Engineering:Cycle rickshaw

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Short description: Pedal-powered version of the rickshaw
"Pedicab" redirects here. For other uses, see Pedicab (disambiguation).
A Bangladeshi cycle rickshaw for display in Sweden
Cycle rickshaw in Mexico City, with the design established since 2016
Typical Manila pedicabs, or "trisikad"
Recumbent style cycle taxi/pedicab in London
Cycle rickshaw in Moscow, Russia

The cycle rickshaw is a small-scale means of local transport. A type of tricycle designed to carry passengers on a for-hire basis, it may also be known as bike taxi, velotaxi, pedicab, bikecab, cyclo, beca, becak, trisikad, sikad, tricycle taxi, trishaw, or hatchback bike.

The cycle rickshaw is human-powered by pedaling, in contrast to the classic rickshaw, pulled by a person on foot, and distinct from the motorized auto rickshaw.

Overview

Pedicab or "Becak" (in Indonesian language) in Solo, Central Java, Indonesia

The first cycle rickshaws were built in the 1880s and were first used widely in 1929 in Singapore. Six years later, they outnumbered pulled rickshaws there. By 1950, cycle rickshaws were found in every south and east Asian country. By the late 1980s, there were an estimated 4 million cycle rickshaws worldwide.[1]

The vehicle is generally pedal-driven by a driver, though some are equipped with an electric motor to assist the driver.[2][3][4]

The vehicle is usually a tricycle, though some quadracycle models exist, and some bicycles with trailers are configured as cycle rickshaws.[5] Some cycle rickshaws have gas or electric motors.[5][6]

Passenger configuration

The configuration of driver and passenger seats varies. Generally the driver sits in front of the passengers to pedal the rickshaw. There are some designs, though, where the cyclist driver sits behind the passengers.[1][5] In many Asian countries, like Bangladesh, India, and China, the passenger seat is located behind the driver, while in Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Vietnam the cyclist driver sits behind the passenger. In the Philippines, the passenger seats are usually located beside the driver in a side car. Similar to this, passengers sit alongside the driver in both trishaw, in Singapore, and the sai kaa, in Burma.[1]

Nomenclature

The cycle rickshaw is known by a variety of other names, including:

  • velotaxi (used in Germany)[7]
  • pussuss (used in parts of France)
  • velotram (used in parts of France)
  • bikecab
  • cyclo (used in Vietnam and Cambodia)
  • pedicab (used in the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada)[8]
  • bicitaxi (used in Mexico)
  • samlor (used in Thailand)
  • taxi ecologico (used in Mexico)
  • trishaw
  • beca (used in Malaysia)
  • becak (used in Indonesia)
  • helicak (used in Indonesia) it is another version of becak but with engines, not manual pedals
  • traysikad, trisikad, sikad, or padyak (used in the Philippines)

Country overview

Africa

Madagascar

In Madagascar rickshaws, including cycle rickshaws or cyclo-pousse, are a common form of transportation in a number of cities. Rickshaws are known as pousse-pousse, meaning push-push,[9] reportedly for the pulled rickshaws that required a second person to push the vehicles up hills. Cycles are more common in the hillier areas, like Toamasina.[10]

Americas

Canada

In Canada there are pedicabs in operation in Victoria, British Columbia,[11] and Vancouver, British Columbia. They are regulated in Toronto, Ontario, and Vancouver, British Columbia.[12][13]

Mexico

In Mexico, they are called bicitaxi or taxi ecologico (literally "ecological taxi").

United States

Jays Valet, Luxury Transportation & Pedicab Service in the 4th of July (Independence Day) Parade in Aspen, Colorado

In many major cities, pedicabs can be found rolling about city centers, nightlife districts, park lands, sports stadiums, and tourist-heavy areas. Myriad uses have been discovered in the states, including car-park-to-event transport at large events nationwide. Thousands of pedicabs today operate on streets in locales including Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Austin, Texas; Manhattan, New York; Chicago, Illinois; San Diego and San Francisco, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Miami, Florida; Washington, D.C.; Denver, Colorado; Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; Charleston, South Carolina; New Orleans, Louisiana; Nashville, Tennessee; Phoenix, Arizona; Salt Lake City, Utah; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and dozens of other hot spots. Manhattan sports the largest collection of pedicabs operating within city limits, and the City of New York itself has mandated that approximately 850 pedicabs always sport operating permits issued by the city.[14]

Pedicabs in the United States seem to have gotten their start at the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle.[15]

Asia

Bangladesh

Cycle rickshaws in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The city is known as the Rickshaw Capital of the World.

Cycle rickshaws (রিকশা riksha) are the most popular modes of transport in Bangladesh and are available for hire throughout the country including the capital city Dhaka, known as the "Rickshaw Capital of the World".[16] They are either pedal or motor-powered. They were introduced here about 1938 and by the end of the 20th century there were 300,000+ cycle rickshaws in Dhaka.[17]

Approximately 400,000 cycle rickshaws run each day.[18] Cycle rickshaws in Bangladesh are also more convenient than the other public modes of transports in the country namely auto rickshaws, cabs and buses. They are mostly convertible, decorated,[19] rickshaws with folding hoods and are the only kind of vehicles that can be driven in many neighbourhoods of the city with narrow streets and lanes. However, increasing traffic congestion and the resulting collisions have led to the banning of rickshaws on many major streets in the city. Urban employment in Bangladesh also largely depend on cycle rickshaws. Because of inflation and unemployment in the rural areas, people from villages crowd in the cities to become rickshaw drivers locally called the riksha-wala (রিকশাওয়ালা).

