So much for manpower!
Lazy pedicab drivers are taking the city for a ride by using illegal electric motors — creating a hazardous situation on the road while enraging hardworking drivers, The Post has learned.
The tricksters craftily place golf-cart motors, which were banned by the City Council in 2008, underneath the passenger seat, or put hub motors inside the wheels. Some even conceal them in cardboard in a bid to fool inspectors.
Laramie Flick, acting president of the New York City Pedicab Owners’ Association, said he estimates that about 25 percent of drivers are breaking the law with the motors rather than using their own power to transport passengers.
“It’s unfair,” said Onour Beytuck, a 21-year-old driver. “I mean, if they have a motor, they can get more customers because they don’t get as tired. They aren’t working as hard as we are.”
The motors are more common in pedicabs working Central Park, where their whizzing sound is audible, but they’re also found on pedicabs in Midtown.
The cheaters are hated by the pedicabbies who use their feet because they make the honest guys look slow, work long shifts without getting exhausted, and even snap up customers first. They also get into accidents more easily because they reach higher speeds.
“They go zooming around while we are sweating, and killing our knees,” said one longtime driver. “We do the right thing.”
After the City Council passed legislation that outlawed any type of electric assistance in 2008, the rickshaws could be fueled by human power only.
A first-time violation results in penalties of $200 to $250, and repeat offenders can be hit with up to $4,000 in fines from the Department of Consumer Affairs.
Pedicabs with illegal motors automatically fail city inspection, and drivers face having their vehicles seized.
“It’s getting worse every single day,” said a driver who declined to give his name. “And they all know each other. They call each other [during inspections], and let people know where DCA is — and they disappear.”
Flick said that one danger for passengers is that insurance companies won’t cover an accident involving a motorized pedicab.