Pedicab in Times Square late Friday night
Just returned from a too short trip to New York City, and thought I'd share some bicycle photos I took while I was there.
What struck me the most on Friday was the overwhelming number of folks who earn their living on bicycles. For these people, it's not so much bike-to-work, but bike-at-work.
Of course I spotted, and dodged, plenty of bicycle messengers running errands in the Times Square area as soon as I started walking around Friday morning.
Then toward lunch-time, I started seeing guys on heavier bikes who were delivering food either in plastic bags hanging from handlebars, or in boxes attached to the bikes.
Both of these workforces carried the added weight of heavy chains, often slung over a shoulder or around their waists, that they'd use to lock up their bikes.
Pedicabs
Later in the afternoon and throughout the evening to the wee morning hours, the pedicads came out on the streets to compete against cabs and horse carriages for fares. The guy above is riding a Main Street Pedicab, but there are lots of styles.
When the weekend arrived, those messengers and lunch delivery bicyclists disappeared. For the most part, all we saw were the pedicabs drivers.
There are so many pedicabs working New York City that some have formed the NYC Pedicab Owners Association, which encourages operating the vehicles based on an official Code of Practice of Pedicabs.
The NYPD, armed with ticket books, also has gone about encouraging pedicab drivers to follow the law.
A pedicab law has recently gone into effect that requires, among other things, that all pedicabs have seatbelts installed for passengers. The association has informed the city consumer affairs department that many pedicabs (non-association members, I assume) do not have the seatbelts.
On Saturday and Sunday, many congregated around Central Park where roads are regularly closed to motor vehicles. The pedicabs drivers take their passengers on leisurely rides around the park, or offer sightseeing tours of the park highlights.
Those Central Park roads are the haunt of hundreds of recreational bicyclists as well, who ride loops of either 6.1, 5.2 or 1.7 miles. Here are the times that Central Park drives are closed to motor vehicles:
Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.; and weekends from 7 p.m. Friday to 7 a.m. Monday. (The park is officially closed daily from 1 to 6 a.m.)
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