Friends Of P?

After taking care of the N-word yesterday, Councilmember Leroy Comrie then turned his attention to the much-hated P-word:

The bill passed 38-7 over the objections of pedicab drivers, who say the regulations go too far. The bill caps the number of pedicabs that can be operated in the city at 325, bans the use of electric motors some drivers use to help in pedaling, and requires that operators carry liability insurance at a level similar to taxi owners’.

Currently, about half of pedicab operators are without insurance, Council officials say. The bill also requires that drivers be licensed and that the vehicles undergo inspections.

Another significant feature of the bill allows the police to close off a large chunk of Midtown, where pedicabs proliferate, from Nov. 12 through Jan. 7. The police can also restrict the pedicabs from other areas, at other times of year, for up to 14 days, if there is “unusual, heavy pedestrian or vehicular traffic” or events like parades.

Pedicab drivers say the provisions give the police a blank check to ban them from Midtown, where most of their business is. The industry also objects to the cap, which it says will remove from the streets about 175 pedicabs currently operating, and to the restriction on electric motors.

Chad Marlow, who represents the New York City Pedicab Owners Association, said the association agrees with much of the legislation, but plans to file a lawsuit challenging some elements of it. He said it believes that the Council was within its rights to impose a cap as the city does with taxis, but that the restriction on electric motors and the provision giving the police the power to ban pedicabs from Midtown run afoul of the law.

. . .

At a council hearing before yesterday’s vote, Councilman Alan J. Gerson, who supported the original legislation but removed his name from the current version of the bill, said, “They’re nonpolluting, they’re quiet; why should the city care if they are electric assist or not?”

But Councilman Leroy G. Comrie Jr. of Queens, one of the bill’s sponsors, said that under state law, the use of electric motors would cause the pedicabs to be classified as motorized vehicles. As such, they could not be registered because they lack the safety features required of cars and trucks.

Save yourself the heartache and don’t tell your uppity libertarian friends about this next quote:

“There is a lot of sentiment to remove the pedicabs altogether,” Councilman Comrie said. “People felt it was unfair they were being unregulated.”