We remember when our old office moved from 625 Polk Street in San Francisco (the building featured in Dirty Harry where Callahan tricks the suicide jumper) to 10 UN Plaza, a place on Market Street with what's most likely the highest concentration of homeless per square foot in the entire city. One of our co-workers said of the new location, "It's a nice building. It's too bad you have to walk through Calcutta to get there." Calcutta, trying to stem the tide of untoward comments like this, has decided to ban rickshaws from its streets. After China made the great leap past the human-powered devices in 1949, Calcutta stands as one of the only cities in the world to use the rickshaw as a major form of transit.

Farwell to the hand-pulled rickshaws [Reuters]

Related:
India's Reva-NXG Electric Roadster [Internal]

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