Bike Wars

Miami Beach officials are creating new rules to further limit the city’s burgeoning pedicab industry

By Ben Torter

Dorian Torres’ pedicab is enjoyed by his passengers, but hated by some city commissioners. Photo by Ben Torter

The feeling of sitting in the back of a pedicab on a recent Friday night, whizzing along Ocean Drive among the slow-moving cars, was exhilarating. Not that the three-wheeled pedal-powered vehicle was actually going very fast, but with a cool breeze blowing, it was all about perspective.

The crowds mingling on the sidewalks in front of restaurants and bars with neon signs appeared more inviting than usual, the beats of music in the streets more pronounced. The ride itself, more than the destination, seemed the point of taking a bicycle taxi.

And since they rely on nothing more than the strong legs and lungs of the dude up front, pedicabs seem a logical alternative to $4-per-gallon gas prices and the global warming effects of petrol-burning piston engines.

Long a staple in places such as Key West, Europe and the Far East, pedicabs are gaining popularity in U.S. cities from San Diego to Manhattan. A couple of months ago, they began showing up on the streets of South Beach, too. But rather than welcome the environmentally friendly transport industry, city officials have been making it very difficult for operators to do business.

While Florida law doesn’t allow city officials to ban pedicabs outright, the operators have been restricted from taking paying customers along Ocean Drive, Collins Avenue, Washington Avenue and many of the major side streets.

Commissioners (many of whom are no longer in office) decided in December 2006 that pedicabs were unsafe on busy roadways.

“There was testimony from police, fire and public works regarding their concerns with having these types of vehicles in congested areas of our city,” Assistant City Manager Hilda Fernandez said. “That’s not to say it doesn’t work in other cities, but we look at it from our perspective.”

Despite the difficulties, three companies are trying to make a go of the pedicab business in Miami Beach. The largest, called Green Ride, is owned by Shuly Zimmerman and Raffi Zabari, both of whom want to know what city officials have against pedicabs.

“If bicycles are allowed on the streets, how come pedicabs aren’t allowed on the streets?” Zimmerman asked at a May 28 Neighborhoods/Community Affairs Committee meeting. Zimmerman, with a shaved head, fierce eyes and a sharp attitude, runs the business and manages it from the seat of his own pedicab. He knows the streets well and doesn’t buy the arguments against his industry.

“When there are a lot of cars out, they go slow, so there’s no problem,” Zimmerman said. “When there are few cars, it’s not a problem because there’s plenty of room.”

Bicycle activist and Design Review Board member Gabrielle Redfern is equally perplexed and angry.

“Here’s an opportunity to allow an alternative form of transportation, and our city administration is doing everything possible to prohibit it,” Redfern said.

Even the Miami-Dade County Climate Change Task Force recently recommended cities encourage alternative energy taxis and other vehicles to prevent Miami Beach from turning into Atlantis. Estimates put the city underwater by 2070 if global warming isn’t curbed.

Such arguments failed to sway City Commissioners Jerry Libbin, Jonah Wolfson and Ed Tobin (all members of the neighborhoods committee), who instructed city management to create an ordinance even more restrictive to the environmentally friendly vehicles. The commission is expected to discuss the issue on June 25.

A loophole in the city charter currently allows the pedicabs to operate on crowded Lincoln Road and Ocean Drive sidewalks. The commissioners want to ban the vehicles from Lincoln Road and most sidewalks, fine violators and limit the number of pedicab licenses issued by the city.

Zimmerman believes a ban violates the law. His Green Ride has operated 10 pedicabs for a little more than two months and has received at least 16 code violations, but so far no monetary fine.

Five of those violations were dropped, and the rest are pending a special master hearing, which could result in license revocations and fines of up to $1,000 each. Repeat offenders, even if they have just two violations for the same offense, can be charged $5,000.

Fernandez said the special master has the authority to waive fines and drop violations. “What we will draft won’t have that level of flexibility given to the special master,” Fernandez said.

Zimmerman sees the city’s assault on pedicabs as harassment and points to a recent violation that he received for operating a business without a license. He has a license and $1 million of insurance for each bike.

“Unless they ban all bicycles, legally they cannot touch me,” Zimmerman said.

Most of the violations are for “operating a business on public property without approval of the city manager.” Translated, that means for operating on banned roadways.

For now, the city allows pedicabs to operate on the sidewalks because bicycles are allowed on the sidewalks.

Pedaling a pedicab through crowds of pedestrians, between palm trees and restaurant tables and chairs without hitting anything, takes a real talent — one not everyone appreciates.

“This is not a good place to ride that thing,” one man muttered under his breath as the pedicab piloted by Zimmerman maneuvered slowly down the Lincoln Road sidewalk between Lenox Avenue and Alton Road.

“I think it’s bullshit they can’t ride on the road,” said Miami Beach resident Vanessa Lopez, who has taken Green Ride a few times and said she thinks “they’re awesome.”

Last Friday night, she met two girlfriends in front of the Regal South Beach Cinema at about 10 p.m. to see Sex and the City

A couple of her girlfriends also enjoy the pedicabs.

“The weather is great and the bikes are easier to get around on than cars,” Miami Beach resident Kimberly Berrios said after getting out of a Green Ride pedicab pedaled by Dorian Torres in front of the movie theater. “We rode all the way from the beach, and I felt like a queen.”

Torres sees his job as part taxi, part tour guide and part protector of tipsy tourists leaving the clubs late at night. Depending on the customer, prices vary, though rides generally cost $1.50 per block or $60 an hour.

“I get a lot of locals who call me and I take them shopping, like to Publix or wherever,” Torres said. “And these Australians told me their trip would not have been the same without us.”

Torres claimed to have even talked one depressed passenger from thoughts of suicide.

“We are almost like the psychiatrist/bartender without the bar and the couch,” Torres said.

Despite the headaches of running a business in a hostile environment, Zimmerman said he won’t back down and vows to take the city to court if necessary. In the meanwhile, he and his drivers hope to win one supporter at a time with smiles, unique tours of the city and an environmentally friendly attitude.

“I feel we are supplying a good service to the people and tourists,” Zimmerman said. “And I feel that because we are in America, public opinion will win over the administration.”

Here’s the contact information for the three pedicab companies operating in Miami Beach, though most can be flagged down every day and night in South Beach’s touristy areas.

Green Ride, 305-492-2362; South Beach Bike Taxi, 561-578-1702; and SOBE Rides, info@soberides.com.

Comments? E-mail ben@miamisunpost.com