Cabs vs. Rickshaws

Given the chance to choose, are you gonna replace rickshaws with cabs?

"Licensed To Kill" reads a two-page newspaper ad, with a picture of nervous children in the back of a bicycle rickshaw decorated with a skull and crossbones. The ad is paid for by taxi drivers and it's the latest salvo in a battle for customers pitting London's black cabs against the city's rickshaw drivers, according to Reuters.

Now its cabs versus rickshaws. Cabbies versus rickshaw drivers.

Authorities are now considering giving licenses for “pedicabs” after about a decade of license-free operation. So let the showdown begin…

In the mid-1990s a London company discovered a loophole in the Public Carriage Act that allows bicycle taxis to pick up customers without requiring a taxi license, the report said. Since then, the center of the capital has become crammed with rickshaws every night as bars and theatres close.

"Pedicabs" are an environmentally friendly way to cover short distances in a crowded city, said the rickshaw-rental firms. But rivals, such as the drivers of black cabs, call rickshaws a pest clogging the streets.

"The biggest myth is that these things are green. You get a rickshaw with a drunk in the back. Then you get a bus packed with passengers stuck chugging along at 5 miles an hour behind it. Somebody please tell me how that is green?" said Steve McNamara, spokesman for the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association.

There are about 600 bicycle taxis on the city's streets, authorities said. To note, cabbies have tried and failed in legal attempts to keep them off the streets, after courts decided that the taxi license laws do not apply to bikes.

Although black cabbies say they are dangerous, so far rickshaws in London have not been involved in serious accidents. Rickshaw companies, meanwhile, noted traffic in central London moves so slowly anyway that there is little danger from a crash.

At present, Bugbug rents a fleet of about 65 rickshaws to drivers for 270 pounds monthly, and also sells advertising on the sides of the vehicles. Drivers can charge what they like.

Chris Smallwood, Bugbug founder, said his drivers are trained, and covered with 5 million pounds of insurance. The vehicles are fitted with lights and seatbelts -- unlike those of newer firms that have since entered the market. Smallwood hopes upcoming legislation will define "pedicabs" properly and offer licenses to meet safety standards. Otherwise, the industry will go "to the lowest common denominator." "You've got bikes with no lights, no insurance. That's not a reason to ban it. That's a reason to license it," he noted.

True, rickshaws may not have that posh Acura CL auto body parts but they are much-loved.