By Gus Saltonstall
A handful of pedicab drivers stood together on Tuesday at the West 72nd Street entrance to Central Park, holding up signs and calling out to tourists, offering rides through the park on the cold, but sunny morning.
Among those drivers was a young man who had only started in the business a few months ago, after a friend from his mosque told him about it.
“I want to be an entrepreneur, so it is like a stepping stone to that,” the driver told West Side Rag. He asked that we not include his name, in case it led to any “targeting from law enforcement.”
The driver’s fear of trouble came a week after a crew of NYPD officers advanced into the areas around Central Park, Rockefeller Center, Bryant Park, Times Square, and the Empire State Building, and seized 77 pedicabs, one moped, two speakers, and issued 100 summonses, in an attempt to get illegal pedicabs off the street.
The vehicle seizures on December 13 took place amid a growing call for action spearheaded by Lower Manhattan Councilmember Eric Bottcher, for stricter enforcement surrounding the bike cabs. In a letter sent to multiple city agencies last week, Bottcher pointed to the loud music that pedicabs blast from speakers, and the occasions where riders, particularly tourists, are alarmingly overcharged, as first reported by Patch.
There are roughly 850 pedicabs in the city. That is the maximum number of the special licenses needed to drive the vehicles that the city can issue at once. Drivers must renew these licenses annually with the city, and those who want one for the first time must enter a lottery. On the Upper West Side, they are a common sight near the entrances to the park on West 72nd Street and near Columbus Circle on West 59th Street.
They are not illegal, but they do need to follow a strict set of bylaws as outlined by the city code. For example, they cannot be motorized or electrically powered; they must be registered with the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and have plates and stickers; and rate signs that state the charge per minute must be clearly attached to both sides of the pedicab.
“I just started driving a few months ago, but I’ve heard that some of the other drivers overcharge customers, up to like $25 a minute,” the driver WSR spoke to said. “When they overcharge customers, they make [all] pedicab drivers look bad, because customers don’t trust us then.”
He added that he doesn’t think the police are cracking down because of electric motors.
“I’m new here, but I think it is certain drivers playing loud music and also overcharging customers,” he said. He has heard that some drivers purposefully don’t negotiate rates beforehand, play loud music during the ride to make it challenging for customers to communicate with them, and then charge hundreds of dollars at the end of a relatively short trip.
Following city guidelines, the driver the Rag spoke to had clear $5-a-minute signs plastered to both sides of his vehicle.
“If we tell the tourists the price beforehand, that’s okay. But some of the pedicab drivers, I’ve heard, they don’t tell them the price up front,” he said. “So that’s the con right there. But if we tell the price beforehand, that’s not a con.”
Bottcher also mentioned examples of price gauging.
“One particularly alarming example involved a couple being charged an exorbitant fee of over $500 for a 20-minute ride,” he wrote in his letter, adding that “some pedicabs play music so loudly, it’s heard within theaters during Broadway performances.”
In terms of what will happen to the seized pedicabs, the NYPD did not respond to questions about where the vehicles were taken, what the process might be for the drivers to get their pedicabs back, and if the vehicle seizures will continue.
Subscribe to WSR’s free email newsletter here.
They’re almost all e-bikes. Watch them as they dead head over to the collection sites where the tourists are. The bikes move as if by magic unless someone is watching in which case the drivers “pedal.”
I was in a cab that passed a pedicab blocking the bus lane on 42nd Street. A bus was immediately behind the pedicab, with bus driver furiously blowing the horn. The pedicab just sat there. My cabby said, “They need to crack down. Those guys aren’t regulated.” He didn’t know that the regs exist, but I guess he was right about their spotty enforcement.
I’m glad the police took action last week. They need to keep doing it. Including seizing the blaring speakers.
Pedicabs came to NYC during the Bloomberg years and always baffling that the City allowed pedicabs to mostly do whatever they wanted….
Like blocking bus stops, weaving around vehicles in moving traffic (which is super-dangerous for everyone), parking pedicabs all over including on streets with “no parking” signs etc.
Can’t tourists walk, take the bus, take the subway?
Also baffling that neither the MTA nor the City do targeted messaging to tourists to encourage use of MTA buses. Buses are a great way for tourists to see the sights.
MTA buses are NOT a great way to see the sights compared to a pedicab. Tourists come to NY to have experiences they can’t find elsewhere so it’s presumptuous to suggest they walk or take the bus/subway.
