Taxi Driver Online

Rickshaw passengers 'are at risk'

Most rickshaw drivers are safe, but MPs have safety concerns
Passengers on London's rickshaws are being put at risk, a minister calling for regulation has warned.
Transport Minister Gillian Merron said it was "necessary and desirable" the pedal taxi industry was regulated.

Ms Merron's statement was in response to calls from Tory MP Mark Field that London's streets were becoming a "dangerous free for all".

But she said licences were a matter for Transport for London (TfL) and the Taxi Licensing Authority.


Mr Field, the MP for Cities of London and Westminster, said in a Westminster Hall debate it was "matter of when rather than if" a serious accident or fatality involving a London rickshaw took place.

Mr Field said he wanted checks to make sure rickshaw drivers did not have criminal records, and also wanted drivers to be tested on road safety and their knowledge of London streets.

He said: "The streets of Soho and Covent Garden have become a dangerous free for all.

"I worry that it is now a matter of when rather than if a serious accident, perhaps even a fatality, will occur on one of the unlicensed rickshaws or pedicabs that proliferate so strikingly in London's thoroughfares."

'Proper system desirable'

One London pedicab driver has been convicted of raping a passenger.

Mr Field added: "Further anecdotal evidence suggests that riders include illegal immigrants, foreign students who are ignoring the terms under which they are in the country by working longer hours than allowed and others who - under any sensible licensing regime - would be considered unsuitable for this kind of work."

Ms Merron replied: "Provided they are properly regulated and managed the government does believe that pedicabs have a role to play in transport provision."

She added: "A proper system of regulation in London is both necessary and desirable."

Must be one of the most irritating things ever to be introduced.

You can put as many licensing safeguards as you like, but at the end of the day the bikes are death-traps.

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IDFIMH

In my area there are a lot of steep inclines/declines and there are three pedicabs operating.I have seen them just missed by buses and cars .But the worrying thing is that they have no protection what so ever around them,not even protective headgear which most people on cycles do these days.I only hope that one of them never gets a shunt from behind because the peed up innocent passengers will have no chance. Makes you wonder where health and safety were when this got passed

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=z07K29Fc15U

Well why not start a campaign to ban everything that does not conform to the safety standards of a taxi/ph vehicle. Oh, and while we are at it, lets tell the customers they don’t have a choice to choose a cheaper and more convenient form of transport. Yes, you can go out and buy a bicycle but you can’t hire a rickshaw of your own choice while spending your own hard earned cash out of your own pocket.

I don’t think so somehow….

Safety is relative. You might claim that rickshaws are unsafe and they might not be a safe as other forms of transport but there’s nothing to support your claim that they are all death traps. While I accept you don’t stand much of a chance in an accident it doesn’t mean you are going to have one.

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
George Orwell, "Animal Farm"

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Legal and proud

Loads a love from BERTIE !!

Skull you've got a short memory for someone from Edinburgh. You forgotten the girl in the rickshaw who ended up with a broken neck after her scarf got entangled in the backwheels of one in Regent Road a few years back when they first appeared

And as for cheaper - yeah £4.00 a head x 3 for the half mile journey from one end of George St to the other - if I could get half of that I'd be a very rich man

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Keyboards and Cretins : Facts - not opinions - are the only truths

Damascus Moments - easy excuses for a sociopath

TDO the website of double standards and changing identities

Don't think that this applies only to pedicab drivers(pedlers?)
In Crawley we've seen 2 drivers deported in the last year or so, 1 Hack & 1 PHV but with the recent change in the law many larger employers who have had students/asylum seekers on their books are now looking more closely as they are now liable to fines and I think we may see an influx to the self-employed cab sector even though they are not allowed to work as self employed.

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Our safety is Paramount

I don’t get your point here TC; the statement I made has nothing to do with your answer. Try reading my post again from a less personal point of view and you might actually understand what I have written.

BTW, I don't support rickshaws. I merely try and tell it how it is and not how others may want it to be.

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
George Orwell, "Animal Farm"

And I was pointing out that there WAS something there to support the death trap argument

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Keyboards and Cretins : Facts - not opinions - are the only truths

Damascus Moments - easy excuses for a sociopath

TDO the website of double standards and changing identities

No, once again SAFETY is relative....

Every thing is a death trap under the wrong conditions even a taxi/ph vehicle.

I think your real point is that they are competing with you for work and that is your real concern. It has nothing to do with the safety of their passangers....

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
George Orwell, "Animal Farm"

Never a truer word spoken, aha at last someone on here that realises its not so much the vehicle its the operator and the way its operated, i agree 100% with you on this one any vehicle could be a death trap in the wrong hands!!!!!!!!!! I take my hat off to you Skull with that post

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Legal and proud

Loads a love from BERTIE !!

Wrong again - they are no competition - but as you will only ever see this issue as a personal weapon against me - go back to you're own insane little world and believe what you want - I don't actually care about your opinion

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Keyboards and Cretins : Facts - not opinions - are the only truths

Damascus Moments - easy excuses for a sociopath

TDO the website of double standards and changing identities

You state that Rickshaws are “no competition” but fail to tell us what mode of transport the traveling public would use if there were no Rickshaws….

You also state in your previous post:
So why not explain to us all; how Rickshaws are not competing for your work while charging twice as much to carry passengers “from one end of George St to the other”, a “half mile journey”, no less?


Come on TC; let’s see if you can say something without making a complete fool of yourself. It’s no wonder you don’t want people to know who you really are.


BTW, this is the point TC runs away to hide hoping that everyone forgets about how stupid his comments are.

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
George Orwell, "Animal Farm"

Thanks for that


I just hope that bus drivers don’t start a campaign to have any vehicle of fewer than 12 seats to be put off the road because they are not as safe as buses.

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
George Orwell, "Animal Farm"