[gridlock]

Just what NYC needs. Yet another incompatible vehicle type thrown into the traffic mix.

These things go 12 mph, tops. Which means that every vehicle travelling faster than that has to swerve around it to keep up with the synchronized changing of the lights, which are set for traffic moving at 30 mph. This results in mayhem which ties up traffic and reduces overall speed to the point where the synchronization is lost.

Thus the pedicab winds up being as fast as any other vehicle on the road, but only because all other vehicles are slowed down to it's speed of advance. Overall gasoline consumption goes through the roof because all traffic has to constantly stop and start rather than maintaining a smooth flow.

In short, they are a traffic disaster.

They are like feel-good liberalism applied to traffic. People think they are cute and they give the individual a sense of moral superiority because they are non-polluting. But they actually wind up doing a lot more harm than good.

But when does that ever matter to a liberal?

[eastsider]

Between the pedicabs and the Hansom Cabs, it's a nightmare every evening at rush hour trying to cross 59th and 6th to cut through the Park on my way home.

I can't begin to imagine the lure of sitting in the cab downwind from these "spiritual" drivers in the summer ...