No pedal ‘pubs’ in La Crosse, city council disallows booze

Many council members disagreed, saying it will simply encourage pub crawls on cabs

The new pedal cabs in La Crosse will, in fact, be just that, cabs.  As in, no alcohol. Pedal cabs, not pedal pubs.

That’s the final decision from the La Crosse city council this week, opting to license the cabs, which can involve 12-15 riders, without allowing beer on board. 

A prohibition that many council members opposed, saying it would turn the giant bike-like things into a rolling pub crawl. 

Council member David Krump says that prohibition will actually cause more drinking in the long run

“What it will become, instead of driving through Riverside Park at 7 miles-per hour and sipping on a light beer,” Krump said, “will just be a pub crawl downtown where people will be rushed and hurried in and out of establishments, to consume lots of alcohol.

La Crosse city council member Bob Seaquist denies such a thing can occur.

“If indeed people are going to go do a pub crawl, well, we don’t allow that in our city,” La Seaquist said. “And if people are going to be drunken, then our police dept. arrests them.”

Neither of those things are actually true. Pub crawls happen routinely in the city and have for many years. And police only ticket those for public intoxication if the subject is completely incapacitated and only after handing out a warning.