Denver Business Journal – by Tom Locke Denver Business Journal

In the old fishing villages on the southeast coast of Spain, the streets are narrow, the parking is atrocious and the tourists are plentiful.

But for tourists who are too tired and sweaty to take another step under the hot Spanish sun, there is relief, thanks to a little Broomfield company that is bridging the walker-automobile transportation gap with something called a “pedicab.”

On a recent morning in March, a dozen or so yellow pedicabs lay ready for shipment to Spain in the small warehouse of Main Street Pedicabs Inc., a company that has championed pedicabs for more than a decade under the leadership of its owner and CEO, Steve Meyer. “We’re not only building pedicabs, we’re building a pedicab industry,” Meyer said.

Meyer said he stuck with pedicabs while others might have given up because he and his wife, Ruth Vanderkooi, simply love the business. And that’s even though they make less than they would if they were fully employed somewhere else, he said.

Meyer has a background in urban planning, and sees himself as sort of a champion of an alternative form of transportation that can add excitement and utility to boring cities dominated by automobiles.

So, thanks in part to supplemental income earned by his wife and to real estate development projects on the side, Meyer has persevered in the pedicab business and figures he’s easily the biggest pedicab manufacturer in the United States.

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Main Street Pedicabs were used for the March 11, 2004 episode of NBC’s hit TV show, The Apprentice. Episode 10 – “Wheeling and Dealing” – the remaining members of “Versacorp” and “Protégé” teams compete against each other by operating a pedicab (rickshaw) service in NYC. When the two teams met with Donald in the boardroom, George and Carolyn laid out the numbers. Versacorp had a total profit of $3,680 while Protégé had a profit of just over $382. Even the always cool Trump seemed to do a double-take. The lopsided victory was the direct result of selling advertising.

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