Memorandum

City of Lawrence

City Clerk’s Office

TO:	David L. Corliss, City Manager
FROM:	Jonathan Douglass, Assistant to the City Manager/City Clerk
CC:	Toni Wheeler, Legal Services Director
DATE:	October 7, 2010
RE:	Oversize Pedicab on Massachusetts Street

The City Clerk’s Office licenses pedicabs and oversized pedicabs pursuant to Chapter 6 Article 16 of the City Code. The routes for oversize pedicabs must be approved by the City Clerk, unless it is determined “that the operation of an oversized pedicab on all or part of the proposed route would be injurious to the public’s health, safety, welfare, or interest in the free flow of traffic.”

When the City Commission discussed and ultimately approved the creation of an oversize pedicab license, the majority of the City Commission clearly opposed oversized pedicab routes on Massachusetts Street downtown. At the time, the prospective oversized pedicab license applicant had not yet purchased his pedicab and expected that its top speed would be 5-6 miles per hour. Since that time the applicant has received his pedicab and has found that it travels significantly faster when traveling downhill, and has requested that the city approve a route allowing him to drive his pedicab on downhill portions of Massachusetts Street downtown.

City Clerk Jonathan Douglass and Staff Attorney Scott Miller gave the applicant temporary permission to test drive the pedicab on Massachusetts Street and accompanied the applicant on the ride. We found that on downhill portions of Massachusetts Street the pedicab did in fact travel at speeds up to 15 miles per hour. The test drive was conducted on a Wednesday afternoon between 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Operation of the pedicab on Massachusetts Street did not seem to create undue impediments to traffic flow and we recommend allowing its use on downhill portions of Massachusetts Street.

City Commission approval of oversized pedicab routes is not required, but because the City Commission has previously expressed opposition to oversized pedicab routes on Massachusetts Street, staff seeks City Commission concurrence with our recommendation to allow an oversize pedicab route on downhill portions only of Massachusetts Street downtown.

ACTION:      Concur with the City Clerk’s recommendation to allow travel by Luke Stone’s oversize pedicab on downhill portions of Massachusetts Street downtown, if appropriate.