Residents can voice their concerns about Pedal Pub allowing the consumption of alcohol within its moving vehicles on Columbus city streets by contacting their city council members through the city’s website.
This story has been followed by an opinion piece exploring the depths of the problems with Pedal Pub's business model and city council's decision to ignore them.
Columbus city council is moving to change laws so a “tourism” business can consume alcohol on city streets in moving vehicles, after the same business just injured 15 people in an Atlanta vehicle rollover resulting in nation-wide uproar and DUI charges.
The “tourism” company, called Pedal Pub, allows up to 17 patrons to consume alcohol while operating large pedal-powered trolleys the size of a bus down city streets. The company has a horrific legal track-record in other cities, as well as multiple instances of vehicle crashes and rollovers on city streets — the most recent of which happened in midtown Atlanta just this past May.
Video of the crash shows the alcohol-filled party vehicle roll over at high-speed and skid with all 15 open-air passengers horrifically injured:
Columbus’ “tourism” initiatives have now attracted Pedal Pub to the Fountain City, with city council welcoming the dangerous and quasi-illegal business to change local laws to allow its operation on the streets of downtown Columbus.
During the Columbus city council meeting on September 27, 2022, a representative of Pedal Pub Columbus requested that the city change its laws to allow the business to operate its alcohol-fueled “tours” through the streets of downtown Columbus. The city is now seriously considering doing exactly that.
Columbus city council stated the company itself may draft its own proposed changes to the city’s laws and present them later this month for review. The city’s actions raise serious questions about allowing tourism-related businesses to dictate the city’s laws in a corrupt profit-seeking manner.
The bending of local laws to allow taxable business that would otherwise be prohibited also raises questions of racketeering under the nation’s federal RICO anti-corruption laws, as the city appears to be permitting a private business to dictate local laws in exchange for tax revenue opportunities for the city government. The apparent establishment of this quid-pro-quo may legally constitute bribery and corruption under federal law.
Numerous vehicular accidents have also brought strong legal attention to Pedal Pub and its brazen violations of open container laws throughout the nation. Now, the Columbus city council is considering changing its local laws to allow the business model’s shoddy legality to occur here in the Fountain City in the name of “tourism.”
A Pedal Pub trolley most recently crashed in midtown Atlanta just this past May, injuring fifteen people. The trolley crashed into a median near the intersection of Peachtree and 14th Street. The Pedal Pub company driver was charged with DUI. Images of the crash showed vast amounts of alcohol containers littering the streets after the Pedal Pub vehicle rolled over injuring everyone onboard.
While the Atlanta Pedal Pub crash is widely expected to set a legal precedent nation-wide for the illegality of the business model, Columbus, Ga. officials appear dead-set on changing their own local laws to allow the business to bring their dangerous and quasi-illegal operation to its own city streets.
According to 11alive News legal analyst Page Pate, the Pedal Pub trolleys are absolutely considered vehicles under the law. Pate explained how Pedal Pub’s recent Atlanta crash violated Georgia open container laws and resulted in DUI charges:
"It's a tragic situation, obviously, but it's something that really is not all that unexpected, given the fact that you have so many people drinking on a mode of transportation in the middle of a busy, crowded street," Pate said. "I would expect this to lead to tighter regulation and enforcement of the ordinances that are already on the books, and perhaps some cities, Atlanta included, may reconsider allowing this type of operation to even exist.”
Nonetheless, the Pedal Pub business has now moved to Columbus after its Atlanta legal fiasco, as Columbus officials make a coordinated effort to change laws to allow the same dangerous and illegal operation to take place here instead.
Georgia’s open container law prohibits any vehicle occupants from even possessing an open alcoholic beverage in a vehicle, let alone consume it. Pedal Pub’s operation would allow up to 17 people to violate this law within the City of Columbus at the same time, per ride.
Additionally, the state’s public intoxication laws prohibit anyone under the influence of alcohol from publicly acting in a “boisterous manner,” which is precisely what Pedal Pub’s track record of its alcohol-fueled party environment have been shown to create.
The city council’s move to change local laws would contradict the state’s laws on the matter, which itself is prohibited by law.
The legal conundrum highlights how far Columbus officials are willing to go in the name of “tourism” and “economic development,” appearing to be willing to endanger its residents and harass downtown locals by allowing alcohol to be consumed on moving vehicles down its own city streets.
Residents can voice their concerns about Pedal Pub allowing the consumption of alcohol within its moving vehicles on Columbus city streets by contacting their city council members through the city’s website.
Facts are stubborn things — and we’ll keep publishing them, whether city officials like them or not.
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