The city is ready to sign off on an agreement to regulate pedicabs — but drivers and a key City Council member said yesterday the measure should be tougher.
Industry advocates and Councilman Leroy Comrie, who oversaw a hearing on the pedicab deal yesterday, are pushing for additional safety measures, including drug testing of pedicab operators and an added layer of verification of their driver’s licenses.
Comrie (D-Queens), chairman of the Consumer Affairs Committee, initially said those issues were key to his support of the bill backed by Mayor Bloomberg and Council Speaker Christine Quinn. But the administration is unlikely to support a drug-testing measure, sources said.
“I’m going to decline to make an on-the-record [comment] because I really have not heard what [Comrie] said,” said Department of Consumer Affairs Commissioner Jonathan Mintz, whose agency will oversee the pedicab industry.
Mintz said those proposals came up after he testified in support of the proposed legislation. Comrie later told The Post he would support the bill without those measures. He called the drug-testing proposal “something we can fight about later,” and said the council is “fast-tracking the bill to protect public safety.”
“I don’t want to hold up the bill,” he said.
Pedicab driver Ibrihim Donmez, who attended the hearing, backed the drug-testing policy.
“There should be more ways to eliminate unsafe drivers,” he said. “We should do drug testing. We should do some sort of safety course. We should eliminate the drivers without English skills. That’s one of the main problems right now.”
Bloomberg and Quinn struck a deal earlier this month that ended a two-year court battle over how to regulate the industry.
The agreement, which could be signed into law as early as the first week in August, requires the three-wheeled vehicles to be licensed, have insurance and provide seatbelts for passengers. It also sets up a two-month period during which pedicab drivers can apply for licenses.