Pedicab drivers rent the bikes from the companies that own and maintain them; had I really been employed, that Saturday would have cost me $50. Technically, drivers work for tips. A fare that roughly boils down to a dollar a minute is negotiated before passengers get in, but there is no set price. The drivers long ago figured out how much is worth their while.
When you subtract the winter months, rest days, bad weather and other impediments, Jason said a full-time pedicab driver can earn $15,000 to $18,000 a year, tops. Do they declare all that cash on their taxes? I didn’t ask. I don’t know which federal agency Jason works for, and I don’t need an audit.
My first fare was a family from New Jersey, here for the Baltimore Ravens game and other events. We talked football all the way down Constitution Avenue to the Lincoln Memorial. They were good sports as I weaved my way from the curb into the right lane and back again, as Jason had instructed me, and paid me the $25 we had negotiated, despite an alarming moment or two.
When I took a couple from Madison, Wis., back from the Lincoln Memorial to the Federal Triangle Metro stop an hour later, I adopted a different strategy, staking out the right lane and refusing to move over. As I sauntered down Constitution at about five miles an hour, cars zoomed past me on the left and right. I think my passengers were a little unnerved, but we chatted amiably about Washington and the 9/11 events planned for the next day.
Traffic, even taxis, is not the threat you’d think it is. The bane of pedicab drivers’ existence is the U.S. Park Police, with whom they seem to skirmish daily over where, and whether, they can pick up fares on the Mall. Drunks are another annoyance. Some drivers told me they won’t work lucrative Nats games or the U Street corridor so they don’t have to put up with people who’ve had a few.
I turned in the pedicab around 7 p.m., gave my $45 in earnings to Jason, and went home to spend the rest of the night massaging cramps in my toes, feet, calves and thighs. There probably are easier ways to make a living, and to stay in shape. But perhaps not at the same time.
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