The owner of Banff’s new rickshaw tour service wants to run his rickshaws as a taxi operation.
Caolan Kennedy has collected about 500 signatures so far as part of a petition to ask the Town of Banff to allow him to expand the tour service to include a taxi service, including picking up the bar crowd from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m.
“The reason we’re wanting to do this is, realistically, it’s a more profitable business model, and I truly believe it will benefit the town and help keep a few cars off the road,” said Kennedy.
“I haven’t had a huge amount of time to look at the routes I’d be interested in, although I’m not looking at running up any huge hills. But I would love to do the evening bar service just in the downtown, shuttling people from one bar to the next and one restaurant to the next.”
The Town of Banff has issued a two-year temporary development permit for Kennedy’s rickshaw tour service, which is presently based on the 200 block of Bear Street at Bison Courtyard. There are typically two rickshaws on the street, but on busier days up to four.
In February, council approved a change to Banff’s traffic bylaw to allow pedi-cab and rickshaw companies to do business in Banff, but only for the next two years and with strict limits on where they could go.
Town administration indicated a preference to only allow for rickshaw and pedi-cab tour services on a trial basis in order to monitor and assess the impacts of this type of vehicle tour service.
Keith Batstone, a planner with the Town of Banff, said operating rickshaws as a taxi service is currently prohibited under Banff’s taxi bylaw.
“We are aware of the petition, but there is nothing on the agenda to council at this point,” he said.
Batstone said the Town is monitoring the rickshaw operation and the planning and development department has no concerns with how the rickshaw tour service has been running so far.
He did, however, confirm there had been a complaint made to Banff bylaw about the service running off-route on Caribou Street in an attempt to attract business.
“One of the new employees was operating the rickshaw off-route. Their service is supposed to be run as a tour, but they were trying to attract people from areas around town,” he said.
“We haven’t seen a pattern in terms of any contraventions of the development permit … we talked to the permit holder and we’re not taking any further action at this time.”
Kennedy said the incident arose on the first day of work of a new employee. “It was his very first day and there was a little misunderstanding as to where to park,” he said.
