Submitted by Chad Marlow, Apr 18, 2007 09:43

As the President of The Public Advocacy Group, the lobbyists for the New York City Pedicab Owners Assocaition (NYCPOA), I felt it important to clarify a point made by the Speaker on WNYC and reference in the New York Sun article above. And that clarification is this: The pedicab industry and Speaker are in complete agreement that the pedicab industry should be regulated. In fact, as the Speaker knows, it was the pedicab industry who first promoted the idea of its industry being regulated by the City. The issue is NOT whether pedicabs should be regulated but IF the current legislation is the best way to do it. What New Yorkers have come to understand is that the current bill -- a package of punitive regulations that is essentially gift to special interests groups including, but not limited to, the taxi industry -- is not the best way to enact such regulations. If the Mayor's veto is upheld, no group will be pushing harder for a new strong regulatory bill that the pedicab industry. As this is not news, it reasonbly calls into question why the Speaker is advancing the aritfical impression that pedicab regulation will rise and fall with the fate of the current version of the pedicab bill, Intro. 331A.

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