Tuesday morning, a few pedicab drivers gathered outside the entrance to Central Park on West 72nd Street. They held banners, waved at onlookers, and offered rides through the chilly but bright morning.

The driver told West Side Rag, “I want to be an entrepreneur, so it is like a stepping stone to that.” In case his name became a target for “law enforcement targeting,” he requested that we not use it.

Tuesday morning, a few pedicab drivers gathered outside the entrance to Central Park on West 72nd Street. They held banners, waved at onlookers, and offered rides through the chilly but bright morning.

A young man who had only begun working in the industry a few months prior, after learning about it from a buddy at his mosque, was one of those drivers.

The driver told West Side Rag, “I want to be an entrepreneur, so it is like a stepping stone to that.” In case his name became a target for “law enforcement targeting,” he requested that we not use it.

A week after a group of NYPD officers moved into the vicinity of Central Park, Rockefeller Center, Bryant Park, Times Square, and the Empire State Building in an effort to get illegal pedicabs off the road, they seized 77 of them along with a moped, two speakers, and 100 summonses. This is when the driver started to fear trouble.

The car seizures that occurred on December 13 coincided with an increasing demand for tougher enforcement of laws pertaining to bike cabs, led by Lower Manhattan Councilmember Eric Bottcher. As initially reported by Patch, Bottcher cited the loud music that pedicabs blast from speakers and the instances in which riders, especially visitors, are shockingly overcharged in a letter he issued to several municipal departments last week.

In the city, there are about 850 pedicabs. That is the most special licenses the city may simultaneously issue that are required to operate the cars. Drivers who wish to obtain a license for the first time must join a lottery and must renew their licenses with the city each year. They may frequently be seen on the Upper West Side close to Columbus Circle on West 59th Street and the park entrances on West 72nd Street.

They must abide by a stringent set of ordinances as specified by the city code, but they are not prohibited. They must, for instance, be registered with the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, have plates and emblems, and cannot be motorized or electrically propelled.

He continued by saying he didn’t think the cops were becoming more aggressive due of electric motors.

“Although I’m new here, I believe some drivers are overcharging customers and playing loud music,” he stated. He’s heard that some drivers intentionally overcharge for very short trips, deliberately fail to haggle over prices, and play loud music the entire time to make it difficult for passengers to converse with them.