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
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.
The vehicle is generally pedal-driven by a driver, though some are equipped with an electric motor to assist the driver.
The vehicle is usually a tricycle, though some quadracycle models exist, and some bicycles with trailers are configured as cycle rickshaws. Some cycle rickshaws have gas or electric motors.
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. 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.
Nomenclature
The cycle rickshaw is known by a variety of other names, including: velotaxi (used in Germany) 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) bike taxi (used in Buffalo, New York) bicitaxi (used in Mexico) samlor (used in Thailand) taxi ecológico (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 Not only are cycle rickshaws used in Asian countries, but they are also used in some cities in Europe and North America. They are used primarily for their novelty value, as an entertaining form of transportation for tourists and locals, but they also have environmental benefits and may be quicker than other forms of transport if traffic congestion is high. Cycle rickshaws used outside Asia often are mechanically more complex, having multiple gears, more powerful brakes, and in some cases electrical motors to provide additional power.
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, 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.
Americas Canada In Canada there are pedicabs in operation in Victoria, British Columbia, and Vancouver, British Columbia. They are regulated in Toronto, Ontario, and Vancouver, British Columbia.
Mexico
In Mexico, they are called or (literally "ecological taxi").
United States
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.
Pedicabs in the United States seem to have gotten their start at the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle.
Asia Bangladesh
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". 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.
Approximately 400,000 cycle rickshaws run each day. 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,RickshawArt.org Website of the social enterprise RickshawArt in Bangladesh. Dhaka. 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 .
China
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.
Tourists are warned to beware of over-charging vendors, especially who wear an "old fashioned costume" or are located near tourist locations.
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 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.
India
The first attempt of improving the existing cycle rickshaws and then converting them to electric ones was done by the Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute in the late 1990s.
Service availability Cycle rickshaws were used in Kolkata starting about 1930 and are now common in rural and urban areas of India.
Ecocabs and similar service
Navdeep Asija started a dial-a-cycle rickshaw concept known as Ecocabs, Environmental friendly Ecocabs operate in the Punjab towns of Fazilka, Amritsar. Central Delhi and Kolkata. Passengers may call to request transport service, similar to dial-up taxi cab operations.
In November 2010, Patiala GreenCABS, similar to Ecocabs, were introduced in the city by the local non governmental organisation (NGO) the Patiala Foundation.
Financing In West Bengal the Rotaract Club of Serampore finances cycle rickshaw purchases so that unemployed people can begin their own rickshaw business. The loans are repaid from the workers' earnings. When paid in full, the rickshaw workers own their rickshaw and other unemployed individuals are entered into the program.
Soleckshaw The Soleckshaw is a battery-electric assisted cycle rickshaw. The battery is designed to be charged or exchanged at centralised solar-powered charging stations. Developed by the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, it was launched in Delhi in October 2008. However, in September 2010 it was reported that no Soleckshaws had been sold on a commercial basis, and the approximately 30 demonstration units, initially deployed in Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Delhi, Dhanbad, Durgapur, Jaipur, and Kolkata, were "not in operation due to various local administrative and management problems", and the charging stations "are not being used at this point of time as the vehicles are not in operation at those locations".
The 2010 Union budget of India had a concessional excise duty of 4% on solar cycle rickshaws.
Indonesia Cycle rickshaws in Indonesia are called becak (pronounced ). They began to be used in Jakarta around 1936. Becak were considered an icon of the capital city of Jakarta prior to its ban in the 1970s. Citing concerns of public order, the city government forbade them on the city's main streets. Scenes of the anti-becak campaign appear in the 1971 Canadian film Wet Earth and Warm People, a documentary by Michael Rubbo.National Film Board of Canada, Wet Earth and Warm People, 1971 Despite attempts at eradication, however, many becak still operate near slums throughout the city. Attempts at reinforcing the ban resulted in large-scale seizures of the vehicle in the late 1990s and in 2007. In 2018, Governor Anies Baswedan attempted to allow becak again because of a political contract with becak drivers during his campaign.
There are two types of becak in Indonesia, with the first type having the driver sitting behind the passenger (similar to Dutch-style cargo bikes), while the other one, mainly found in Sumatra, has the driver sitting beside the passenger. Becak is still used in various parts of Indonesia, especially in smaller cities and towns.
Malaysia
In Malaysia, pedestrian-pulled rickshaws were gradually replaced by cycle rickshaws ( in Malay, from Hokkien bé-chhia 馬車 "horse cart"). Cycle rickshaws were ubiquitous up to the 1970s in cities. Since then, rapid urbanisation has increased demand for more efficient public transport, resulting in dwindling cycle rickshaw numbers. Today, cycle rickshaws are operated mostly as a tourist attraction, with small numbers operating in Malacca, Penang, Kelantan, and Terengganu.
Myanmar
In Myanmar, cycle rickshaws or trishaws (, directly pronounced as in the English word 'side car') came first into wide use in 1938, when the 1300 Revolution, which originated from the Chauk oil-field strike, inspired the people in Mandalay to have a consciousness of nationalism and to boycott British goods and services. The auto body technician Saya Nyo built the first trishaw in Mandalay by attaching a side-car to the side of an old bicycle. So two passengers are on the right of the driver.
Only two forms of transportation were then available in the city; the cab and the electric train. The latter could run only on tracks. Trishaws could reach every nook and cranny, so the spirit of nationalism plus the advantage of trishaws reaching everywhere made them so popular among Mandalayans that even the train company had to stop its business.
Nepal In the Terai region of Nepal, cycle rickshaws are still the most popular means of public transport for short-distance commuting. Most big cities in the Terai have hundreds of cycle rickshaws that carry local commuters and travellers, and are also used for carrying goods. Since the Terai region is bordered with India, cycle rickshaws are also popular means for shoppers, businessmen and travellers to travel in and out of the country freely. The free border between India and Nepal enable the rickshaw owners from both countries to operate across the border without any restriction.