Rolling Pub Crawl Owners Sue City (I hope the city wins)

copy and pasted from chicagoist

http://chicagoist.com/2011/07/20/rolling_pub_crawl_owners_sue_city.php

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Minneapolis-based PedalPub is a "bike-powered pub crawl." It's essentially a large bike, powered by 16 people pedaling, steered by a guide who sits behind a keg, that rolls from bar to bar. (Amstel Light has used a version of PedalPub in recent years around Wrigley Field.)

The owners of PedalPub have sued the city because they were denied a business license. PedalPub Chicago's Matt Graham said the city sees his company as a sightseeing operation. “Which we’re not," Graham said. "We can never be because we don’t operate a motorized vehicle.”

Graham is up front about Pedal Pub's intention to be nothing more than a bike-powered pub crawl. Having biked from bar to bar over the years ourselves, we're just a little bit jealous we hadn't hit upon this business model.

We can also see how the city is objecting to this, without outright coming out and saying the last thing they want to do is grant a business license to a rolling vehicle powered by drunks. besides, the bike taxis at Wrigley Field and U.S> Cellular Field already serve as ad hoc bike bar crawls already.

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Permalink Reply by David Barish on October 21, 2013 at 8:40am

I was in a cab behind one of these things in Nashville about a month ago. The patrons were trashed. There was a sober captain to the ship. I had diametrically mixed feelings. On the one hand I thought, "Gee, that looks like fun, lets get out of the cab and join in" and on the other hand thought, "how is that a viable business with all the liability issues?" I could easily see a drunk patron getting off and just running into traffic. We were in a part of Nashville, at round midnight, where that thing was going about 5 mph. Still, it looked very much like fun and stupidity at the same time. I would have no problem taking the ride and equally have no problem with them being prohibited...for the right reasons.

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Permalink Reply by El Dorado on October 21, 2013 at 9:01am

I think it's a excellent to take 12 over served drunks on a vehicle type automobile.

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Permalink Reply by millenial removing Bernie tattoo on October 21, 2013 at 9:26am

I've taken the pedal pub in Chicago. Its something to do once.

Its very, very slow.

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Permalink Reply by Michelle on October 21, 2013 at 10:11am

OMG you cant drink while you're on them?! What is the POINT then - just take a cab! They look like so much fun in Minneapolis... but there it seems you're allowed to drink.

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Permalink Reply by in it to win it 8.0 mi on October 21, 2013 at 3:33pm

Such a First World Problem...

I give a s**t either way.

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Permalink Reply by Reboot Oxnard on October 22, 2013 at 12:34am

Hey - something new! And it looks like fun, even if a little silly! Can't be having that!

Of course the City wants to ban it, the City loathes the idea of people having fun without a permit, especially if they're committing the sin of catching a buzz while they do it and never reacts well to change. All the proprietors of this Flintstone-mobile have to do is figure out a way to cut the City in for a big enough pile of green and the problem goes away. I don't know what they do about the modern-day Billy Sunday's that still miss the good old days of nanny-state Blue Laws and Prohibition, they're a hopeless bunch of prigs.

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Permalink Reply by Bill Nedza on October 22, 2013 at 1:30am

What's next, 60 foot stretch pedalpubs? How about 8 foot wide pedicabs in the bike lane -- ran into (not literally) one of those the other day, and there was no way to go around him.

My only complaint about pedalpubs, pedicabs, segways, and the multi-person quadcycles is congestion, and, with pedicabs specifically, they don't need a livery license to just go out, pick people up, and charge them money to transport them. I'm all for small business, but, personally, you wouldn't ever see me in one -- I've seen guys drunk picking people up, seen them on lower Wacker, seen them just miss getting their passengers hit.....

Ah, well, when someone gets killed here like the woman was in San Diego maybe something will be done.