.
''Two is like, when they first put those fish in the pond -- piranha," he says, referring to Moore's two-bike-taxi startup vs. the traditional cabs. ''Now there's 50 million piranha, and no goldfish in the pond."
Both Moore and Morris say they are in the market for more rickshaws.
http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/File-Based_Image_Resource/spacer.gif ''I'd do 50 if I could," says Morris, a 23-year-old Northeastern University senior who says he launched with financial help from family.
Though rivals, Moore and Morris each have been operating in a kind of parallel universe: Morris garages his vehicles in a South End spot within shouting distance of where Moore lives.
Both say they got the idea of putting pedicabs on Boston's streets after seeing the vehicles in San Diego. Moore, a 26-year-old who works in marketing, was first, creating her niche by shuttling people around during last summer's Democratic National Convention. Morris discovered there were only her two in the city, decided there was room for more, and added five.
Both say they made the rounds of city agencies. And when no one flashed a red light to stop their operations, they say, both took it as a signal to keep on going.
Both say they voluntarily bought accident insurance and are stressing safety, noting that their pedicabs are only going with the flow of traffic at 10 to 15 miles per hour.
Both say they want to help the city create guidelines to govern their budding industry, which could mean anything from regulating rates (as with taxis) or routes (as with tour vehicles), as well as controlling the number of pedicabs, having the vehicles inspected, and conducting full background checks on the drivers.
''We aren't putting anyone in danger, we're providing a service that is enjoyable, that as of now has been been embraced by the city," says Moore. But Boston officials, faced with questions inside and outside their agencies, are now beaming a yellow caution light, saying they need to determine whether the pedicabs are operating in accordance with the city's transportation needs and regulations.
For example, Mark Cohen, civilian director of the Boston Police Department's Licensing Division, says he will ask the department's lawyers to see if the cabbies are right: that unlicensed pedicabs are in violation of a city ordinance that states: ''In the City of Boston, no person, firm, or corporation driving or having charge of a taxicab or other private vehicle shall offer the vehicle for hire for the purpose of transporting, soliciting and/or picking up a passenger or passengers unless said person is licensed as a hackney driver and said vehicle is licensed as a hackney carriage by the Police Commissioner of said City."
Likewise, transportation officials say that because pedicabs are bike-taxi hybrids, they are trying to figure out where the rickshaws fit into the city's rules and regulations. As part of the review of rules, one official says, the department has already determined that, like buses bearing ads, pedicabs are not subject to a provision barring strictly ''advertising vehicles" around downtown -- even though Moore and Morris both say that ads affixed to the pedicabs are their prime source of revenue and that the downtown core is their major venue. The regulation states: ''No person shall drive or park any vehicle designed or used primarily for the purpose of advertising on any street in the district bounded by the southwesterly line of Massachusetts Avenue, the southeasterly line of Albany Street, Fort Point Channel, Boston Harbor, and Charles River."
Too, the head of the city's Commission for Persons with Disabilities, Stephen Spinetto, says he'd like to talk with Moore and Morris about whether their pedicabs are in compliance with public accommodation laws.
http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/File-Based_Image_Resource/spacer.gif Morris says he can fit a wheelchair on his pedicab. Moore says she welcomes dialogue with the city on the issue.
''If it's open and used by the public, it should be able to be used by everybody, including people with disabilities," says Spinetto. ''This is a city that should be open to everyone."
In addition, City Councilor Paul Scapicchio says that while he won't dismiss such rickshaw entrepreneurship out of hand, neither will he simply rubber-stamp any proposed legislation that comes his way.
''We've got a really tight, small, city," says Scapicchio, chairman of the Council's Aviation and Transportation committee and a cabbie himself when he was in college. ''We should take a good hard look at anything that has a chance to make the transportation system worse."
Meanwhile, Turner, a cabbie activist, says he will request a meeting with city hackney officials to forward concerns that, with no oversight and ensuing lower overheads, the pedicabs have an unfair competitive edge over traditional taxis.
''Yeah, it has nothing to do with money," Turner says of the pedicabs, sarcastically. ''We're just adding more local color to the Boston scene."
