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 Six weeks ago, Mayor Bill de Blasio abandoned a plan to restrict
where pedicabs could go in Central Park as part of a program to curb
the number of horse-drawn carriages.
The lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court by Capitol Pedicabs
LLC, which said it owns licenses for 30 pedicabs, and Bourama
Camera, who said he stopped driving pedicabs after eight years
because it had become "impossible" to earn a living.
They said the city has subjected pedicab drivers to a "targeted
ticketing campaign" that started in 2011, when its Department of
Consumer Affairs began adding inspectors to issue more tickets and
help curb budget shortfalls.
 The complaint said New York City has since violated the U.S.
Constitution by harassing drivers with "suspicionless" stops and
seizures, and caused licenses to become "essentially worthless"
because excess fines could lead to license suspensions.
Pedicabs have three wheels and are powered by drivers' legs to carry
tourists and other passengers around New York.
The city "has engaged in extra ticketing not just to extract more
revenue, but to put a type of operation it doesn't favor out of
business," plaintiffs' lawyer Austin Brown said in a telephone
interview.
He added that pedicab licenses might once have fetched five-figure
sums, noting that now "I don't think you can give them away."
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A spokesman for the city's law department said: "The merits of each
of these claims will be reviewed."
The mayor and New York's police, consumer affairs and parks
departments were also named as defendants.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and a halt to the alleged
illegal stops and seizures.
The case is Capitol Pedicabs LLC et al v. City of New York et al,
U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 16-01925.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler
and Grant McCool)
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