A pedicab operator who charged two women a £180 fare for a simple three-minute trip has been ordered to repay the extortionate charge by police.
The Evening Standard reports the women, who took a ride with an unregulated operator, were told the journey would cost £18, but were faced with an extra zero and a £180 bill when they came to pay.
A police crackdown is underway and Westminster City Council tracked down the operator, with enforcement officers demanding the cyclist return the money.
Officers ran an operation covering many popular central London areas, including Leicester Square, Covent Garden, Soho, China Town, Mayfair, and Oxford Street, reporting riders for noise pollution offences and antisocial behaviour.
Pedicabs are a regular sight around the capital’s busy tourist attractions, often charging inflated prices to transport people short distances in brightly-lit vehicles playing loud music.
However, they are not without controversy with many seeing them as a noisy “nuisance”, and they are currently exempt from regulations which cover taxis and private-hire vehicles.
Councillor Heather Acton, Cabinet Member for Communities and Regeneration slammed the operators as an “unlicensed nuisance that have plagued the West End for years, preying on tourists and annoying local residents.”
“There is little regulation around them and they are uninsured – there are serious safety concerns around them,” she continued.
“As with Saturday night’s operation the council works with the police when criminality is involved, but there are limitations on our powers.
“With the West End beginning to recover from 18 months of restrictions and disruption, it’s time for the government to act and ensure that pedicab drivers undergo safety checks and pay road tax.
“Residents deserve respite from noise and our visitors should be safeguarded from vulnerable vehicles, sharp practice and scams.”
On Saturday night I worked with @CityWestminster to target pedi-cabs playing music after 9pm.
City inspectors reported 10 riders to court, issued 4 formal warnings & also reported a busker.
We also assisted a passenger who was significantly overcharged. #Soho #WestEnd pic.twitter.com/sjHg8CN6sS
— Soho Police (@MPSSoho) February 14, 2022
During an operation alongside Soho Police, multiple pedicab cyclists were reported under the Control of Pollution Act 1974 for playing music “likely to an annoyance”, while officers also issued written warnings under the Antisocial Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014 for blocking a public footway and playing must after 9pm.
A total of 70 riders were moved on from blocking a pavement during the seven-hour operation last weekend.
12 thoughts on “London pedicab cyclist told to repay £180 fare charged for three-minute journey”
Cycling people around is a
Cycling people around is a great idea, but why do these things have to be so garish and run by rip-off merchants.
Tinbob49 wrote:
Absolute major nuisance in London in the summertime – one of the few benefits of the pandemic has been their absence. Aggressive, frequently stoned, drivers who rip off tourists at every opportunity and the vehicles are so wide that even on the widest cycle lanes, e.g. Embankment, it’s impossible to pass them. As far away from a genuine pedicab service, which would be great in London and I’m sure very popular, as one could imagine.
They’re a pain in the arse,
They’re a pain in the arse, but if I can manage to pass them on the Embankment, you should have no issues.
Very glad they’ll no longer be able to use the lane on Westminster Bridge as a rank, though, that was infuriating and dangerous.
PedalMe are, as ever, the model to emulate here – Honestly, if they were regulated to the same level PedalMe self-regulates, I think that a lot of the legitimate concerns would be lessened.
Always going to get the concern trolling from the existing PHV industry, mind.
I can pass ’em if they move
I can pass ’em if they move over, a lot of the time they ride in the middle of the lane and have the music so loud they don’t hear (or pretend not to hear) calls to let one through in my experience – quite often found myself having to bunnyhop roadwards to get by. In some other lanes – going round Parliament Square, for example – just impossible to pass as they take both lanes and then some. I agree the Westminster Bridge waiting zone was a joke.
Rendel Harris wrote:
I blame the Highway Code changes.
mdavidford wrote:
I blame the Association of British Drivers 🙂
Quote:
Are these motorised pedicabs?
No pedal power.
No pedal power.
I think some have electric
I think some have electric motors.
Do the councils have
Do the councils have licencing for these? If not then maybe that’s the best way forward with properly controlled meters, and having insurance being precursors to operating them.
For those commenting on the
For those commenting on the need for a licencing regime, here’s some background (it’s mostly copied-and-pasted from parts of a recent Cycling UK parliamentary briefing on the regulation of pedicabs)…
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Cycling UK would strongly support a proportionate regulatory framework for pedicabs, as well as their operators and riders, with the aim of enabling safe and responsible pedicab operators to flourish, while ensuring they are not undermined (both reputationally and financially) by irresponsible operators.
At present, pedicabs can operate in London (but not elsewhere) under legislation dating from 1869 which permits the operation of Hackney carriages. This is in effect a ‘loophole’ that has allowed pedicabs to operate in London without any effective regulatory framework. It has proved to be a real problem, as it essentially means there is nothing to stop unsafe and irresponsible operators from entering the pedicab market, with unsafe vehicles, untrained and untraceable drivers, unregulated pricing, and a lack of social responsibility or respect for the law. Responsible pedicab operators, represented by the London Pedicab Operators Association (LPOA), have therefore found themselves undermined, both reputationally and financially, by operators who do not invest in procuring and maintaining safe pedicabs or in training and rider registration systems (to ensure their riders act safely and responsibly), and by operators and riders who sometimes charge extortionate prices.
Conversely, in the rest of Great Britain (i.e. outside London), pedicabs are required to operate under the same legal framework as taxis and minicabs. This makes it impossible in practice for pedicabs to operate on a ply-for-hire basis outside London, because the insurance and other requirements for taxis are so onerous, and are entirely disproportionate for addressing the potential risks. Even where local authorities have been keen to support local would-be pedicab operators, they have been unable to operate on a ply-for-hire basis, because the local taxi operators (who view them as competition) start asking questions about whether the pedicabs and their operators have the same insurance etc that they themselves are required to pay.
We would therefore prefer to see a Bill which put forward a ‘national’ regulatory framework, rather than one which merely addresses the situation in London. The aim of this framework should to support the operation of responsible pedicab businesses, and not potentially to kill off the sector. It should be drawn up in consultation with organisations such as Cycling UK and the London Pedicab Operators Association (LPOA, who represent responsible pedicab operators), and should cover:
***
The rest of our briefing goes into more detail on how this could be done. However I hope this is enough to inform discussion of what can be a thorny issue for cycling advocates.
Roger Geffen (Policy Director, Cycling UK)
Good to see you’re on this
Good to see you’re on this Roger, thanks. I thoroughly agree with your proposed framework, the only thing I would add is a mandatory width restriction: some firms or individuals in London are using cabs as wide as a small hatchback that take up virtually the whole width of many two-way cycle lanes.