Both Moore and Morris say they are no threat to taxis. For one thing, they say, they are pricier than a cab. Morris figures that at the buck a block he charges, a mile ride is about $12. Moore says her drivers charge no set fees, suggesting patrons kick in $10 for a five-minute ride, $15 for 10 minutes. One mile in a cab goes for $3.85.
Besides, they both specialize in something they believe cabs don't: short hauls, often of only a few blocks. ''We can't go to the airport," says Morris.
But Turner says those quick hops are part of the bread and butter for downtown cabbies: say, taking tourists from the North End to a downtown hotel, or partiers from Quincy Market to the clubs around the Theater District.
Turner says he saw a pedicab near Government Center last summer and asked how business was going. ''We're only taking little jobs, $5 or $10," he recalls the driver saying.
And Turner said to himself, ''Five or ten dollars is pretty good -- if you do 10 or 20 of them."
So now, Turner fumes when he sees the rickshaws jaunting around town, untouched by the city fathers.
''It amazes me that they're doing this, and nobody's doing anything," says Turner, 61.
Turner expressed his exasperation over the loss of so-called nickel-and-dime jobs several days after he'd driven his taxi until 4 in the morning. Counting expenses, he says, he ended up losing $1.95 for his nine-hour shift.
http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/File-Based_Image_Resource/globe_connection_logo_000066.gif (http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/04/24/pedicabs_are_coming?pg=4)
Pedicabs are coming.
The 'cute' 3-wheelers just a trickle, but city officials beginning to take notice
By Ric Kahn, Globe Staff | April 24, 2005
They've rolled down the streets of Savannah and Santa Barbara. New Orleans and New York. Ames, Iowa, and Huntington, W.Va.
Now, Boston appears to be joining Rickshaw Nation. Two new bike-taxi services in the city are vying for the power of the pedal as they circle the streets for fares.
''Beanie Cabs, Inc., is the first-of-its-kind pedal cab company to hit the streets of Boston," owner/operator Jennelle Moore said of her two-bike-taxi company on her website last October.
''We are Boston and New England's largest rickshaw operator," Boston Pedicab owner/operator Benjamin Morris said in the press advance of his five-vehicle debut last month.
With an urgency reminiscent of a storyline last year on Donald Trump's show ''The Apprentice" that had teams managing a pedicab company, both are fervently trying to drum up customers:
Making connections with the city's concierges. Distributing more business cards in Boston than soldiers dropping leaflets behind enemy lines. Lining up tours, wedding parties, and other special events. Following the crowds around the downtown area, from Faneuil Hall to Fenway Park.
But, like a vintage cartoon episode, there is a road full of tacks scattered ahead -- ones that may or may not puncture the plans of Moore and Morris as they seek wheel supremacy of the Hub.
City officials say they are concerned about whether the pedicabs are dangerous and would be overmatched in a collision with a car; whether they should be allowed to squeeze into the cramped, skinny streets of the city; and whether they even have the right to be running at all.
''We're going to be careful about which vehicles are allowed to share the road," says Tom Tinlin, the city's acting transportation commisioner, who is currently reviewing the pros and cons of the pedicabs, including their legal status on the streets. ''I don't want to let people be put in harm's way."
Meanwhile, those behind the wheel of some of the city's 1,825 licensed taxis fear that the pedicabs are already skimming the hacks' downtown fares.
''Are they any different than the [unlicensed] gypsy cabs -- except they're cute?" asks veteran Boston cabbie Bob Turner.
The pedicab owners see themselves as offering a safe, tourist-driven curio that can complement the network of cabs, and say they want to work with officials to find a place in the city's transportation plexus. And even though the bike-taxis are as yet unlicensed -- and unregulated -- their owners vow to continue peddling their product.
''We haven't been removed," says Moore, straddling the statutory uncertainty that pedicab operators are facing in other cities, as well.
Indeed, on Monday afternoon, the pedicabs were out in force, buzzing around Fenway Park during the Red Sox game.
