An article in the Kansas City Star (Bike-powered pedicabs may soon troll downtown) reports that Kansas City, Missouri may soon allow operation of pedicabs:
City official Gary Majors said Friday that public transit options here may soon include bicycle-powered pedicabs.
Majors, director of the Regulated Industries Division, said his City Hall department is working on an ordinance to legalize the human-powered carts — now outlawed — in time for warm weather and the formal grand opening of the downtown Kansas City Power & Light District.
He said the entertainment district’s restaurants, pubs and Sprint Center arena would create demand for short-hop service between downtown hotels, parking lots and the Bartle Hall convention center.
In a subsequent editorial, the Star says that “This creative idea deserves serious consideration”, and that Majors “hopes to have an ordinance in place by spring”.
KCBike.info also has coverage of this topic (along with the full text of the original article), and points out that other cities in the region already offer pedicab service, including St. Louis, Springfield, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Denver.
Seems like a sensible idea – what do you think?
KCBike.info reports that “the City Council’s Transportation Committee endorsed a plan to legalize pedicabs in KCMO”, except for on the Country Club Plaza, one of the places where they’d be most useful.