http://www.westendextra.com/news/2011/oct/xtra-diary-big-apple-shows-way-rickshaw


The Xtra Diary - Big Apple shows the way with the rickshaw







Published: 14 October, 2011
DAME Judith Mayhew Jonas, boss of the New West End Company (NWEC), declared that we should learn lessons from America when the influential business lobby held its annual meeting.
Among those who attended the lunch at the Courthouse Hotel off Regent Street was Westminster City Council deputy leader Robert Davis, and the guest of honour was Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance, the NWEC’s counterpart in the Big Apple.
Mr Tompkins told of the success of pedestrian-friendly schemes which Dame Judith is keen to emulate.
Before the lunch he shared with Diary his relaxed attitude towards street trading and rickshaws, both hot topics in the West End.
“It’s not a question of whether they exist or not,” he said. “It’s are they effectively regulated and are those regulations enforced.”
Mr Tompkins said “pedicabs” had been “free agents” when they first appeared on the streets of New York but that new laws meant they now had to comply with strict safety rules to obtain licences.
They were “part of the fabric of city life”, he said. “We’ve accepted the larger reality that they are there.
I think in the case of our retailers, if they could wave a magic wand they might say they would rather not have a street trader or pedicab right in front of their store. But we accept that in the complexity of New York City, that is part of the environment, so it’s how do you regulate it effectively.”
What a contrast to London, where plans supported by the city council to license rickshaws were given the heave-ho several years ago by mayor Boris Johnson.
The issue raised its head again this week during a Lords debate on the Localism Bill and at Tuesday’s transport scrutiny committee meeting at Westminster City Hall, when council transport boss Lee Rowley suggested providing “logistical support” to “responsible” pedicab companies who agreed to sign up to a regulatory code.
As for street trading, “itinerant” food vending is banned in Westminster, meaning all ice cream “vans” must be fixed to the ground.
Meanwhile, on the Camden side of the West End hot dog vendors who have campaigned to be issued with licences and pitches outside the British Museum in return for undertakings to obey hygiene rules have had their pleas rejected by the council and have been subjected to regular police crackdowns.
Dame Judith has in the past suggested the NWEC could take over responsibility for some licensing enforcement, an idea met with short shrift by some residents and West End ward councillor Glenys Roberts.
But if she and her corporate chums share Mr Tompkins’s laissez-faire instincts on licensing, perhaps the idea is not without some merit.