st. paul

Andrew Poitras had been zipping around Phalen Park in St. Paul, picking up and dropping off passengers at the Dragon Festival with his pedicab. It was business as usual -- until someone complained.

Now, in a somewhat unusual turn of events, pedicab owners have a request of the city: Please pass an ordinance that regulates us.

Pedicabs hadn't had any major problems in the city until Poitras was ticketed for trespassing in a public park while working the annual festival.

The incident triggered the realization by pedicab operators that an ordinance regulating the three-wheeled bikes that pull passengers might work in their favor.

Minneapolis-based Twin Town Pedicabs, the largest company with 13 pedicabs, is pursuing the St. Paul ordinance so the vehicles will be licensed and regulated as they are in Minneapolis.

"No regulation, while it's theoretically good for my cabdrivers ... makes too much gray area and causes incidents like what happened at Lake Phalen," said Colin McCarty, owner of Twin Town Pedicabs. "I was fairly frustrated [with the ticket] because we had been given permission to operate in the city of St. Paul, and we had no restrictions."

Twin Town Pedicabs fleet manager Stephen McCarty said he checked with St. Paul officials about restrictions and guidelines after the company was licensed to operate in Minneapolis this year. The company was told, and a city official confirmed, that there are no laws on the books about pedicabs. St. Paul Parks and Recreation spokesman Brad Meyer said, however, that operating a pedicab or any vendor service on park property would require a temporary permit.

Poitras, who drives for Twin Town, was ticketed July 11, ending the pedicab free-for-all in St. Paul.

Park or city property?

The confusion centered on whether a public street that runs into a public park is park property -- Meyer said it is -- and where pedicabs fit in St. Paul's cultural landscape.

Twin Town pedicab drivers were picking up passengers outside park property but dropping them off in the park near the festival, where several vendors were hawking various goods and food, when a woman associated with the festival complained, according to police and Poitras.

"There was no intention to ride the pedicab within the Dragon Festival," said Stephen McCarty. "We just wanted to take people along Phalen Boulevard, which we understand to be a public thoroughfare."

Police initially guided the company to unload its pedicabs in a parking lot, Stephen McCarty said, then later ticketed Poitras when the woman complained that they had not paid a vendor fee.

Poitras said he wasn't charging a fare but accepted voluntary tips. (Twin Town Pedicabs charges drivers a fee to rent the pedicabs, and the drivers set the fares.)

Poitras had just dropped off his third fare of the day when an officer pulled him over. The woman and seven officers convened on the scene, where they talked for two hours before reaching a decision to ticket him, Poitras said. "It seemed slightly unnecessary," he said. "I wasn't trying to step on anyone's toes."

Poitras said he wasn't asked to leave before he was ticketed.

A learning experience

Poitras, along with Colin and Stephen McCarty, said they're not upset, just hopeful this can be used as a learning experience to improve St. Paul's regulation of pedicabs. Twin Town had previously worked St. Paul events without problems, they said, and hoped to continue to do so.

Twin Town wants St. Paul to license the industry like Minneapolis, which charges annual licensing fees, requires insurance and regulates equipment standards, hours and locations of operation and driver and passenger behavior.

Twin Town Pedicabs dominates the industry locally, with a few small operations (often just one person) scattered here and there. Nolan Peterson is the sole owner and driver for Peterson's Pedicabs.

"Restrictions are good, and I guess they sort of help to keep all of the bases covered," Peterson said. He added, however, that it could dampen his ability to work both cities if he has to pay for two licenses.

Peterson worked the Twin Cities Pride Festival in Minneapolis in June, biking in the area around Loring Park without paying a vendor fee. He didn't encounter any problems.

Twin Town hopes that kind of understanding can be reached in St. Paul. St. Paul City Council President Kathy Lantry said the council is always open to ordinance suggestions and often relies on industry or citizens to initiate the process.

"There is nothing inherently [about pedicabs] that sends up a red flag for me," she said.

Chao Xiong • 612-673-4391