Chicago, Business License Denied to Bike-Powered Pub Crawl

The owners of a Minnesota-based bike-powered pub crawl company has not taken no as an answer to their request for a Chicago business permit. After city hall denied their application for a local business license, owners of PedalPub filed a petition at the county clerk’s office to overturn the city’s ruling.

PedalPub’s vehicles are sort of enlarged bicycles driven by 16 people. The city categorizes these bikes with sightseeing vehicles which are required, by city business license regulations, to be powered by a motor.

Chicago Sun-Times quotes Joy Adelizzi, a deputy commissioner in the city’s Business Affairs and Consumer Protection office in her May 4 letter to the company, “In order for your business to provide charter/sightseeing tours on the public way, you must utilize a licensed public passenger vehicle. By definition a public passenger vehicle must be propelled by a motor.”

PedalPub owners, however, claim that the main purpose of their bicycle is not to provide tours of the city; rather it’s a more glorified way of getting around to city pubs.

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