Ousted by Insurance Costs, Pedicabs Eye Alien Climes

As the clock strikes midnight tonight, Sunshine Pedicabs will be no more. After seven years, it has to move on--maybe to Cancun, Mexico, or Tahiti--because it can’t keep up with insurance rates.

Steve Clark, the city’s pedicab mogul, said he will fold up the popular muscle-powered tourist attraction when his insurance policy expires, defeated by the same dilemma that has done in many area recreational activities.

Clark has about 20 pedalers plying their trade at popular tourist haunts along San Diego Bay, in Balboa Park and the zoo, and he employs about 50 at the peak of the tourist season--July and August. Most of the pedicab drivers are students in their 20s who can earn $70 a shift in the off-season, $80 to $90 during the summer.

“I still don’t really believe it’s over,” Clark said Monday. “I keep hoping someone will come along with an answer.” The answer will have to be in the form of lower insurance premiums, because Sunshine’s premiums tripled and the 15-pedicab operation just can’t bear the cost. His insurance agent notified him that his $10,000 liability policy premium would increase to $30,000 annually.

“That’s just too steep. That’s more than 50% of the company’s earnings,” Clark mourned. “I’m just going to have to close it down.”

He went to the city, which licenses him much like a taxi company, to see if officials could help him out of his financial difficulties.

“I figure that my drivers are really valuable as guides, giving directions in Balboa Park to the tourists, for instance,” Clark said. The new master plan for Balboa Park calls for establishment of a pedicab system to cut down on auto traffic in the city park, but Clark is realistic. “I can’t hang on until they implement that,” he said.

He said he may have to leave San Diego, and probably the United States, to find a place the insurance bind has not reached. He has heard that Cancun is ripe for a pedicab business for tourists, he said.

Since his plight became known, Clark has received a few nibbles on lower insurance costs but none that come within his price range of around $10,000 a year, $15,000 maximum.

“I bet my cabs have carried half a million people around town, and without an injury,” Clark said. “It’s too bad we have to quit rolling.”