Pedicab commute may soon be outlawed

By Justin Rocket Silverman, amNewYork Staff Writer | jsilverman@am-ny.com

March 29, 2007

Some commutes are extremely long, others expensive, some even dangerous -- but it's a rare commute that is actually illegal.

This week's amNewYork Extreme Commuter is facing the real possibility that his daily commute on his pedicab across the Queensboro Bridge will soon be criminalized.

"The City Council considers us a threat," says Joe Grunberg, 57, who has been driving pedicabs for five years. "We are certainly not a threat. All we are is a transportation option."

Grunberg and his business partner Doug Korman run Trike Taxi, a Long Island City-based pedicab builder and operator.

Both men pedal their pedicabs over the Queensboro to get to work in midtown and Times Square, where tourists and harried businesspeople provide a steady stream of fares.

Yet under regulations passed by the City Council last month -- which Mayor Michael Bloomberg has until Saturday to consider -- pedicabs would be banned from bike lanes as well as from bridges and tunnels.

Grunberg would no longer be allowed on the Queensboro's bicycle lane, which is wide enough to accommodate not only pedicabs, but full-sized trucks used by construction crews.

This extreme commuter, who literally uses his work to get to work, spends about half an hour cycling into Manhattan before starting his 10-hour shift.

Like all Trike Taxi pedicabs, his uses an electrical assist motor to provide about half a horsepower of extra acceleration for steep hills or heavy loads. The motor is especially useful on the bridge's steep incline, not to mention for dodging yellow cabs zooming on and off the lower deck.

Under the proposed regulations, these electrical assist motors would also be banned in New York.

"The electric assist gives us a safety valve if we need extra power or if we need to move out of traffic quickly," he says. "It also provides a little mercy on the drivers legs, so he can have a long career."

The fate of his extreme commute, which Grunberg takes regardless of weather, is now in the hands of Bloomberg. This month, the mayor took the unprecedented step of not signing a bill at a signing ceremony, saying he wanted to think about the implications of passing a law that would put drivers like Grunberg out of businesses.

If he does not specifically veto the bill by Saturday, it will become law anyway.

"This is a human scale, nonpolluting way to get around the city," says Grunberg, pushing off from the Trike Taxi shop in Queens. "The mayor talks about sustainable transportation options. Well, this is it."

The Extreme Commuter can be anyone who takes more than the average ride to work. Whether it's a complicated bus and subway transfer, an extra long ride, or just something that requires the person to get up really, really early, amNewYork wants to hear about it. Email your suggestions to jsilverman@am-ny.com