Would you pay £50 British pounds for ten minutes—ten minutes!—in a bicycle rickshaw? I hope not. But London is asking just how badly tourists can be ripped off by its unregulated pedicabs
Lesson summary
Hi there everyone—this will be a fun one. It’s Plain English, where we help you upgrade your English with stories about current events and trending topics. And I always look for stories from the English-speaking world to help you learn a little more about the places that speak your new language.
And I came across a few articles about pedicabs in London. It brought back some memories of my time in London as a student. I saw them—I did not take them. But now the British government wants to regulate pedicabs like taxis. And that means possibly capping the exorbitant prices they charge tourists. Is that a good idea? We’ll talk about it today.
In the second half of every Plain English, we talk about a common English expression. Today, that’s “draw the line.” Where do you draw the line? That’s the question…and we’ll talk about what that means later on today.
This is episode number 647. And that means JR, our producer, has uploaded the full lesson content to PlainEnglish.com/647. If you’re looking for the transcript: that’s where you find it. PlainEnglish.com/647…and the transcript is free.
All right. Ready to go? Let’s do this.
Can London tame its raucous pedicabs?
In many parts of the world, especially in Asia’s teeming cities, the cheapest way to get around (other than walking) is on a rickshaw.
The rickshaw was invented in Japan in the late 1800s. Early rickshaws had two or three wheels and an elevated seat. A single operator grabbed two wooden handles and pulled. It was a grueling job.
By the early twentieth century, bicycles had made things just a bit easier on the operators. Soon, these new bicycle rickshaws had taken Singapore and other Asian cities by storm. Today, there are millions of bicycle rickshaws in India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, China, Thailand, the Philippines, and more.
Outside Asia, bicycle rickshaws are a novelty or a tourist attraction, something you see just once in a while . But you might be surprised to learn about one place full of bicycle rickshaws—and that place is London.
In London, they’re called pedicabs. They’re popular with theatergoers leaving shows in the West End and with partygoers in SoHo. But more than anything, they’re popular with tourists.
Unlike the rickshaws on the streets of Delhi, London’s pedicabs are a luxury experience. To drum up business, pedicab owners decorate their cabs with fake fur and neon lights. Operators play music and wave to tourists. Some try to attract a particular type of clientele. Those who want to attract wealthy Middle Eastern riders put up pictures of Arab leaders and play traditional music.
Some people say the market for pedicabs is out of control. Taxis are regulated and prices are fixed. Uber and other rideshare apps are also licensed by the government. Elsewhere in England, pedicabs are licensed and regulated like taxis.
But pedicabs are unregulated in the capital, thanks to a loophole in London’s original taxi law from the 1800s. As long as pedicabs negotiate their fares individually with each client, they can escape government regulation.
So: there is no published price list; there are lots of tourists; and there are lots of drunk locals. The government says that all adds up to a major rip-off . A new proposal would set a cap on prices and require pedicab drivers to be licensed and submit to safety standards.
One YouTuber went around London hotspots on a popular night, asking pedicab drivers how much it would cost to get from point A to point B. He found a wide range of prices—from £20 to £40 for the same short route. One driver quoted him £5 per minute, with a minimum of ten minutes. All this for a ride that would have cost just £10 in Uber.
Some look at that experience and say that pedicabs are a rip-off, taking advantage of tourists who don’t know what the price should be. But others say that a pedicab is less about transportation and more about entertainment. Many customers ask for round-trip rides—meaning, they don’t go from point A to point B . They just want a fun ride around the West End.
Still, even many pedicab drivers say they’re in favor of some kind of regulation. Licensing would increase safety: a driver’s name and photo would be visible in the cab. Drivers would have to pass a background check. A lot of them don’t mind this type of regulation.
But they draw the line at price limits. Take the £5 per minute fare. On a per-minute basis, that’s £300 an hour—a good pay rate for a lawyer at a top London firm. But the pedicab riders still struggle to make a living. They don’t pedal the full hour; they’re not busy all night long. They might only have a handful of fares in a single night—and not every night is popular. The flexibility to change their prices helps them pay the bills . So what if the occasional tourist pays a sky-high price? They’re happy one way or another .
So should fares be regulated? It probably depends on how you see the pedicabs. The argument for regulating fares is strong in transportation, but much less strong in entertainment. So if you think the pedicabs are about transportation, fare rules might be appropriate. If they’re really just about a fun time, then maybe not.
I’ve never taken a ride in a pedicab or a rickshaw. In India, it was out of pure guilt. I just could not sit down while another human being pedaled me up a hill on a bike. It’s probably irrational, but I just couldn’t do it—not when I had two perfectly good legs.
And in London, I never took them because they are obviously—I mean obviously—a rip-off. Even the most gullible tourist, even the drunkest soccer fan, has got to know that this is not a cost-efficient way to get around.
Anyway, if I had a vote, which I don’t, but if I had a vote—I’d say, license them, set some basic safety standards, set some rules of the road, but leave prices alone. Buyer beware —these are entertainment more than anything else, in my opinion.
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