John Wright, 24, has petitioned the city for permission to operate a pedal-driven tricycle, with a two-passenger cab, for passenger rides around the Market Square area. Watching pedicab transportation flourish while working in Boston the past few years, he thought the idea would work well in his new hometown of Portsmouth.

"It's environmentally conscious, and it's a service to the public," he said. "I thought, this is a community that might embrace it."

The City Council received copies of Wright's letter of request this week and is scheduled to address it tonight.

Wright said he's starting a new sales job with Portsmouth's Circus Media, and if he gets the city's OK, he'll pedal his pedicab nights and weekends.

John Bailey, a cyclist and member of the city's Traffic and Safety Committee, said pedicabs would not be new to the city. He recalls when a pair of them parked near the trash bins by Poco's in the late 1980s were both "popular" and "fun."

"They're kind of a sweaty version of a rickshaw," he said. "It's kind of a novelty, really. There isn't really any place they can take you. But people are so lazy, I suppose the notion of getting a ride from Poco's to the parking garage would be popular."

Bailey said they operated in the past without a problem and speculated any objection would be "knee-jerk" to something perceived as new.

In the city of Beijing, a half-million pedicabs are registered to citizens who use them for daily transportation.

The New York City Council tightened regulations on pedicab operators in March 2007, following complaints from taxi cab owners about pedicabs cutting into their profits without having comparable insurance requirements. By a majority vote, the NYC Council capped the number of licenses issued to pedicab operators, banned electric motors on them and required owners to carry liability insurance comparable to taxi operators.

Wright said he bought his pedicab in New York and doesn't plan to pedal it without city approval.

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