Music-blaring pedicabs are interrupting Broadway performances more and more — a new bill seeks to ban them from the theater district

New York Post

2 days ago

Broadway is increasingly being taken for a ride.
'Rogue' pedicabs blasting New York-themed earworms around the theater district are causing chaos — interrupting Broadway performances, clogging sidewalk space and forcing theatergoers to weave dangerously around traffic, according to disgruntled locals and other drivers.
The issue has gotten so out of control over the last year that some actors have started ad-libbing 'Empire State of Mind' blasting from pedicabs outside shows, according to Kenneth Winter, a longtime driver and the spokesperson for the New York Pedicab Alliance.
6 'Rogue' pedicabs blasting New York-themed earworms around the theater district are causing chaos in Midtown, according to disgruntled locals and other drivers.
Michael Nagle
'It happens pretty often: They park in front of the theater waiting for the show to come out, as much as an hour before the show lets out,' Winter said, noting that the culprits are 'mostly' unlicensed pedicab drivers who charge excessive and sometimes illegal fees.
'Their point is to make as much money per transaction as possible — they're like piranhas.'
6 Pedicabs seen interrupting Broadway shows outside the Richard Rodgers Theatre.
Nicole Rosenthal / NY Post
'Yeah, you can hear it inside the theater,' Belasco Theatre security guard Pete Tarr, 53, told The Post. 'I'll be working the stage door, and they'll be coming down the street [as] this show is still going on.
'A lot of times we tell them to turn down the music, and they give us the finger.'
'The complaints have been well documented for this,' a guard at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater told The Post. '[The pedicabs] create a problem.'
The growing nuisance has inspired a City Council bill, which looks to squash the 'excessive noise and regular harassment' and ban all pedicabs from within 50 feet of theaters.
6 The growing nuisance has inspired a City Council bill, which looks to squash the 'excessive noise and regular harassment' that some pedicab drivers use to target unsuspecting tourists.
AFP via Getty Images
'Broadway performers shouldn't have to compete with blaring pedicab speakers,' Council Member Erik Bottcher, who is co-sponsoring the bill with Council Member Keith Powers, told The Post in a statement. 'Our bill puts some basic boundaries in place to protect the theater experience and bring order to the chaos outside the stage doors.'
A spokesperson for Bottcher's office confirmed receiving 'numerous' complaints about the matter from both residents and theater workers beginning last year.
'It's a problem,' Winter, who charges a flat $35 rate, said of the noisy vehicles. But 'it's a bigger problem when they're ripping people off for $300, $400 for a 10-minute ride,' he added.
Pedicab driver, John Aybaz, 26, from Turkey, admitted he blasts music to get attention from customers after a performance lets out.
'When I play the music, I'm gonna get a lot of attention from the customers,' he said, 'but I play after the show is over. Why would you play during the show? There are no customers.'
6 Pedicab driver, John Aybaz, 26, from Turkey, admitted he does blast music to get attention from customers after a performance lets out.
Nicole Rosenthal / NY Post
'It's unfair to punish all of us … for the few that do that,' Aybaz added. 'Banning us from waiting outside the theaters will kill our business.'
Winter said there are already laws on the books to deter nuisance pedicab drivers – and that moving their vehicles 50 feet down the street isn't a solution.
'We don't support this bill on any level, it's dumb,' he said.
Instead, Winter hopes the NYPD will crack down on unlicensed fraudsters with stiffer penalties and confiscation of their vehicles. As it stands, the NYPD confiscates unlicensed cabs — but will oftentimes give them back, he said.
A spokesperson for the NYPD told The Post the agency has been working to address the 'complex and chronic quality of life conditions throughout New York City,' including nuisance pedicabs.
6 Pedicab drivers look for tourists in Times Square on a busy summer night.
Michael Nagle
In both the Midtown North and South precincts, which encompass the theater district, there were 425 pedicabs seized and 965 summonses issued from Nov. 1, 2024 to Jan. 31, 2025, the rep said — though seized pedicabs can be returned to the owner once a summons is adjudicated.
Patrons of the theater district aren't the only ones affected by the swarm of bike taxis, according to Hell's Kitchen's 45th and 46th Street Block Association President David Stuart – who argues that locals are mostly concerned with street safety.
'When theaters get out … the pedicabs are generally in the streets, and maybe the congestion that they cause forces more people into the street,' Tom Harris, the president of the Times Square Alliance business improvement district, told The Post.
6 Patrons of the theater district aren't the only ones affected by the swarm of bike taxis, according to Hell's Kitchen's 45th and 46th Street Block Association President David Stuart – who argues that locals are mostly concerned with street safety.
Michael Nagle
But not everyone seems to mind the commotion.
'I'm not bothered by [the pedicabs], no more than I hear sirens or any other New York atmospheric noises from the Times Square area,' said Ezra Knight, an actor performing in 'Othello' at the Ethel Barrymore Theater.
'I have heard sirens, garbage trucks, honking cars,' said David Webber, 39, who was waiting in line to see 'John Proctor is the Villain' at the Booth Theatre on Wednesday. 'This is New York: If you pay attention to the noise, you'll drive yourself crazy.'
Melanie Trintin, 43, who was leaving 'The Lion King' with a friend, called the move to ban pedicabs from the theater district the 'dumbest thing I've heard all day.'
'If you can't handle the noise, please move to the country,' she said.