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Defiant: ‘We are still cyclists’, says Tom Martin, with his ‘illegal’ vehicle |
Pedicab drivers say they ‘still use pedals’
Police seize motorised rickshaws in major ‘sting’
A ROAD rage row has erupted on the streets of Soho after motor-powered pedicabs were seized in a police sting.
Fifteen drivers were arrested and their pedal-powered rickshaws – a cross between a bicycle and a taxi – impounded.
Pedicabs have evolved in recent months with around 80 per cent of the 500 drivers updating their vehicles to the new motorised version.
The council say the “gigantic” batteries mean they must be insured as motor vehicles or taken off the road. But drivers say the batteries are needed for health reasons and that the council has been duped into the move by rival firms yet to “get up to date” with the new technology.
Tom Martin, 37, who lives in Drury Lane, said: “Friday was an absolute scandal. There are 500 pedicab drivers off the road now because of this. I am starting a Masters in January and I need to raise cash over Christmas. I don’t know what I’m going to do now.”
He added: “The idea that we are a danger just because we have added golf buggy batteries is ridiculous. We are still using our pedals, we are still cyclists basically. We are using them so we are not so physically burnt out at the end of the day – not to cheat!”
Mr Martin’s now illegal rickshaw is parked along with several others in an underground lock-up beneath the Royal National Hotel in Bloomsbury.
He added: “More than 80 per cent of drivers use these motors yet the council is listening to the companies that haven’t got up to date yet. It is a simply a Luddite reaction.”
Graeme Rivett, from London Pedicabs, a company supplying pedicabs without motors, said: “I am shocked at how, in such a short space of time, so many cowboy pedicab operators have come onto the streets, and they don’t give a damn for the safety of anybody. It’s a miracle nobody has been seriously injured or killed.”
He added: “Who can compete with an electrically-assisted pedicab which travels four or five times faster than a pedal-powered one. They’re putting responsible operators like me out of business.”
Transport chief Councillor Danny Chalkley added: “The sheer number of these deathtraps has left us with little choice other than to take firm action. What should be a fun visit to the West End could all too easily turn into a tragedy for innocent passengers, and I’m not prepared to stand by and wait for that to happen.”
Five serious injuries were reported from pedicabs in the year to July. |
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