Boris,
NYC’s subway and bus mass transit are core, authentic aspects of NYC.
Riding on a subway or bus is actually new experiences for some visitors/tourists. There are suburbanites who’ve never used mass transit. And the subway/bus is a lot cheaper than a pedicab.
Buses have good vantage points and go all over NYC.
Do you not use the subway or bus?
$5 per minute is gouging, a 20 minute across the park $100+
$5 per minute is the posted rate so charging that amount is not gouging. Judging what people are willing to pay for an experience is something I shy away from. What people do with their money is none of my business if it’s disposable income that they earned. I would go way over the WSR’s word limit if I were to list all the products/services/events that are considered ‘overpriced’. It costs $15 to walk into the Cathedral of St. John the Divine – is that gouging?
If you live in the area it’s free to visit StJohn the Divine.
There’s a lot of policies from the Bloomberg years that made no sense
So, the “theme” seems to be people who are ignoring or breaking laws AND are cheating other people. This is why THEY are being cracked down on and there is no mention of race or bias, BUT as long as the deliveristas don’t cheat anyone as they break laws there are in the clear….hm. It’s starting to make some sense which crimes our DA will enforce. It’s not about “safety” but cheating or conning innocent people.
Good riddance. They ride very aggressively in Central Park. I seen them often on the East Side of the park riding in the running lane and expecting the pedestrians to yield. I’ve also seen them on the Bridle Path, sometimes side by side, which leaves zero room for anyone else on the path. Not to mention the loud music…
Please target food carts next. Nearly all of the ones on the Columbus Ave side of Natural History museum are breaking the law — no license and/or no prices displayed.
Never buy from a vendor (or any store) that doesn’t display product price.
They are a scourge on the landscape of
our City AND at $25 dollars per minute
it’s a rip off
Who engages a service without establishing beforehand what it will cost? Unless they already know the rate per minute and expect that to be charged. In that case, why would they pay the driver an excessive amount without seeking an enforcement person on the spot? People are stupid.
People should take horse drawn cabs.
The horses should be gone asap as well, at least the pedi caps don’t crap all over the park.
If they could, they would.
Leave the horses out of this. Hire Amish to ride pedicab bikes. Safe and quiet.
No way. Horse-drawn carriages are abusive and more dangerous to anyone in transit, especially the horses.
Too bad Kramer’s rickshaw business never too off.
Newmans fault….
Didn’t know that they couldn’t be powered.
So another way the City and State have dropped the ball on e-bikes.
The music blasting, illegally, from huge speakers sure is obnoxious, especially on mid-town side streets.
Even $5/minute is an insane ripoff, but I guess tourists will pay it
There’s always a schemer!
What will be the congestion pricing toll be for the pedicabs. Whether there is one or not I bet it will be passed onto the customer.
A typical charge is $6to $8/minute.. A sixty minute ride is $360 to $480. It is basically unregulated as to fares. If the driver totals JUST60 minutes/day whether from one 60 minute ride or let say a30 minute and 2 15 minuter rides You are talking about making over 100thousand per year.
It is a disgrace and should be tightly. regulated. Instead of signs per minute there should be signs that say what the cost is of a 15/30inutes
Imagine what a tourist who is hit with a $400 will tell people back home. It does not enhance the city as a tourist destination.
“It does not enhance the city as a tourist destination. GOOD!!
As a Noo-Yorker I would be so happy to not have to see all those tourists in my park! Sure as hell doesn’t enhance my experience living here. !
With no tourists to support the economy I guess you would be happy instead to pay an entry fee everytime you wanted to go to “your” park? Even in NYC, money does not grow on trees.
All those tourists enhance our economy with all the money they put into it
The City needs to outlaw their radios and the blasting of music from these vehicles. ASAP. The sound is deafening. Glad to see it will now attract enforcement — and/or road range.
What about the deafening music coming from the Roller Skating at the Central Park Mall. The decibel levels are way above that permitted by law. You can hear it deep in the Ramble. Disrupts the whole park experience. When you complain to the police they reply: “There have a Permit.” That may be true for the Skating but NOT for the loud noise they call music.
Another mess in CP. sanctioned by the city too many riding 2 abreast with horses – no room for cyclists who then go into running lane on lower loop. Weekends are dangerous on lower loop. Blocking pathways -riding wing way looking for fares – oh and some are rude and threatening.