DENVER – As more than 50,000 visitors hit the streets of Denver for the Democratic National Convention, there seems to be one color that keeps coming to mind: green.

Convention planners and the city of Denver are making sure this once-in-a-lifetime event is as eco-friendly as possible.

For Casey Bobay, co-owner of Mile High Pedi-cabs, green is creating green and pedal power is paying off.

“We’ve been doing round about 17-hour days during the DNC. We’re the most convenient green-friendly transportation down here right now .Yesterday, I had 42 missed calls in an hour of people wanting rides,” said Bobay.

Kirk Dornbush is from Atlanta. He says it cost $12 to go roughly a mile in a pedi-cab.

“Pedi-cabs are lean, green, convertible machines. They are the only way to go, it’s just awesome. They are quick. The drivers are courteous and it’s a green way to get around the city. I have not taken a fuel-burning cab yet and I will not. The pedi-cabs are the only way to go,” said Dornbush.

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Tags: better business, bike lane, Cabs, city of denver, convention planners, delegates, democratic national convention, Denver, DNC, driver, lifetime event, Pedicab News, traffic, transportation

Ice cream cones and X-ray machines were popularized at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. Will “pedicabs” – those passenger carts pulled by bicycle riders – be mainstreamed by the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver?

Big events like conventions and fairs offer entrepreneurs a big opportunity to get their new inventions exposure to lots of people in a short period of time. Entrepreneurs can very quickly see whether there’s demand for their goods and get real-time feedback. (Giving away free product can also be a good way to generate buzz at big events, as I wrote last week.)

Today, my colleague Stephanie Simon highlights how Denver pedicab companies hope the Democratic National Convention will be their chance to show consumers the wonders of being driven by a bicycle rickshaw rather than a gas-guzzling taxi cab on short trips.

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Tags: bicycle riders, bicycling, convention goers, democratic national convention, Denver, Michael Phelps, new inventions, passenger, Pedicab, pedicab drivers, Pedicab News, rickshaw, St. Louis, Stephanie Simon, taxi cab

By STEPHANIE SIMON

DENVER — Owners of bicycle rickshaws, already a popular way of getting about downtown Denver, are seizing on the Democratic National Convention as a chance to showcase their human-powered taxis as more than just a novelty.

Steve Meyer, owner of one of Denver’s largest fleets of pedicabs and a manufacturer of the vehicles, wants the convention’s national audience to see bike taxis as a dynamic part of the urban fabric and the ultimate in green transportation.

“People see pedicabs as like a horse-drawn carriage, sitting there on the curb for our amusement. We want people to see them in a new light, as a fundamental mode of transportation,” said Mr. Meyer, whose Mile High Pedicabs boasts a 40-vehicle fleet.

Bike-pedaled rickshaws took off in the U.S. scene in the early 1990s, in large part due to Mr. Meyer’s promotion. He got them recognized early on as part of the mix in revitalizing Denver’s downtown pedestrian mall.

Mr. Meyer makes bike taxis in his Broomfield, Colo., factory, selling 3,000 in the last 15 years to buyers across the country. The biggest markets include New York, San Diego, Austin, Texas, and Miami. Mr. Meyer says he hopes greater exposure during the convention will translate to bigger business.

Pedicabs, which weigh about 200 pounds empty, can take passengers as far as several miles, but most runs are two to 10 blocks — often too short for a conventional cab, and for pedestrians encumbered by packages, ill health or alcohol, too long to walk. Most rickshaw buggies seat two, though sometimes four or five passengers squeeze in.

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Tags: democratic national convention, downtown denver, fleets, independent contractors, mode of transportation, national audience, pedestrian mall, Pedicab News, pedicabs, rickshaw, steve meyer, vehicle fleet

For the high-rollers – or Green-minded Dems – arriving here for the Democratic National Convention, $2-per-block is probably chump change.
The price should provide big business, especially if the requested going rate gives delegates and visitors the vantage point of riding in a pedicab in an area around the Pepsi Center, which will be tricky to navigate.

“We think it’s going to be huge,” says Casey Bobay, co-owner with Chuck Henry of Rocket Bike Cabs and managers of Mile High Pedicabs.

Under their various groups, they have assembled a fleet of about 40 of the three-wheeled vehicles. Even Mayor John Hickenlooper has given the pedicabs a shout out as a good way for Denver to haul conventioneers around during the DNC. As the mayor says, they’re people-powered and the drivers are hard working. Pedicabs also obtained a national level of cool, when presidential wannabe Stephen Colbert showed up on “The Daily Show” being pulled by a driver in a red-white-and-blue Uncle Sam outfit as a bemused Jon Stewart looked on.

Who knows if Uncle Sam will be on hand come Aug. 25? Bobay says they expect to go “24/7” during the week surrounding the convention. He might even lend a foot to the fleet. The average trip, he notes, is between eight and 10 blocks – so even the wealthiest visitors can’t go to DIA or the Foothills. Instead, the Pepsi Center, Invesco and the 16th Street Mall are the most likely destinations.

