Bicycling

Pedi Politics

On Monday, April 23, the day after Earth Day and the Mayor's Long-Term Sustainability speech, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn plans to hold a decisive vote on Intro. 331-A, a law limiting and restricting pedicabs. Mayor Bloomberg vetoed the bill but rather than going back and trying to improve the legislation by, say, simply increasing the cap on the number of pedicab licenses, Quinn has been twisting Council members arms to override the Mayor's veto.

By Aaron Naparstek

4:31 PM EDT on April 17, 2007

On Monday, April 23, the day after Earth Day and the Mayor’s Long-Term Sustainability speech, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn plans to hold a decisive vote on Intro. 331-A, a law limiting and restricting pedicabs. Mayor Bloomberg vetoed the bill but rather than going back and trying to improve the legislation by, say, simply increasing the cap on the number of pedicab licenses, Quinn has been twisting Council members arms to override the Mayor’s veto.

It looks like she has the votes. The Speaker has managed to convince some of City Council’s most progressive and pro-environment members to go along with her. On NY Turf’s PediCouncil map shows David Yassky, Bill de Blasio, Daniel Garodnick and Diana Reyna all on-board with Quinn’s veto override.

What is Quinn’s leverage?

“May is budget month,” says pedicab industry representative Chad Marlow of the Public Advocacy Group. “Going along with the Speaker’s program ensures that ‘member items’ will be approved” — the funding requests that Council members submit for special projects in their districts.

And why has Quinn decided to pick this fight with New York City’s small but growing pedicab industry? “The interests of the
taxi, hotel and theater industries have been given more weight than the
interests of the pedicabs, environmental and transportation groups,” says Marlow.

More info:

Pedal Power, a New York Sun editorial
Quinn’s Favor for a Friend, Daily News editorial.
Intro. 331-A, the legislation.

Aaron Naparstek

Aaron Naparstek is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparstek's journalism, advocacy and community organizing work has been instrumental in growing the bicycle network, removing motor vehicles from parks, and developing new public plazas, car-free streets and life-saving traffic-calming measures across all five boroughs. He was also one of the original cast members of the "War on Cars" podcast. You can find more of his work on his website.

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