London’s riotous pedicabs are about to be regulated

STEP OUT of the Lyceum Theatre after seeing “The Lion King” on a Friday night, and the noise is cacophonous. Some 30 pedicabs, many fur-lined and dotted with bright lights, lie in wait. Drivers woo theatregoers by blaring out music: schmaltzy Christmas songs, trancy electro-pop and bhangra.Long popular in South Asia, cycle rickshaws arrived in London only in 1998. In peak season as many as 900 pedicabs now ferry tourists and clubbers around the West End and other nightspots. Nobody is sure of the exact number because they are unregulated. Outside London pedicabs are treated like taxis, and are scarce. But in the capital the three-wheelers benefit from a bizarre loophole in the Metropolitan Public Carriage Act, a law passed in 1869 to regulate horse-drawn carriages. Loose drafting allows pedicab operators to slip through its provisions. As long as drivers negotiate a separate fare with each rider, they escape regulation.