Los Angeles’s Transportation Department is considering rules to allow pedicabs to operate.  Unfortunatly they are considering the reququiring that passengers wear helmets and seat belts.

More on this can be found here:

http://blogdowntown.com/2009/06/4403-pedicabs-coming-downtown-new-rules-headed

The following is my response to these proposed rules:

Studies have shown that cars pass bicyclists with less room to spare when the cyclist is wearing a helmet. The presence of sweaty, dirty, ill-fitting helmets are not going to protect the passengers. Helmets will only serve to reduce the anxiety levels of a few of the council persons and cause customers to not use the service. Further it projects the message that cycling is unsafe and requires special protective measures and rules that are not already on the books.
University of Bath Bicycle Helmet Study

The national highway transportation safety administration will not allow the manufactures of road going vehicles, farm equipment, or low speed vehicles to install seat belts unless that vehicle has a safety tested roll over protection system. With out some sort of roll cage, seat belts will cause more harm than good. Think about the bike flipping with the passengers are strapped in as it slides down the road. Not a pretty image. If the city is to require a seat belt, it will need to require that a roll cage be installed. Currently no pedicab manufacture offers roll cages.

NTSA Ruling on seat belts and Roll Over Protection Systems

To quote from the NHTSA ruling:

“It was noted by NHTSA during its proposed rulemaking that the NGCMA viewed the seat belt requirement as antithetical to the personal safety of drivers and occupants of golf cars [2] and cited ANSI/NGCMA Z 130.1-1993 [3] which required a ROPS (Roll Over Protection System) for any golf car containing seat belts. NGCMA also commented that seat belts enhance the risk of injury or even death if the occupant is restrained in the vehicle by a seat belt assembly upon rollover.”