Eleven velorickshaws* currently operate in Moscow, tooling around on Tverskoy Boulevard, Tverskaya Street, and in the area near the All-Union Exhibition Center (they haven’t renamed that yet?**). You can’t tell the driver where to take you—for now, at least, the velorickshaws travel along predetermined routes (sort of like the horse-and-buggies in Central Park). A ride costs 150 rubles.
How much is that really? Well, a Caesar’s salad at Этаж (the Moscow restaurant advertised on the side of the velorickshaw) costs 195 rubles (as of today). So, a ride costs less than a salad. Not bad.
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*Also called pedicabs, cycle rickshaws, etc. The thing pictured above actually seems more like a cross between a pedicab and a velomobile.
**Turns out the blogger made a booboo. Since 1992 the name is the All-Russian Exhibition Centre (same acronym: ВВЦ). But apparently Muscovites are prone to slip up and say “All-Union.” An article in Наука и жизнь chronicles the transformation of ВСХВ (Всесоюзная сельскохозяйственная выставка—1939) to ВДНХ (Выставка достижений народного хозяйства СССР—1959) to ВВЦ, but inconsistently expands the last one (first Всесоюзный выставочный центр, then Всероссийский выставочный центр). Linguistic inertia, I guess.
