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The 'cycle rickshaw', being a small-scale local means of transport, is also known by a variety of other names many of which are confined to one country or city - such as 'bugbug', 'cyclo', 'pedicab', 'velotaxi', or 'trishaw'. It is a human-powered vehicle for hire, usually with one or two seats for carrying passengers in addition to the driver. Cycle rickshaws are widely used in most major cities across the world and not just in Asia as some might think, where they have largely replaced less-efficient rickshaws that are pulled by a person on foot.

Contents

Configurations

Nomenclature

A global concept

Economic and political aspects

Arts

See also

References

External links

Configurations

The vehicle is powered by the driver as one would a bicycle, though some rare configurations also have an electric motor assisting the driver. The vehicle is usually a tricycle, though some quadricycles exist, and some bicycles with trailers are configured as rickshaws. The configuration of driver's and passenger's (or passengers') seat varies, though in general only one configuration is common in any given region. For example, in most of South Asia, the passenger seat is mounted behind the driver's on a "delta" tricycle, while in Indonesia and Vietnam the driver sits behind the passenger seat on a "tadpole" tricycle. In the Philippines, the passenger seats are usually mounted beside the driver.

Nomenclature

Cycle rickshaws are known as ''cyclo'' (pronounced see-clo) in Cambodia and Vietnam, ''cycle rickshaw'' in India and Bangladesh, ''trishaw'' () from "tricycle rickshaw", in Malaysia and Singapore, ''becak'' in Indonesia and ''bicitaxi'' or ''taxi ecologico'' (literally "ecological taxi") in Mexico. In the Philippines, they are called ''tricycle/traysikel'', ''traysikad'', ''pedicab'', or ''padyak''. Cycle rickshaws are known as ''saika'' in Myanmar, a transliteration of English "side car". In the United Kingdom they are also known as pedicabs.

★ In Thailand, any three-wheeler is called ''samlor'' (, which literally means "three wheels"), whether motorized or not, including pedicabs, motorcycles with attached vending carts or sidecars, etc. The driver is also called ''samlor''. True, Thai auto rickshaws are known in popular parlance as tuk-tuks but, in Thai, the latter usage as well as its characteristic style is largely restricted to Bangkok and Chiangmai.

A global concept

Cycle rickshaws are used in most large European cities, such as London, Barcelona, Budapest, Berlin, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Milan and Rome. London boasts one of the largest numbers of pedicabs, that are mostly based in Soho, Covent Garden and near tourist attractions. In North America, San Diego and New York City each host hundreds of pedicabs; dozens of other North American cities also have pedicab services. There are several American and European manufacturers of cycle rickshaws, which often incorporate features not found in developing world vehicles, such as hydraulic disc brakes and lightweight fibreglass bodies, or very rarely found such as multispeed gears.
In American cities, such as New York, human powered transport has caught on as an environmentally friendly means of transit. According to Peter Meitzler of New York's Manhattan Rickshaw Company, a passenger has an entirely different urban experience when one rides in a rickshaw. He says that he uses the word "rickshaw" in his company name because it is internationally known.^[1]
In Taiwan administered by the Republic of China, the Road Traffic Security Rules () require pedicabs to be registered by their owners with the police before they can be legally driven on public roads, or risk an administrative fine of 300 new Taiwan dollars (TWD). Their drivers must carry the police registration documents or risk a fine of 180 TWD, but no driver license is required. The administrative fines are based on Articles 69 and 71 of the Act Governing the Punishment of Violation of Road traffic Regulations (). As Taiwanese road traffic is now heavily motorized, most pedicabs have been replaced by taxicabs, but they can still be found at limited places, such as Cijin District of Kaohsiung City.

