The Soul of a Pedicab Driver(www.sheldonbrown.com)
56 pointsby haritha-j3 hours ago5 comments
  • A_Duck4 minutes ago
    What a lovely article. There's a strong correlation between the energy you put out into the world and what you get back.

    I often think that as I end up confirming a grumpy/aggressive person's expectation I'll be a bad customer, or confirming a kind/present persons's expectation I'll be a good one

  • jacquesm25 minutes ago
    That's quite the story. I have a family member that spent some time on a taxi and the stories are much the same. Assholes aplenty.
  • _-_-__-_-_-32 minutes ago
    What a great site design. Easy to read, simple layout almost comforting.
  • fdghrtbrt2 hours ago
    Jarring to see a white person doing this job.

    I saw this not because I think certain types of jobs should be done by certain types of people, but because that's what I see happening. So even before reading I knew this guy was going to be unusual in all sorts of ways.

    Nice read, thanks for sharing.

    • ndsipa_pomu41 minutes ago
      Haven't visited Oslo, but I thought Norway was largely a white-skinned population. Why would it be jarring to see a white person doing any kind of job, or are you referring to some kind of job division racism?
      • micromacrofoot25 minutes ago
        It's the classic racism/classism combo... a lot of taxi drivers are foreigners for example because it can be a stressful and low-paying job at the end of the day.
    • selimthegrim30 minutes ago
      In a lot of US tourist cities, I would say that’s who is predominantly doing it
      • micromacrofoot28 minutes ago
        Yes, oddly compared to taxis my experience in the US with pedicabs is that they're almost all white men driving. More of a freewheeling low responsibility type of job rather than providing for a family type situation. I wonder what sort of social shift resulted in this?
  • xnxan hour ago
    Quite different than the scam pedicabs that operate in US cities now.
    • ndsipa_pomu40 minutes ago
      They're popular in London too. The scam seems to be that if tourists don't arrange the price beforehand, it'll be arbitrarily inflated - they don't run a meter like a licensed taxi.
    • raddanan hour ago
      What’s the scam?
      • Waterluvianan hour ago
        They’ll end up charging you like $120 for a 10 min trip by just being deceptive and evasive about the fee structure.
        • jacquesm34 minutes ago
          Then you give them the finger and walk away.
          • Waterluvian13 minutes ago
            It's not that easy. He had those little chains strung across the side exits and wouldn't remove them until I paid. I told him they don't let you out of Canada with that kind of cash but he didn't believe me and laid siege to my day while eating a slice of pizza like a taco. The worst thing was that this was my second mishap with non-combustion locomotion that day. ...I still swear that was not the real Secretariat and that Central Park isn't in New Jersey.