Being hauled around town on a pedicab like in New York or San Diego and many other great cities in the world, is a wonderful idea for Sacramento (and would also probably work on the Parkway) and it is heartening to see our local leadership bringing some of them home.
An excerpt.
Bob Shallit: Downtown transit proposal moves in cycles
By Bob Shallit -- Bee Columnist Published 12:01 am PDT Monday, July 10, 2006
A fleet of bicycle-powered "pedicabs" in downtown Sacramento could soon be carrying workers from one meeting to the next or ferrying tourists among the city's sightseeing attractions.
City Councilman Ray Tretheway got the idea when he was in San Diego earlier this year and saw passengers being towed around in bicycle rickshaws. He asked for research from city staffers, who now are looking at what qualifications would be required of operators and what prices they could charge passengers.
A pedicab proposal could go before the council's law and legislative committee later this summer; the rickshaw service could be up and running by year's end.
"There's a fun factor to it," says Dan Roth, Tretheway's district director.
It would be an environmentally friendly and cost-effective way for downtowners to get to a meeting 10 blocks away, Roth says. And, he says, it'd be a "quaint method" for tourists to travel, for example, from Old Sac to Sutter's Fort.
If the service develops as it has in cities like New York and Toronto, Roth says, the pedi- cabbies could become "historic tour operators." They'd take visitors on loops of the downtown area while delivering a running -- or should we say cycling? -- patter about local sites.