Cambodia

Cycle rickshaws are known as cyclo (pronounced see-clo) in Cambodia, derived from the French cyclo.

China

A cycle rickshaw at Xiyuan, Beijing, targeting at tourists from Summer Palace
Cycle rickshaw in Shenyang

Since the 1950s, when the pulled rickshaw was phased out, mid-city and large city passengers may travel using three-wheeled pedicabs, or cycle rickshaws. The Chinese term for the conveyance is sanlunche (三轮车). The vehicles may be pedal- or motor-powered. In Shanghai, most of the vehicles are powered by electricity.[20]

Tourists are warned to beware of over-charging vendors, especially who wear an "old fashioned costume" or are located near tourist locations.[20]

Whilst many local tourism authorities still issue licences for rickshaw drivers to carry passengers, authorities in China are tightening rules in order to alleviate cheating of tourists and to reduce traffic congestion (e.g. a typical Chinese cycle-rickshaw will travel at less than 10 ⁠km/h⁠ and is wide enough to fill an entire motor or bicycle lane and therefore are blamed as a major cause of traffic congestion), and have been banned in many cities already.[21]

India

A cycle rickshaw carrying shoe boxes in Agra


  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Edgerton, David (2011). The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History Since 1900. Oxford University Press. pp. 46. ISBN 978-0199832613. 
  2. ↑ Keith, Barry (11 January 2010). "Solar Rickshaws Ready for Delhi". Wired Magazine. https://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/01/solar-rickshaws-delhi/. Retrieved 10 March 2010. 
  3. ↑ "Sustainable Transportation Solution for Auto Rickshaws". Illinois Institute of Technology. 2009. http://hybrid.iit.edu/projects.php?project=auto_rickshaw. 
  4. ↑ "The Cycle Rickshaw's Electric Dreams". Indian Express. http://www.indianexpress.com/oldStory/11602/. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Sobey, Ed (2009). A Field Guide to Automotive Technology. Chicago Review Press. pp. 172. ISBN 978-1556528125. 
  6. ↑ Watson, Todd (31 July 2013). "Electric vehicles become popular in the Philippines". Inside Investor. http://investvine.com/electric-vehicles-become-popular-the-philippines/. 
  7. ↑ "Velotaxi", The Free Dictionary, https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Velotaxi, retrieved 8 June 2021 
  8. ↑ "What Is A Pedicab? - Pedicabs & The National Mall". https://sites.google.com/site/pubp715pedicabs/introduction. 
  9. ↑ Heale, Jay; Zawiah Abdul Latif (2008). Madagascar, Volume 15 of Cultures of the World Cultures of the World - Group 15 (2 ed.). Marshall Cavendish. pp. 75–76. ISBN 978-0761430360. 
  10. ↑ Madagascar Travel Guide (7 ed.). Lonely Planet. 2012. ISBN 978-1743213018. https://books.google.com/books?id=yNax15GoPIkC&q=pousse-pousse&pg=PT59. Retrieved 13 April 2013. 
  11. ↑ Ulysses Travel Editorial Staff, Ulysses Travel Guides (2003). Vancouver and Victoria. 4th ed.. Hunter Publishing, Inc. ISBN 2894645171. 
  12. ↑ "Pedicabs, City of Vancouver". City of Vancouver. https://vancouver.ca/doing-business/pedicabs.aspx. 
  13. ↑ "Rickshaw owners back in driver's seat: Toronto rickshaws can now charge unlimited fares after a judge said City Hall's price limits were chosen on a "whim."". National Post, CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc. (posted on Canada.com). 9 May 2007. http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/toronto/story.html?id=dad7518a-21d5-42d4-8030-d3bae4be6841. 
  14. ↑ "New York City Department of Consumer Affairs - Pedicab Driver License". http://www.nyc.gov/html/dca/html/licenses/131.shtml. 
  15. ↑ "Ballard remembers the 1962 World's Fair". https://www.myballard.com/2011/11/07/ballard-remembers-the-1962-worlds-fair/. 
  16. ↑ Lawson, Alastair (5 October 2002). "Dhaka's beleaguered rickshaw wallahs". BBC News. https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/2300179.stm. 
  17. ↑ Edgerton, David (2011). The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History Since 1900. Oxford University Press. pp. 46–47. ISBN 978-0199832613. 
  18. ↑ Lawson, Alastair (5 October 2002). "Dhaka's beleaguered rickshaw wallahs". BBC. https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/2300179.stm. 
  19. ↑ RickshawArt.org Website of the social enterprise RickshawArt in Bangladesh. Dhaka.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 China Travel Guide - Tiki Travel. FB Editions. pp. PT61. ISBN 9791021306523. https://books.google.com/books?id=2WM23qDdOGQC&pg=PT61. 
  21. ↑ "广州这些区域禁止人力三轮车上道路行驶，6月11日起施行". 光明网. https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1766212670263278435&wfr=spider&for=pc. 
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