Origin The first rickshaws were invented in France in the late 17th century, to fulfill, along with other types of carriages such as
cabriolets and
fiacres, the unmet demand for public transportation created by the 1679 cessation of Paris' first
omnibus service. These vehicles, called "vinaigrettes" for their resemblance to the handcarts used by contemporary vinegar-sellers, were fully-enclosed two-wheeled carriages with space for a single person. Usually, they were moved by two people; one holding the bars at the front and the other pushing from behind. A painting named "Les deux carrosses" by Claude Gillot shows 2 rickshaws in 1707. Rickshaws were independently invented in Japan circa 1869, and at the beginning of a period of rapid technical advancement in Japan.
Inventor There are many theories about the inventor, with the most likely and widely accepted theory describing the rickshaw as having been invented in Japan in 1869, who formed a partnership with Suzuki Tokujiro and Takayama Kosuke to build the vehicles, having been "inspired by the horse carriages that had been introduced to the streets of Tokyo a few years earlier". Other theories about the inventor of the rickshaw include: •
Reverend Jonathan Goble (sometimes called Jonathan Scobie), an American
Free Baptist minister and
missionary to Japan, is said to have invented the rickshaw around 1869 to transport his invalid wife through the streets of
Yokohama. • In
New Jersey, the Burlington County Historical Society claims an 1867 invention by carriage maker James Birch, and exhibits a Birch rickshaw in its museum. Japan historian Seidensticker wrote of the theories: Though the origins of the rickshaw are not entirely clear, they seem to be Japanese, and of Tokyo specifically. The most widely accepted theory offers the name of three inventors, and gives 1869 as the date of invention.
Description The vehicle had a wooden carriage that rode on "superior Western wheels" and was a dramatic improvement over earlier modes of transportation. Whereas the earlier sedan chairs required two people, the rickshaw generally only required one. More than one person was required for hilly or mountainous areas. It also provided a smoother ride for the passenger. Other forms of vehicles at the time were drawn by animals or were wheelbarrows. If the families were well-off financially they might have their own rickshaw runner. Generally, runners covered in a day, at an average traveling speed of . Japanese rickshaw manufacturers produced and exported rickshaws to Asian countries and South Africa. Many of the poorest individuals in Singapore in the late nineteenth century were poverty-stricken, unskilled people of Chinese
ancestry. Sometimes called
coolies, the hardworking men found that pulling a rickshaw was a new opportunity for employment. In 1897,
martial law was declared to end a four-day rickshaw workers' strike. Around 1880 rickshaws appeared in India, first introduced in
Simla by
Reverend J. Fordyce. At the turn of the century they were introduced in Calcutta, India, and by 1914 were a conveyance for hire.
20th century After
World War II, there was a major shift in the use of man-powered rickshaws: Hand-
pulled rickshaws became an embarrassment to modernizing urban elites in the
Third World, and were widely banned, in part because they were symbolic, not of modernity, but of a
feudal world of openly marked class distinctions. Perhaps the seated rickshaw passenger is too close to the back of the laboring driver, who, besides, is metaphorically a draught animal harnessed between shafts. The
cycle rickshaw was built in the 1880s and was first used with regularity starting in 1929 in Singapore. They were found in every south and east Asian country by 1950. By the late 1980s there were estimated 4 million cycle rickshaws in the world.
Africa (
tuk-tuk) in
Nairobi. Rickshaws were introduced to
Durban, South Africa, and by 1904 there were about 2,000 registered rickshaw pullers. Rickshaws operated in
Nairobi in the beginning of the 20th century; pullers went on strike there in 1908. In the 1920s, they were used in
Bagamoyo,
Tanga, Tanzania and other areas of East Africa for short distances.
