THEY'RE more commonly seen in Jakarta and Bangkok - but now rickshaws could be destined for the streets of Sheffield.
The cycle rickshaws - or pedicabs - are the brainchild of Handsworth's Nick Oodian, who hopes to set up a fleet of environmentally-friendly pedicabs around the city centre, which would be free to use and subsidised by advertising.
Nick, aged 36, a
n IT consultant, from Willow Drive, says that if the rickshaws are licensed by Sheffield Council they would be the first pedicabs in the country to be officially sanctioned.
And he believes they wouldn't hold up traffic - because vehicles travel so slowly on Sheffield's roads they'd easily keep up. He said: "We want to provide a community transport service. Hopefully we will be the first place to get a licence.
Could rickshaws catch on in hilly Sheffield? Post your commetns below."The pedicabs would have electric motors to help them cope with Sheffield's hills and hopefully would have ranks around the city centre."
Attercliffe MP Clive Betts has already thrown his support behind the scheme.
He said: "If Sheffield is really to display its green credentials then environmentally friendly rickshaws are an innovation we should embrace wholeheartedly.
"They may not exactly fit in with the conventional view of vehicles for hire, but to get people around the city centre cheaply and easily we should give very serious consideration to adopting this radical proposal."
Pedicabs already operate in London, Cardiff and Edinburgh, but while popular with the public, they have not always been enthusiastically received by the authorities.
There are an estimated 600 pedicabs in the West End but Westminster Council has complained many flout traffic and parking regulations.
A Sheffield Council official said: "We're aware that Clive Betts MP is interested in promoting the pedicabs idea in Sheffield. Pedicabs would need to be licensed. There would need to be a licence for the driver and the vehicle.
"It's too early to say where you could hail one from, how it would work and when pedicabs would start operating in Sheffield as we haven't yet received an pedicab application. If and when we do, we'd consider the application and these issues at a Licensing Board."
The full article contains 367 words and appears in Sheffield Star newspaper.
