Freewheeling in New York City

If you've ever been in midtown Manhattan during rush hour recently, you have probably noticed a new form of transportation available on New York City's cluttered streets-- pedicabs. These three-wheeled bicycles whisk businessman across town between Penn and Grand Central train stations; they take tourists on leisurely sight seeing trips in Times Square. But some City Council officials say pedicabs operate in the grey area of the law, and are calling for their regulation. Joseph Chaney has this story on New York City's pedicab industry as it navigates the gap between entertainment and transportation.

Assorted bike parts are strewn across the dusty cement floor at the garage on West 29th Street owned by pedicab company Mr. Rickshaw. Outside, fifty immaculate pedicabs are stacked in tight rows under a plastic awning. The cabs are essentially three wheeled bicycles fitted with a small bench and a canopy, and all of them were purchased from Main Street Pedicabs, a manufacturer in Colorado, for about $4000 a piece. Mr. Rickshaw's co-owner Rob Tipton shows that the chains are oiled and that the handlebar bells function properly.

Bring up sound of spokes and bell; fade under

It's around 3:30 in the afternoon. Tipton tidies up shop as some of his drivers arrive to pick up their bikes. Competition for drivers is getting stiffer as the industry grows. Now there are around 400 cabs on the streets, operated by more and more companies-- Pedicabs of New York, Manhattan Rickshaw Company, Revolution Rickshaws, and Mr. Rickshaw. Tipton charges his drivers a flat rental fee $40 a day, or $150 a week. Meredith Smith arrives to retrieve her pedicab. She and Lipton smoke cigarettes and chat about the topic that has the greatest impact on their business--the weather.

Sound on tape: chatting about the weather

My name is Meredith Smith and I have been a pedicab driver for almost two years- two years this spring. I can make my own schedule. I can pretty much wake up in the morning and decide what my day is going to consist of that day, how many hours.

Tipton wheels Madeline's pedicab down a wobbly ramp. He does a final round of checks on the bike's tires and lights, before he lets her go.

Ramp sound plus background sound

New York's pedicab drivers are an eclectic group of people with different backgrounds, and different reasons for going into this line of work. Meredith is a former waitress who needed work and rides full time. Steve has many jobs.

Yeah man, I make electronic music, I play underground parties, house parties, that kind of stuff. I'm a priest in the Gnostic Catholic church. And I'm working on a book about pedicabing—well I don't want to talk about it right now, but there's a book in progress that I'm doing —and I am considering going to teach English in Prague for a year.

Manhattan Rickshaw Company's owner Peter Meitzler says his workforce is as diverse as New York's population.

People who work for the MTA, people who are engineering students, people who are graduates of professional acting schools like the neighborhood playhouse, former dot.com people, I have a graphic artist or two. I think I have a theology major, a photographer or two, someone who even has a patent or two to her name.

I had a tap dancer, a sort of impresario—she was a producer of tap shows, of course many actors, but I also had a mortician, a couple of lawyers—

That was George Bliss, owner of Pedicabs of New York, the first pedicab company in the city, which he started in 1994. Bliss says that whether lawyers or morticians, most people are attracted to the job for similar reasons: you can determine your own hours, you are paid in cash, and you are free to be a street-side entrepreneur of sorts¬¬—determining your own rates, and attracting customers because of sheer force of personality. Here's Steve Smith-

And it really is an interesting job. You're out there as an entertainer, a bit of a performer if you have that part of your personality going on, sort of like being a professional athlete in the sense that you 're making money from your physical energy. You get a crazy amount of salesmanship training and negotiations. It's like you 're running your own marketing, advertising kind of situation out there. So I just naturally clicked with it, started doing it. It's like you do it for fun, go out to hang out with girls, tell people stories about stuff, and people give you money for it. You tell them where to eat, all the restaurants to go to.

Peter Meitzler says it's a never-ending flip-flop between fun--

I had two women dare to take their clothes off, so that happened. But they kept their shoes on, so that was fun.

