RRush Hour Report 14 Nov AD 2012
One can feel the end-of-the-year holiday swell in the streets already here in Midtown Manhattan. Motor Assault Vehicle aka car & truck traffic is slowly getting out of hand – soon to achieve parking-lot-like status right through Christmas. Rickshaw practitioners must factor in molasses like movement of street traffic into their pricing, as even rickshaws will find it challenging to move about town…
Makes a sentient person consider the benefits of applying the HOV-3 standard for entering the Manhattan CBD, which were realized as recently as two weeks ago in the post-Sandy hullabaloo, and pine for a holiday-season application of such standards.
As for this evening… Well, it was largely one to forget for this practitioner. Not only was Citycab down; RR the chain snapped on RR’s replacement cab soon after leaving the depot – with passengers in tow, no less.
No need to fear – Citycab’s here! Except when it isn’t…
Back on the road with a standard RRickshaw, RR did score a memorable ride for Nan Lee, a marketing gal for Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. RR hopes to work with them on the 2013 Manhattan Cocktail Classic, if it pleases them – seems they produce organic spirits, which right up ouRR alley.
The lovely Colleen from Connecticut jumped on the RRickshaw from Grand Central Terminal in order to make her 7pm appointment at the Golden Oars Awards night at New York Athletic Club – and achieved her goal.
The lovely Colleen from Connecticut arrives at her destination – New York Athletic Club – right on time…
On the way back to the depot, RR experienced a less than stellar display of “Courtesy, Professionalism and Respect” while traversing Times Square when two rookie soldiers in a Motor Assault Van approached RR in the left lane from behind and proceeded to activate their digitized beep sound over and over and over… until RR pulled into the next lane, at which point the MAV rolled another 100 ft and parked – quite obviously with no urgent situation brewing. As RR looked to engage one of the young soldiers in a quick discussion of what transpired, she barked “You got a problem?” a few times – obviously keen to abuse even more her powers of state-sanctioned violence…
Motor Assault Van parked illegally after newly minted soldiers abuse state police powers – just another day in Times Square…
On that note, RR passed at one point long-time practitioner Jerrick Coney, who noted he’s suing the city for wrongful arrest. He’s set to go to court this coming February, it seems. The NYPD this year has become infamous in practitioner circles for “wrongful” arrests – that is, ones in which the soldiers claim the “records” show possible warrants, only to “discover” after hours or even overnight jail time that – oops – no warrant actually existed. Meanwhile, the NYC-backed pedi-extortionists continue to enjoy full access to the city’s valued tourists – NYC can’t have any “discrimination” going on by practitioners now, can we, by requiring “quote up front” only pricing? Extortion? Well, that’s a whole other story according to the mayor and city council.
On a brighter note, earlier in the day farmer Jack returned RR’s Lynch trike from Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture. He extolled the virtues of the trike for farm usage, and RR looks forward to forging a strong partnership with the Stone Barns team in the coming years!