Economic and political aspects

In many Asian cities where they are widely used, rickshaw driving provides essential employment for recent immigrants from rural areas, generally impoverished men. One study in Bangladesh showed that rickshaw driving was connected with some increases in income for poor agricultural laborers who moved to urban areas, but that the extreme physical demands of the job meant that these benefits decreased for long-term drivers. ^[2] In Jakarta, most rickshaw drivers in the 1980s were former landless agricultural laborers from rural areas of Java.^[3]
In 2003, Dhaka rickshaw drivers earned an estimated average of Tk 143 (US$2.38) per day, of which they paid about Tk 50 (US$0.80) to rent the rickshaw for a day. Older, long-term drivers earned substantially less. A 1988-89 survey found that Jakarta drivers earned a daily average of Rp. 2722 (US$ 1.57). These wages, while widely considered very low for such physically demanding work, do in some situations compare favorably to other jobs available to unskilled workers.^[4]

Taiwanese Prohibitory Sign P9: No Pedicabs

In many cities, most drivers do not own their own rickshaws; instead, they rent them from their owners, some of whom own many rickshaws. Driver-ownership rates vary widely. In Delhi, a 1980 study found only one percent of drivers owned their vehicles, but ownership rates in several other Indian cities were much higher, including fifteen percent in Hyderabad and twenty-two percent in Faridabad. A 1977 study in Chiang Mai, Thailand found that 44% of rickshaw drivers were owners. In Bangladesh, driver-ownership is usually highest in rural areas and lowest in the larger cities. Most rickshaws in that country are owned by individuals who have only one or two of them, but some owners in the largest cities own several hundred.
Some countries and cities have banned or restricted cycle rickshaws. They are often prohibited in congested areas of major cities. For example, they were banned in Bangkok in the mid 1960s as not fitting the modern image of the city being promoted by the government. In Dhaka and Jakarta, they are no longer permitted on major roads, but are still used to provide transportation within individual urban neighborhoods. They are banned entirely in Pakistan. While they have been criticized for causing congestion, rickshaws are also often hailed as environmentally-friendly, inexpensive modes of transportation.

Arts

Trishaws are used to ferry tourists around the city for sightseeing in Singapore.

As a key part of the urban landscape in many cities, rickshaws have been both the subject of films and other artwork, as well as being extensively decorated themselves. The rickshaws in Dhaka is especially well-known as a major venue for Bengali folk art; there, plasticine cutouts and handpainted figures adorn many rickshaws.^[5]
Films featuring rickshaws and their drivers include Sammo Hung's 1989 martial arts film ''Pedicab Driver'', which dealt with a group of pedicab drivers and their problems with romance and organized crime. ''Cyclo'', a 1995 film by Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung, is centered on a cycle rickshaw driver. Tollywood films with rickshaw themes include ''Orey Rickshaw'' ("Orey" literally means "Hey", in a derogatory tone), which tells a story sympathising with the downtrodden, and ''Rickshavodu'' ("Rickshaw Guy").
Men of burden - Pedaling towards a Horizon (2006) is documentary film on ''Cycle rickshaw'' men in Pondicherry, India.

See also

★ Auto rickshaw

★ Bicycle

★ Bicycle trailer

★ Boda-boda

★ Freight bicycle

★ Human-powered transport

★ Quadricycle

★ Rickshaw

★ Tandem bicycle

★ Taxicab

★ Trailer bike

★ Tricycle

★ Utility cycling

★ Workbike

References

1. "Rickshaws Reinvented - The ancient transportation takes a modern turn", Dina Modianot-Fox, Smithsonian Magazine, March 2007
2. Begum, Sharifa and Binayak Sen (2005). Pulling rickshaws in the city of Dhaka: a way out of poverty? ''Environment and Urbanization'' 17(2):11-25.
3. Azuma, Yoshifumi (2003). ''Urban peasants: beca drivers in Jakarta''. Jakarta: Pustaka Sinar Harapan.
4. Gallagher, Rob (1992). ''The rickshaws of Bangladesh''. Dhaka: The University Press Limited.
5. Kirkpatrick, Joanna. (2003) ''Transports of Delight: The Ricksha Arts of Bangladesh''. Indiana University Press. Multimedia CDROM.

External links

★ Trishaw Parade held in Penang (Photo Gallery)(Satire)

★ Philippine Pedicabs

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★ Trishaws in Melaka of Malaysia

★ PedicabNews (PN)

★ Trishaw in Medan, Indonesia