Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 09:38:45 -0500
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Pedicabs, Re: Transportation TANSTAAFL
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

> yapivy at yahoo.com 12/09/02 07:45PM
>> --- ronkean at juno.com wrote:
>>  In such places, swarms of little taxi cabs (some
>> with just 3 wheels) and
>> jitneys ply the streets picking up and dropping off
>> passengers, and
>> larger trucks and busses run intercity on an ad hoc
>> basis, the routes,
>> schedules, and pricing being totally unregulated.
>> Passengers and
>> commercial cargo are routinely loaded on the same
>> vehicle, seating is
>> often a luxury, and in fact many of the passengers
>> are commercial
>> travelers carrying their wares with them.  Americans
>> would be appalled by
>> the crowded, dirty, and unsafe conditions
>> prevailing, but those
>> conditions are a consequence of poverty as opposed
>> to an inherent defect
>> of free markets.  The market is providing the best
>> value possible for the
>> little money they are willing and able to pay.
>
>Sounds kind of like the Philippines, except fares here
>are regulated.  We've got various bus lines, a lot of
>jeepneys (most of the drivers are unionized, but
>they're otherwise unaffiliated), tricycles
>(motorcycles with sidecars), FX vans, and the light
>rail transit.  Oh yeah, also pedicabs - bicycles with
>sidecars.

Pedicabs . . oh my, been ages . . . my recollection from I lived in Taiwan =
and Korea was that pedicabs were essentially rickshaws with bicycle power =
replacing the traditional "puller" in the front.

Rickshaw: http://pages.cthome.net/india2/RICKSHAW.jpg
Pedicab: http://www.workbike.org/makers/Penguin%20pedicab.jpg

mjw