Asia The rickshaw's popularity in Japan had declined by the 1930s with the advent of motorized forms of transportation like automobiles and trains. After
World War II, when gasoline and automobiles were scarce, they made a temporary comeback. The rickshaw tradition has stayed alive in Kyoto and Tokyo's
geisha districts. However, after World War II, other forms of transport such as pedicabs and streetcar became strong competitors of rickshaws, leading the business of rickshaws into stagnation. Chiuchow men formed a faction within the Canton rickshaw pullers union in the 1920s. In addition, the Chiuchow pullers could be identified by their hats which were rounded and flat at the top; while the rival Hoklo men had a cone-shaped headgear with sharp points at the top. However, rickshaw use began to decline in the 1920s as the government introduced the streetcar system in 1924. The number of rickshaw pullers had declined from 44,200 to 25,877 six months after the opening of the tramway. There are still many rickshaws in many cities for either touring purposes (in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, with traditional Chinese rickshaws) or short range transportation in some counties. However, the new Communist government banned rickshaws in Canton in the early 1950s, leading to another low tide of rickshaws. Bangladeshi Rickshaw in Sweden. In the 1930s,
cycle rickshaws were used in
Dhaka, Bangladesh,
Kolkata, India; and
Jakarta, Indonesia. By 1950 they could be found in many
South and East Asian countries. By the end of 2013, there were about 100,000
electric rickshaws in Delhi. In Viêtnam, the rickshaw was called with the French name "Pousse-pousse". In 1883, Jean Thomas Raoul Bonnal, Supérior Résident of Tonkin, import 2 rickshaws from Japan in the city of Hanoi and made copies of them.
North America Pedicabs were introduced in North America in 1962, where they were a means of transportation at the
Seattle World's Fair in the state of
Washington.
21st century , 2005. , Japan, 2015. The 21st century has seen a resurgence in rickshaws, particularly in motorized rickshaws and cycle rickshaws.
Auto rickshaws, also called velotaxis, have resurged as they are about 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of regular taxis. German velotaxis are three-wheeled, powered vehicles with a space for a driver and, behind the driver, space for two passengers.
Cycle rickshaws are used in many Asian, North American, and European cities. They are increasingly being used as an eco-friendly way of short-range transportation, particularly in urban areas. Along with
auto rickshaws, they are also used (particularly by Asian cities) for tourism, because of their "novelty value as an entertaining form of transportation".
Aboboyaa is a tricycle used in the transportation of goods and service in Ghana.
Asia Macau still uses tri-wheeled bicycle rickshaw, or riquexó in Portuguese, as Macau was a Portuguese colony in the past. This kind of transportation was very famous until the late 20th century, due to the fact of being a small city and few cars, not so many motorcycles, very bad public transport and no other transport such as train or subway. You can go around Macau peninsula and the twos island on rickshaw, and visit the Riquexó Museum and see the evolution of rickshaws from the 18th century until modern times. Automated cycle rickshaws, called velotaxis, are popular in Kyoto and Tokyo, Japan. Their use is growing at a rate of about 20–30% a year in Japanese cities. The traditional rickshaws are still alive for travelers in some tourist places in Japan. Rickshaws are found in Hong Kong. Sri Lanka has over 1 million auto rickshaws registered in use as of 2018.
Australia In Australia,
cycle rickshaws or trishaws (three wheels) are used in
Melbourne and
St Kilda. They are also seen in
Cowaramup, Western Australia at Bakehouse '38.
Europe Cycle rickshaws or trishaws (three wheels) are used in some large continental European cities, • Estonia:
Tallinn • France: Paris and
Nantes • Norway:
Oslo • Spain:
Barcelona which was later enacted as the
Pedicabs (London) Act 2024, introducing a formal licensing and regulatory framework for their operation. •
Edinburgh, where vendors are hired like taxis and provide tours. •
Oxford. File:Brighton to Newhaven along the coast 056.jpg|Auto rickshaw located in
Brighton Marina.
North America • In Canada, there are pedicabs in operation in
Victoria and
Vancouver. They are regulated in
Toronto and
Vancouver. Pulled rickshaw rides are available in downtown
Ottawa, with tours of historical
Byward Market. • In the United States,
San Diego and New York City each host hundreds of pedicabs; dozens of other North American cities also have
pedicab services. In New York, human powered transport is used primarily by tourists due to its cost. In
New Orleans, pedicabs have been used to transport
French Quarter tourists since the summer of 2012. • In Mexico, there are thousands of pedicabs. All drivers are in informal circumstances, and have precarious working conditions, long hours (11.3 hours a day), low wages (US$59.18 per week), and no social protections or benefits. 6.3% reported suffering from a disease, 49.5% corresponded to musculoskeletal conditions and only 11.6% were affiliated to any health system. 53.8% are owners of the vehicle and, although it does not seem to influence physical illness (P=0.03), it is related to the psychosocial ones (P=0.260). ==Types==