SAN DIEGO — A San Diego city council member said he wants to crack down on pedicab drivers who play loud music, disrupting businesses and keeping residents up at night.
"My constituents downtown have had enough," said Councilmember Stephen Whitburn. "Today I am announcing I will soon bring forward an ordinance to completely ban amplified noise on pedicabs."
A news conference was held on Friday morning in Little Italy.
Noise ordinance
According to Whitburn, a noise ordinance already is on the books that applies to pedicab drivers, but he said drivers are not following the rules. He said he wants to clarify the law, give it more teeth and ban loud music on pedicabs altogether.
He said if pedicab drivers don't follow the rules, they can have their licenses suspended or taken away altogether.
Whitburn was joined today by other representatives of the downtown area, including Little Italy and the Gaslamp Quarter, who both said things have gotten out of hand.
"The buskers will come, blast music any time of day time or evening, ride their bikes in a circle at Date Street and India and when we ask them to follow the rules, be nice and considerate, they just blow us off," said Marco Li Mandri, Chief Executive Administrator, Little Italy Association of San Diego.
David Roger lives downtown at 5th and C Street.
"We don't have triple pane windows. It's so loud," said Roger.
"Music is great, but if it was down at 3:00 a.m. so we could sleep, it would be really good," he added.
Pedicabs
CBS 8 spoke to pedicab drivers along the Embarcadero Friday, who said they're frustrated. They feel like a few 'bad apples' are making them all look bad.
Dwight Malone has been a pedicab driver for 7 years. He said Whitburn's proposal could potentially help crack down on some of the problem drivers. However, he acknowledged the loud music is sometimes what brings in business.
"Some of the customers like that, I mean they get on the bike, they might say 'Where's the music?' And if you don't have music, you might be out of luck, they might jump in another pedicab," said Malone.
He also points out noise is a part of downtown living.
Leo Paraskevov, the owner of Urban Pedicabs, said the noise could also be addressed by cutting down on the number of pedicab licenses that are allowed in San Diego.
He said there's too much competition for all 250 pedicabs on a very limited number of streets, and the way they sometimes try and get the customer's attention is by blasting their music.
He suggests the city limit the number of licenses to 50. He said it would cut down on the amount of competition and it would make it easier for owners to police their own. He said with so many licenses available, if you fire a pedicab driver, they'll just move on to another company in San Diego.
Malone said owners bear the responsibility of enforcing the rules.
In addition to cracking down on noise, Whitburn said they also want to go after pedicab drivers who price gouge, who tell customers one price, and then change the price once they arrive at their destination.
Whitburn said he plans to bring forward an ordinance by this spring.
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