And serious, such as during the citywide blackout in August 2003.

Gradually during the day, as the gasoline pumps didn't have any more gas to pump and taxis were scarcer and scarcer, pedicabs were rockin' it.

ACT II

The recent growth in the pedicab industry has resulted in a public demand for regulations. In February, City Councilman Alan Gerson re-introduced Intro 75, a bill calling for mandatory driver training and regular inspections, among other measures.

Steve Smith says that while pedicab drivers don't want the city government to trample over their business, they are in favor of the legislation, hoping that it will improve the quality of service across the industry.

Yeah, I think regulations-- the public wants to know that they're gonna get on with a guy who knows what he's doing who has insurance. He's not just showing up out of the crack house to drive people around to make cash, 'cause that's happened. Ha! Ha! Ha!

And Peter Meitlzer of the Manhattan Rickshaw Company thinks all pedicab companies should be required to have some financial security.

Insurance. I think insurance. I think that passengers who get on want to know if the pedicab is insured or not. The fact that there are peticabs out there without just blows my mind.

Insurance both saved and ruined George Bliss. In December 2001, a private bus nudged the back of one of his cabs as it was turning a corner at 59th Street and 5th Ave. The passengers-- a married couple-- claimed to have sustained back and shoulder injuries. Bliss's insurance company put up 150,000 of a $1.9 million dollar settlement in March 2005. The insurance company quickly dropped him. Now he can't afford the $25,000 per claimant deductible that another insurance company, Lloyd's of London, wants. Pedicabs of New York is out of business for the time being, but Bliss still thinks that accidents--even a fatal accident-- should not cause the industry's demise.

If there were a fatality, all you can say is this has happened in every other transportation medium that ever existed, so it should not be the case that that would lead to peticabs being banned, or for our insurance to be unattainable. If that were to happen, it would be a prejudice.

ACT III

A static filled radio blares on a busy Friday night at Revolution Rickshaws on 9th Avenue between 35th and 36th Streets. Greg Zukowski paces around his garage and talks about big plans—plans to expand into the mainstream tourism business, plans to attract advertising, plans to get into the cargo business. He's got the bikes to prove it—two pedicabs with transport bins bolted to their backs are tucked into the garage's far corner.

Sound of driver parking bike

Zukowski pulls a cab out of the garage and we start to head south on 9th Avenue. Immediately the cars gather around us. Zukowski zigzags in and out between buses and taxis like a motorcycle, trusting his steering abilities, and trusting that everyone else on the road acknowledges that he is part of normal traffic.

I never knew you guys' road in traffic like this—

We are traffic!

Zukowski causally talks about his rates as buses and trucks pass on each side. The heavier you are, the more expensive. We stop at a traffic light.

There's always a question that people ask—how many miles a day do you ride? You must have strong legs! You must be in great shape. The same questions you get from people all day long.

As we head north, the wind gets stronger and Zukowski peddles harder. He gets more aggressive, swerving between buses. I, well-- get a little nervous.

You've never been hit?

I keep trying, but the cars get out of the way at the last second.

Don't try too hard.

Do you go right on red?

I always obey all traffic laws at all times. My goodness. What kind of question is that? Geez, there's laws for a reason.

Speeding past the theaters—a core business for the pedicab drivers—we spill out onto Times Square. Chaos ensues as an army of police cars and vans plows down Broadway. Zukowski is calm and casually moves aside on the street.

Continuing south, we pull up next to another pedicab driver, who looks our way. The driver and Zukowski do not wave at each other. Zukowski explains that there is no secret code of brotherhood between drivers. By now, there are too many drivers in New York, and work is work.

Back at the garage, an older, middle-aged driver eats dinner in silence. Zukowski stores his bike for the night.

Sound of bike being stored. Background sound up and under.

But it is clear, regulations or not, that pedicabs are in New York to stay, and the industry is growing.

Joseph Chaney, Columbia Radio News