Social Cycle owner set to explain how her company does not need Pedi-cab license

By Ashley Mackin | Downtown News

Social Cycle, a 16-person cycle available for parties or group outings, is facing the risk of being shut down due to a city ordinance. Until recently, owner Laura Rovick primarily ran her business in the Gaslamp Quarter.

The company’s cycles are powered by the passengers and steered by a Social Cycle-employee, called a captain. Rovick compared her company to a rental car agency in how her company operates.

The City of San Diego however, is inadvertently attempting to shut the business down because Social Cycle is not registered as having a Pedi-cab’s license and the City is labeling the cycles as Pedi-cabs. The City is basing their label on City Ordinance 83.0102, which outlines the definition of a Pedi-cab.

The Ordinance defines a Pedi-cab as a vehicle with three or more wheels, available for hire and operated by a person.

“[The City is] trying to say it’s a Pedi-cab because it has three or more wheels and it transports people and we take money for it. I think it’s different from a Pedi-cab [for] a multitude of different reasons,” Rovick said.

One reason Social Cycle is not a Pedi-cab, Rovick said, was that customers are not picked up randomly on city streets. “We’re not for hire on the street. We have signs on the bike that say, ‘not for hire,”’ she said.

“You have to make your reservation at least two days in advance, book it for a two-hour minimum and you drop it off and pick it up at the same location. So, we’re not picking up passengers as we’re going along and dropping them off at the different destinations,” she said.

“If that were the case,” Rovick added, “the employee would have no way of getting the vehicle back to the warehouse because they don’t have pedals. They can’t operate it by themselves, whereas a Pedi-cab drives around to solicit fares and pick people up off the street. They pick them off and drop them off somewhere else and then that’s it,” she said.

Rovick’s attorney, Constantine Buzunis, outlined the definitions within the Ordinance and explained their argument as to how Social Cycle vehicles are different from a Pedi-cab.

Regarding the cycle being for hire, Buzunis said, “A vehicle for hire is a taxi, Pedi-cab or other vehicle that is out on the street looking for fares or makes stops and drops-off at different places. This vehicle is only available at the warehouse by appointment. They pick it up there and drop it off there.”

Buzunis also described the vehicle’s operation, saying the Ordinance “talks about the vehicle being operated by a person. [The Social Cycle] vehicle takes a minimum of seven people to operate: at least six people pedaling to be able to move it efficiently, and then the operator, so it’s a minimum of seven,” he said.

The physical structure of the Social Cycle vehicles, Buzunis said, also makes it problematic in labeling them as Pedi-cabs.

“This vehicle is very unique,” he said. “It’s got motorcycle parts, car parts, bike parts and many other parts that carry it out of the realm of the description of a Pedi-cab under the ordinance. Pedi-cabs are defined [as having] a drawbar and a carriage…. We don’t even have those parts, so how can we even comply?”

Currently, there are 250 Pedi-cab licenses allotted for the City, Rovick said, and those are all distributed. “The City has been sold out since 2008, so unless a [current] Pedi-cab company goes out of business, which is highly unlikely, there wont be one available,” she said.

Further, Rovick was told by the City’s Transportation Department that even if she wanted to apply for a Pedi-cab license, she would not be able to, due to language on the application.

“There are two definitions of a Pedi-cab on their application,” Rovick said. “One is a three-wheeled Pedi-cab and the other is a bike with a carriage. [They said] check one or the other. I’m neither one; I couldn’t even fill out the applications properly.”

As a result, Rovick has a hearing scheduled for March 9 to explain, in-depth, why the Ordinance does not apply to her business. Rovick said she received a ticket and was forced to have a cycle towed during a recent reservation because she does not have a license.

“They’re calling her a Pedi-cab and at the same time they’re telling her that the configuration of her vehicle doesn’t comply with the Pedi-cab Ordinance because she’s lacking some things in design and configuration. It’s nonsensical,” Buzunis said. “The result is that she’s been unfairly put out of business.”