And while there has been some friction in the pedicab community between drivers and venues they see to visit, Bobay says he believes things should be OK. It’s not just a free-for-all. A check of the Mile High Pedicab homepage reveals a solid history, noting “Mile High pedicabs is the offspring of Main Street Pedicabs, the largest manufacturer of pedicabs in North America. These modern day pedicabs use the technology of 21-speed mountain bikes, rear hydraulic brakes for safe braking, and rear axle differentials for tight turning.” Further, pedicabs are licensed by the city. Still, there could be some interlopers.

“I don’t know if we can avoid some pirates showing up,” Bobay explains. He says they’ll deal with that if it happens as best as they can.

Yet given the travel complications in some areas, Bobay and his team appear to be banking on plenty of customers, bent on making the Green Dem scene. So Obamapalooza watchers, keep an eye out. You probably won’t see the likes of Sen. Barack Obama or celebs such as Ben Affleck in a pedicab, but you might glimpse Stewart, Colbert — of some guy called Uncle Sam.

Tags: 16th street mall, Ben Affleck, Cabs, community, democratic national convention, Denver, DNC, Green-minded, hydraulic brakes, invesco, Jon Stewart, Main Street, North America, Obamapalooza, Pedicab, Pedicab News, pepsi center, stephen colbert, street pedicabs, three wheeled vehicles

By David Montero, Rocky Mountain News

The short stretch of sidewalk opposite the Hyatt Regency Denver is an uneven, crumbling mess – as if an active fault line were running beneath it.

David Kennedy steps near it and motions all the way up to an alley, where the curb is a pulverized mess of rubble.

“This,” he said, “is a definite hazard.”

Farther down 15th Street, Kennedy is at it again. Two empty, mauve flower pots sit right in the middle of the sidewalk. He shakes his head.

And then there’s the sign at the corner of 15th and Arapahoe streets. It juts out of the corner, with a metal frame below that a blind person could miss while swiping a cane.

Few people notice them as they walk by – joggers easily diverting their path to avoid the obstacles. But Kennedy is paid to notice what others might miss.

The 51-year-old is the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee’s disability rights advocate for the Democratic National Convention. He has spent the past few weeks making sure the city is ready for the contingent of disabled people coming to the city for the party’s convention in August.

Teenage polio victim

The problems that Kennedy finds must be fixed at the expense of the city or responsible agency.

Walking with a cane, Kennedy – he contracted polio while in his late teens – has spent the past seven years in Denver working with the mayor’s office to make sure places like the Denver Art Museum and large public art displays align with provisions of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

His mantra is simple: the more accessible things are for the disabled now, the better it is for everyone later.

“Access will be a big deal for the growing elderly population,” he said. “Cities won’t have to invest in it later by making those changes now.”

One of those making the change now is Steve Meyer.

The co-owner of Main Street Pedicabs in Broomfield, he contacted officials putting on the convention with the idea of providing pedicabs to disabled delegates .

To make sure they could get inside the pedicabs, he began installing a step that was 11 inches from the ground rather than the original 18 inches.

In addition, he began adding grab bars in front.

Meyer said his goal was to have about four pedicabs ready to greet the disabled coming off the buses and then to ferry them around to the various entrances to the Pepsi Center.

“It serves two purposes,” he said. “First, they’re environmentally friendly and secondly, they’re easy to get in and out of.”

Because security plans haven’t been finalized, it’s not known whether pedicabs or golf carts will be used within the “hard security” barrier set up by Secret Service at the Pepsi Center.

When the Democratic National Convention was held in Boston in 2004, August Longo was amazed at how accessible things were for the disabled.

And having been to the past two conventions in Boston and Los Angeles, he said the bar is pretty high.

“I’d say Boston is the gold standard and it would be hard for any city to come up to that,” he said. Longo, chairman of the disabled caucus of the California Democratic Party and who himself is in a wheelchair, noted how party officials had booklets printed up and made available in advance of the trip so disabled delegates knew how to get what they needed.

Kennedy, whose jurisdiction covers places where host committee parties will be held, said he has to check out all of those facilities as well.

And he is in the process of talking with taxi cab companies to make sure the drivers engage in sensitivity training – noting that in the past some drivers have refused to allow seeing-eye dogs into the vehicles.

Disabled delegates

The number of disabled delegates coming to Denver is not known since most states haven’t had their state conventions yet.

100 or more disabled delegates were at the convention in Boston in 2004.

* The number of disabled people arriving that are non-delegates is also unknown, though convention officials said it could be in the hundreds.

Tags: americans with disabilities, americans with disabilities act, democratic national convention, denver art museum, disability rights, Main Street Pedicabs, Pedicab News, responsible agency, steve meyer