Holly V. Hays

holly.hays@indystar.com

Two months after the proposal was introduced, the Indianapolis City-County Council approved regulations for local "pedal pubs."

Councilors passed the proposal 20-2 on Monday evening, allowing the pubs to be included in the city's pedal cab ordinance.

The proposal, introduced to the council in September, requires the businesses to get licenses that would be renewed on an annual basis and requires liability insurance.

Councilor Jeff Miller, one of the proposal's authors, said the new requirements offers the city more protection and holds the businesses more accountable, allowing residents to speak up with any issues they may or may not be having.

“By doing a license, now on an annual basis, there's a chance for discussion," Miller said. "There may not need to be."

The original pedal cab ordinance, passed in 2000, only included vehicles with a maximum of three passengers — some pedal pubs have 16.

“This is a good chance to revise an ordinance that had been out there for years and probably needed to be refreshed anyway," he said.

The proposal's approval also came with a last-minute amendment: Abolishing what Miller called "admittedly archaic" clothing requirements for operators of pedal cabs. As originally written, the code did not allow operators to wear denim or any kind of sandals.

He called the clothing requirements "silly."

“What did they have against denim?" Miller said. "I mean, what on Earth?”

A vote for change: Denim is now OK

With Monday's amendments, pedal cab operators are now allowed to wear denim. While pedal cab or pedal pub operators, who are propelling the vehicle, are still not allowed to wear sandals, Miller said pedal pub riders are allowed to because their pedaling is not actually moving the motorized pub.

Miller acknowledged that there were other clothing requirements that needed revisiting, such as a ban on T-shirts and a requirement to wear shirts tucked-in, but that those changes will come later, since the city's taxicab codes also have clothing requirements that will soon be revisited.

Dan Eliason, owner of the Pickled Pedaler, told Fox59 in September that the new regulations, specifically the yearly license renewal, could hurt his business.

"We can’t possibly do that," he said. "We are a brick-and-mortar business. We have 19 part-time employees and a full-time manager. We have a payroll. We are thinking five years in advance, just trying to keep up."

Miller said he understood those concerns and believed some of the fears may have been coming from the idea that residents could take advantage of the "nit-picky" clothing requirements if they were to complain. Ultimately, though, he said the regulations force the operators to be more conscientious of the residents and cars around them as they move through the city.

“You've got to work through this stuff, you've got to figure it out," Miller said. "People are still going to have fun.”

Call IndyStar reporter Holly Hays at (317) 444-6156. Follow her on Twitter: @hollyvhays.

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