State, city at odds over N.Y. pedicabs

NEW YORK, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- New York City is trying to reduce the number of pedicabs on city streets while New York state is promoting them in television tourism ads.

There are about 500 of the pedal-powered cabs on the city streets but to ease congestion, the city wants to place a cap of 350 licenses and require higher safety standards, the New York Post reported Tuesday.

Chad Marlow, spokesman for the NYC Pedicab Owners Association, questioned why the city would reduce something that's a tourism draw on television.

"It seems problematic to promote pedicabs to tourists and then restrict them so that when tourists arrive in New York, there won't be any pedicabs for them," Marlow said.

In turn, Mayor Michael Bloomberg's spokesman, Stu Loeser, told the Post that city residents come first.

"The administration has to balance the fact that tourists come here and like them with making sure they do not hinder people who live here, work here and go to school here," Loeser said.