Sunday, July 20, 2008

Free Wheelies: Pedicabs of New York: An Endangered Species

I tracked down Frederic Choiniere. He's the film maker who presented his work at the pedicab workshop during the Towards car-free Cities Conference in Portland. Here's his film about the politics that swirl around New York's pedicab industry.

1 comment:

Trav said...

Jon,

Seattle is digging up new material for you left and right. A few weeks ago, a Critical Mass ride turned a little ugly.

Then just today, I saw sad news about a pedicab accident on Cedar St., Wed. 8/6.

Just listened to a more recent episode on pedicabs from the conference in Portland. The thought of pedicabs as risky/dangerous honestly never crossed my mind until now, but the safety of whizzing around pedicabs in city traffic--similar no doubt to bike commuting in traffic--could be an interesting aside. In this case, technical performance of the bike is also under scrutiny as the event took place on a very steep decline.

I imagine you also have heard about the CM incident. I'm a supporter of Critical Mass, but I believe this case may be an example of a few riders spoiling the message and really hurting the public image. No doubt the driver should be punished though, and initial media reports of the incident were so car-biased that it made me sick.

Great work, I really enjoy listening in!

Travis
Seattle, WA