Is a pedicab peace accord in the works?
D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton called on the National Park Service Tuesday to speak with pedicab operators and hold a public meeting on its transportation plans for the National Mall to help “avoid increasing tension before it gets out of hand.”
Pedicab drivers have been getting into trouble on the Mall when they pick up or drop off passengers.
Over the summer, tensions came to a head when one operator of the rickshaw-style pedicabs was Tasered twice. D.C. adopted emergency legislation on the previously unregulated transportation mode, but those measures expired Nov. 29. The problems resumed, Holmes Norton said.
The issue, she said in a letter to park officials, is that the existing rules aren’t clear.
“I believe that a meeting among NPS, U.S. Park Police, and pedicap owners and operators could end unseemly and unnecessary conflict and turn the page to a more tranquil relationship,” she wrote.