''The rickshaw is absolutely fantastic," says Keith Wilcoxen, a 32-year-old chemist from Medford, after hopping out of a Boston Pedicab at the corner of Boylston Street and Mass. Ave. following a three-10ths of a mile ride.
''It's outside, beautiful weather," says Wilcoxen before taking the next leg of his trip, by T and taxi, to a tavern.
http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/File-Based_Image_Resource/spacer.gif
The current three-wheeled carriage-carting bike cabs that can seat two to four passengers have traveled far. They evolved from their dusty beginnings as hand-pulled rickshaws that historians say were introduced in Japan in the late 19th century.
Evolving from the peasant-powered pull-carts of Asian pathways, today's 21-speed rickshaws that are clothed in advertisements and all-weather coveralls have become a retro-chic symbol for the remaking of many American dead-end downtowns into environmentally sound, pedestrian-friendly destinations.
''They certainly fit . . . the whole push toward new urbanism," says Steve Meyer, owner of Main Street Pedicabs in Broomfield, Colo., who started with one client in Washington, D.C., in the early '90s and now sells pedicabs base-priced at $3,400 to companies in about 100 US cities and towns, as well as in more than a dozen countries. ''We parallel our success with the revitalization of downtown areas."
Boosters say pedicabs can offer walkers a scenic alternative in a bitty city like Boston and pooh-pooh any talk that a handful of rickshaws are a threat to cabbies' business.
''Ah, come on," says Walter Hook, executive director of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, in New York. ''Seven pedicabs?"
Some Boston cabbies agree, shrugging off the rickshaws as roadside runts. Yet others in the taxi industry view the pedicabs as the latest in a long queue of people-carriers eating at their livelihood.
''It's called nibbling," says John Ford, owner of Boston-based Top Cab. ''The liveries are nibbling at you. The shuttle buses are nibbling at you. The limos are nibbling at you. The out-of-town taxis are nibbling at you. Now you have these things. One day you'll find you're missing an arm instead of a fingernail."
Cabbies say that what began as novelty has become, in some places, a nuisance.
In London, cabbies say they are not competitive with the 250 pedicabs, but blame them for clogging the streets and blocking their access to fares, according to a government report issued in February that addressed the ups and downs of the bike-taxis being in legal limbo. In New York, hacks have accused pedicabs of undermining their customer base, according to a recent newspaper account, which says the number of pedicabs has nearly doubled in the past two years to more than 200. They've been left unrestricted so far by the city, which is now weighing a possible licensing requirement, according to a city spokeswoman.
Ford says if left unchecked, the pedicabs could proliferate like fish here, too.
''Two is like, when they first put those fish in the pond -- piranha," he says, referring to Moore's two-bike-taxi startup vs. the traditional cabs. ''Now there's 50 million piranha, and no goldfish in the pond."
Both Moore and Morris say they are in the market for more rickshaws.
http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/File-Based_Image_Resource/spacer.gif ''I'd do 50 if I could," says Morris, a 23-year-old Northeastern University senior who says he launched with financial help from family.
Though rivals, Moore and Morris each have been operating in a kind of parallel universe: Morris garages his vehicles in a South End spot within shouting distance of where Moore lives.
Both say they got the idea of putting pedicabs on Boston's streets after seeing the vehicles in San Diego. Moore, a 26-year-old who works in marketing, was first, creating her niche by shuttling people around during last summer's Democratic National Convention. Morris discovered there were only her two in the city, decided there was room for more, and added five.
Both say they made the rounds of city agencies. And when no one flashed a red light to stop their operations, they say, both took it as a signal to keep on going.
Both say they voluntarily bought accident insurance and are stressing safety, noting that their pedicabs are only going with the flow of traffic at 10 to 15 miles per hour.
Both say they want to help the city create guidelines to govern their budding industry, which could mean anything from regulating rates (as with taxis) or routes (as with tour vehicles), as well as controlling the number of pedicabs, having the vehicles inspected, and conducting full background checks on the drivers.
