A spot of bugbuggin’ in London!

The Kolkata rickshaw's English cousin

Rashmi Vasudeva

Great grandpa Venkanna had a touch of royalty about him. He was never more regal than when sitting sedately, his silk turban in place, in a rickety cycle rickshaw and nodding once in a while to the rickshaw wallah’s constant chatter.

He died in 1984 but would have been quite delighted to know that his pet rickshaw has its London counterpart, though a rather elongated version. Bugbugs, they are called popularly after Bugbugs Limited, the company that first began operating them in 1998. Today, they are officially known by the more prosaic name of pedicabs but remain, arguably, the most romantic mode of transport in central London.

Central London is where they are allowed to ply their trade. Their favourite haunts are in the West End, especially Leicester Square and Covent Garden. You see them parked outside theatres, waiting for customers to step out or near Covent Garden market. Diego, a Cambodian student of English Literature at the City College, earns good pocket money by plying a pedicab. “I work on weekends and come here at around 3.30 pm on Fridays. Usually manage to get around 30 customers in a day.”

That’s decent money, considering that a minimum ride of 2 km costs £ 3. The rates can go up to£ 20, depending on the distance, says Diego. Isn’t it exhausting to pedal away the weekend? “Oh yes, it is. But London is an expensive city,” he says dryly.

Diego is no exception. It is mostly students like him, who ply the pedicabs leased out by companies such as Bugbugs, Chariot Bikes and London Pedicabs. The drivers pay the companies a monthly lease of around £ 100 though the amount varies slightly, depending on the company. The drivers get to keep all fares and tips they collect. There are more than five to six companies operating over 200 cycle rickshaws in central London, ferrying mostly tourists over short distances.

“We spotted one of these and took a ride on a whim. It’s fun when it is not raining!” say Mr and Mrs Fedele, tourists from Italy. The pedicabs can also be booked for a variety of events including wedding processions, hen/stag nights and treasure hunts.

Another student driver Brunon from the Ukraine says summer is the peak time as tourists love tosightsee in the pedicabs. “It works out cheaper than taking the bus tours and the whole experience is more personal,” he feels.

The drivers came together a few years ago to form the London Association of Rickshaw Drivers to address any grievances they may have and to decide upon standard fares. Now they are debating the question of licensing.

At present, there is none but according to the Transport for London website, the Public Carriage Office (PCO) has prepared a consultation document setting out possible options for licensing. A decision is yet to be arrived at.

Back in Kolkata, things are a bit more complicated. Human rights groups have been fighting to phase out the hand-pulled rickshaws that have been a feature of Kolkata’s streets for over a century, arguing that it is inhuman to make people do the work of petrol or pedals, though many rickshaw pullers themselves disagree. The government recently announced a phasing out programme and nearly 18,000 rickshaw pullers are preparing for a new era when they will have to shift to the London kind of three-wheeled models.

What is strikingly different though in London is that pedicabs are considered as an eco-friendly alternative to motors as against their reputation of a ‘cheap but necessary’ mode of transport in cities like Kolkata. But for tourists like Mr and Mrs Fedele, it is simply “great fun” more than anything else.

Yes, I found it fun too. And an indefinable something else.  My joy was tinged with sadness; perhaps at the sharp contrasts between the bone-poor rickshaw drivers back at Kolkata and the much-happier lot here. But when I sat in a rickshaw, went along a cobbled path and gazed in the fading light at the tall streetlamps of Great Russell Street, there was also serenity. I knew that I was inhaling a whiff of the London of my storybooks, a London of another age, another time.

Great grandpa Venkanna would have approved.