Metro

Coney boardwalk rollback

Coney Island is on a roll – rickshaws are back on its famed boardwalk for the first time in nearly 50 years.

Two of the classic wheeled wonders went on display yesterday amid plans to have 30 of them transport visitors this summer starting Memorial Day.

“I could really get used to this,” said Avital Gershtein of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, who works at boardwalk boutique Lola Staar and gave the blue-and-white ride a try during an afternoon demonstration.

Called “rolling chairs” and long a favorite in Atlantic City, the American version of Asia’s bamboo rickshaws have a storied history in Coney Island, where they steered tourists from 1923 until the mid-1960s.

They’ll return weekends through Labor Day under a deal the city made with operator Ocean Rolling Chairs-Coney Island, whose co-owners are Christine Palumbo and John Taimanglo.

“We want to bring history back to Coney Island,” said Taimanglo, the grandson of hot-dog inventor and local legend Charles Feltman. “These rolling chairs are going to be a huge hit.”

The rickshaws are newly made replicas, with blue seats and awnings and white exteriors – and signs touting local attractions like the Cyclone roller coaster. At more than six feet tall and nearly four feet wide, there’s room for three adult passengers.

They’ll cover the full length of the Riegelmann Boardwalk’s two and a half miles. So tourists visiting Coney Island’s Luna Park can take a rolling chair a mile east to Tatiana Restaurant in Brighton Beach for a bite at the Russian seaside supper club.

Taimanglo and Palumbo are hoping to hire 100 freelance pushers, who can rent the rickshaws for $75 per day shift and $100 per nightshift and keep what they make. Rides will cost $1 per block, with half-hour and hour tours for $25 and $40, respectively.

The city Parks Department signed off on the deal – and officials are thrilled to have the vintage carriers back on parade.

“Rolling chairs are a unique part of Coney Island’s history,” said city spokesman Kyle Sklerov. “Their return to the boardwalk will bring more visitors back to Coney Island and play an important role in the ongoing revitalization of this legendary amusement area.”

If all goes well, the chairs could return in future summers with expanded fleets, city officials said.

They’re similar to a famous fleet of 300 now used along Atlantic City’s boardwalk to transport high rollers and others from casino to casino. The South Jersey seaside destination has used rolling chairs since the 1880s.

The idea to bring rolling chairs back to Coney Island was made by Dick Zigun of Coney Island USA, which has two vintage rolling chairs on public display.