''We aren't putting anyone in danger, we're providing a service that is enjoyable, that as of now has been been embraced by the city," says Moore. But Boston officials, faced with questions inside and outside their agencies, are now beaming a yellow caution light, saying they need to determine whether the pedicabs are operating in accordance with the city's transportation needs and regulations.
For example, Mark Cohen, civilian director of the Boston Police Department's Licensing Division, says he will ask the department's lawyers to see if the cabbies are right: that unlicensed pedicabs are in violation of a city ordinance that states: ''In the City of Boston, no person, firm, or corporation driving or having charge of a taxicab or other private vehicle shall offer the vehicle for hire for the purpose of transporting, soliciting and/or picking up a passenger or passengers unless said person is licensed as a hackney driver and said vehicle is licensed as a hackney carriage by the Police Commissioner of said City."
Likewise, transportation officials say that because pedicabs are bike-taxi hybrids, they are trying to figure out where the rickshaws fit into the city's rules and regulations. As part of the review of rules, one official says, the department has already determined that, like buses bearing ads, pedicabs are not subject to a provision barring strictly ''advertising vehicles" around downtown -- even though Moore and Morris both say that ads affixed to the pedicabs are their prime source of revenue and that the downtown core is their major venue. The regulation states: ''No person shall drive or park any vehicle designed or used primarily for the purpose of advertising on any street in the district bounded by the southwesterly line of Massachusetts Avenue, the southeasterly line of Albany Street, Fort Point Channel, Boston Harbor, and Charles River."
Too, the head of the city's Commission for Persons with Disabilities, Stephen Spinetto, says he'd like to talk with Moore and Morris about whether their pedicabs are in compliance with public accommodation laws.
http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/File-Based_Image_Resource/spacer.gif Morris says he can fit a wheelchair on his pedicab. Moore says she welcomes dialogue with the city on the issue.
''If it's open and used by the public, it should be able to be used by everybody, including people with disabilities," says Spinetto. ''This is a city that should be open to everyone."
In addition, City Councilor Paul Scapicchio says that while he won't dismiss such rickshaw entrepreneurship out of hand, neither will he simply rubber-stamp any proposed legislation that comes his way.
''We've got a really tight, small, city," says Scapicchio, chairman of the Council's Aviation and Transportation committee and a cabbie himself when he was in college. ''We should take a good hard look at anything that has a chance to make the transportation system worse."
Meanwhile, Turner, a cabbie activist, says he will request a meeting with city hackney officials to forward concerns that, with no oversight and ensuing lower overheads, the pedicabs have an unfair competitive edge over traditional taxis.
''Yeah, it has nothing to do with money," Turner says of the pedicabs, sarcastically. ''We're just adding more local color to the Boston scene."
Both Moore and Morris say they are no threat to taxis. For one thing, they say, they are pricier than a cab. Morris figures that at the buck a block he charges, a mile ride is about $12. Moore says her drivers charge no set fees, suggesting patrons kick in $10 for a five-minute ride, $15 for 10 minutes. One mile in a cab goes for $3.85.
Besides, they both specialize in something they believe cabs don't: short hauls, often of only a few blocks. ''We can't go to the airport," says Morris.
But Turner says those quick hops are part of the bread and butter for downtown cabbies: say, taking tourists from the North End to a downtown hotel, or partiers from Quincy Market to the clubs around the Theater District.
Turner says he saw a pedicab near Government Center last summer and asked how business was going. ''We're only taking little jobs, $5 or $10," he recalls the driver saying.
And Turner said to himself, ''Five or ten dollars is pretty good -- if you do 10 or 20 of them."
So now, Turner fumes when he sees the rickshaws jaunting around town, untouched by the city fathers.
''It amazes me that they're doing this, and nobody's doing anything," says Turner, 61.
Turner expressed his exasperation over the loss of so-called nickel-and-dime jobs several days after he'd driven his taxi until 4 in the morning. Counting expenses, he says, he ended up losing $1.95 for his nine-hour shift.
http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/File-Based_Image_Resource/globe_connection_logo_000066.gif (http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/04/24/pedicabs_are_coming?pg=4)