Pulled rickshaw

Rickshaws (of jap人力车, jinrikisha, dt " people cars " ) are small, two-wheeled companion of a man drawn to carry passengers ( so-called run- rickshaws ). In recent times rickshas be constructed to be driven by a bicycle. This companion hot pedicab (also: bike taxi). Traditional rickshaws are used in Asia, bicycle rickshaws, there are also in Europe.

In India and many other South and Southeast Asian countries, there are so-called motor or auto rickshaws, there are trikes, which are operated with either a two-stroke or a diesel engine.

The hand-pulled rickshaws are almost all disappeared from the streets. In India, they have survived only in Calcutta. The non-motorized pedicabs could soon be replaced. According to many politicians the work of rickshaw wallahs was inhumane and not contemporary. You want to foster motorized traffic on the Western model and impose bans on the rickshaw - wallahs.

History

The rickshaw is an invention from Japan. Egon Erwin Kisch describes the origin of the rickshaw in his book China secretly follows

" The Jinrikscha comes from Japan, although its inventor was a European. The man who first had the idea to set up a chair and a hand truck to use this lift for public transport was the Anglican priest Reverend MB Bailey, oh blessings of the West and of the Church. This was the early seventies [ 1870s ] in Tokyo. "

" A Frenchman named Ménard rushed to China to Shanghai in order to obtain a license for the rickshaw traffic. But the city councils of the American and British (and later international ) and the French community knew that replacing animal or machine by human power in this country is the safest business, and did not think to heed such a lucrative monopoly the nimble importer. They decided to spend against sizable tax twenty licenses for each twenty rickshaws. "

" Monsieur Ménard would have the fact to get one of these licenses can be quite happy if only, if only he had money enough to have produced the twenty carts. He had not, so he had to content himself with twelve of. This displeased the two city administrations, they wanted to see exploited each license in the interest of their tax office twenty times. On 31 March 1875 revoked his license to him the pioneer of rickshaws, still bring in, in the age of taxi, private car, bus, motorcycle and tram, the French Concession annually 267 966 taels and the International Settlement 337030 Tael! "

The invention was originally intended for Europeans in Tokyo who could not use the narrow Japanese sedans.

Models

• Front seat traditionally come from Thailand or Indonesia, where they are called cycloalkanes or becak.
• Replicas of classic bicycle rickshaws since 1989 in Germany. The company Velocab has begun and offered the first bicycle rickshaws with gears in Germany. Meanwhile, there are other suppliers that have improved the design and technology. How to sell most vendors electric motors for their models. Bicycle rickshaws are also available with electric motor as bicycles and are legally classified as a pedelec under certain conditions.