Pedicab vs. Taxicab

May 24, 2009

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

1

abie 05.25.09 at 5:57 am

This is bull shit. The pedicab broke every traffic rule in the book. Lets see them in a real race like from times square to the upper east side or to La Guardia or JFK

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2

RadioFreeTaxi 05.25.09 at 7:26 pm

Interesting video! Soon or later every cabbie will get a ticket daily or weekly in the BUS or BIKE Lane. Yes, there is one more lane for Fire, and Emergency Vehicles! Officers with the vehicle ID-code reader target only the motorist, so the pedicab does the free pass all the time! They don’t have to worry about paying high lease fee, fuel or medallion! Best of all their meter starts with minimum $10 and up. Good for them!

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3

nyctaxiphoto 05.28.09 at 3:18 pm

We need to take a lesson from these two, and stop hating on each other. The pedicab business needs much more regulation, it’s true. But if you took the time to watch the pedicab drivers, you’d be aware that they get tickets too, big tickets, for blocking traffic, and for breaking traffic rules. They do have it easier because they don’t need a license to drive, but they don’t make the same money either.

Passengers are smart, and they know that most rides are faster in a taxi, than a bicycle, but soon they’ll learn that certain rides are faster by bike. It is better for us all around. if traffic is bad in midtown, we shouldn’t be in midtown, let the pedicabs take that business, while we go up 1st, and 10th aves.

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4

Chip Stern 06.08.09 at 11:40 am

What a load of jive. PediCabs are an indictible war crime. They cause pollution by blocking traffic and creating massive throngs of idling cars, they break every known law of time and space and they rip off customers big time.

Oh and pardon me, but is not a taxi medallion supposed to represent a limited exclusive franchise to solicit and accept a street fare?

Well, I took three women from Pittsburgh from Smith and Wollenseky to the Hyatt, for a total fare of $5.00. The made the earlier trip from the Hyatt to Smith and Wollensky in a pedicab: know what that MF charged them? Try $40! HELLO!

Think about that the next time you are sunbathing on Bloomberg Beach in midtown and one of those pedicab clowns comes through a red light going the wrong way on a one-way street.

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5

Charles T 02.06.10 at 2:24 am

Unsafe Pedi-cabs - you can be sure that greed is the game, and money is the name. How does Mayor Bloomberg look? Can he get re-elected after extending the two-term limit he created to get himself into office and get Rudi Giuliano out.
You certainly know that safety is not the game when pedi-cabs are moving around the city in traffic. All it takes is one big vehicle, obscuring the ped-cab that is hustling around (do they observe lights or stop signs). At least the horse carriages are tall, large, and can be seen. The passengers are elevated very higher. It is somewhat safer.
Bicycle lanes are very dangerous and only lead to congestion and safety degrades. Bicycles give the cab drivers more money. The average price of a cab ride escalates because of congestion. This is how we know our regulators do not care what happens to the passengers, as long as the regulators LOOK GOOD. While they are “on-it” in a second if a passenger complains they paid too much. Bicyclists are swerving and squeezing between vehicles and not observing any stop signs or motor vehicle controls. Jetting through red lights.
Obviously, Bloomberg things the “looks” and “feel” of the city are much more important than safety? Have any riders of the pedi-cabs been killed?

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6

Charles T 02.06.10 at 2:31 am

Share-a-cab cheats cabbies - This is a perfect example of regulators having nothing better to do. You know, having a passenger or a partition in the front seat is more dangerous than not. It is vision obscurement that the cabbie needs.
But those regulators and important powers that be need to justify their existence. A cabbie who has purchased one or two medallions with a reasonable expectation of the business, suddenly instead of once in a while, now has a constant vision obscurement in the front seat.
But there is another way share-a-cab cheats cabbies. We know because without the program sometimes passengers get together and take a cab from the stand. The first passenger gives the money including tip to the second passenger to pay at the end. The second passenger suddenly realizes he can confiscate the tip of the first passenger, once out of the cab, and then my experience is that once they realize they can make money on the tip, they decrease their own tip. Say an $18 job, and 1 dollar for the tip!!! It seems to always happen in share a cab. I hope this program allows for the passenger exiting first to pay the taxi driver directly.
What is going to happen when the regulator stranglehold on the cabbies becomes so tight they really can no longer breathe? And the word gets around, then who are the 70,000 cabies who will drive those medallions that the fleet garages own? Who will line up to be used as an expendable?

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