Some men of a certain age ditch the sedan for a little red convertible. Others run a tab on the golf cart.

Ed Peele, an already super-fit 54-year-old Southern Pines resident, decided to pedal his way into a new career as the Ride Peddler. His vehicle — a shiny green pedicab.

Green’s the right color for this tin lizzie — no gas, no emissions, breeze-cooled, aerobically powered, made-in-the U.S.A. Pedicabs ferried guests to the premiere of Al Gore’s pro-earth film “An Inconvenient Truth.” Green is also the color associated with Pinehurst and Southern Pines

“Everybody just smiles and waves when we go by,” Peele says.

Perhaps because rides are free.“I work for tips,” hopefully the greenback kind, says the recently retired restoration/renovation contractor.

Compensation for the unflappable Peele averages $5 for a swing around the Broad Street loop, although some passengers pull out a buck or just say thanks.

“That’s OK, too,” Peele grins.

Downtown Southern Pines and Pinehurst Village couldn’t be better locations, with gentle terrain, a friendly year-round climate and enough landmarks for a well-researched 60-minute historic tour. Which isn’t free.

Peele turns a profit with advertising placards — Elliott’s on Linden during September — and gigs billed by the hour or event: date nights (a rose or chocolates included), children’s parties, corporate affairs, anniversaries and, of course, weddings.

Delouis Wilson has already hired Peele for her May nuptials in Pittsboro.

“It’s such a cool thing,” says the bride-to-be, who has ridden pedicabs in Raleigh, where Raleigh Rickshaw operates a fleet of 16. “It sets the tone — lets people know that this is something special, and they’re going to have fun.”

The Ride Peddler will ferry guests from a parking area to the ceremony. Wilson hopes the driver will wear black shorts and a white shirt. Top hat is optional. She expects the decorated pedicab to figure prominently in wedding photos.

A horse-drawn buggy might be more picturesque, but pedicabs don’t require a shovel-up.

“There’s a breeze, it’s a lot quieter, and there’s no smell of manure,” says Eli Cox of Southern Pines, taking a spin with wife, Jaime, on a cool early-autumn morning.

Peele’s construction career ended this year.

“I wanted to and had to look for something that would be adequate and fun,” he said, something that he and wife, Michelle — an athletically inclined artist — could do together.

He was already in excellent physical condition and has the mechanical skills to maintain the vehicle which, according to the manufacturer’s Web site, costs about $5,000. Other expenses include taxi and business licenses and insurance. The sturdy three-wheeled, 21-gear pedicab has hydraulic brakes, shock absorbers, seat belts, lights and a passenger canopy.

Peele’s gregarious personality suits the job. Many riders are tourists.

“The driver becomes an ambassador for downtown,” he says. “Everybody smiles and says good morning. It brings out the friendliness in people.”

Most people, at least. The Ride Peddler was a huge hit at the most recent First Friday in downtown Southern Pines, especially with children.

“Parents were reluctant initially but look — lo and behold, I brought their children back,” he says.

Peele has encountered other reticence.

“It’s fun to watch reactions,” he says. “You can tell people want to ride but they hesitate, more skeptical than suspicious. Maybe they’re taken aback because it’s free.”

Passengers do attract attention.

“I tell them to wave, like a homecoming queen in a parade,” Michelle Peele demonstrates.

Frank Dean and his 6-year-old daughter, Sarah Ellen, enjoyed the elevated view and the leisurely pace.

“Ed had to work a bit getting over the railroad tracks but it was really fun, a novelty,” Dean says.

The Peeles are developing ideas and costumes for Halloween and Christmas, surely reindeer horns on Ed’s head, and bells jingling from the “pedisleigh.”

The workout part has worked out. Vehicle plus passengers and driver may total 700 pounds. At first Peele, a runner, was too winded to converse with customers. He learned to zigzag between streets to avoid a steady climb. But for him, the joy of riding trumps any physical discomfort except on certain Ben-Gay days, “when I feel like I have 300 grandchildren.”

“We had a great idea, but we put it into action without knowing the ramifications,” he says. “(The business) has been experimental to this point.”
The alternative, his wife adds, was to sit around the house acting like life was over after the kids left.

Upsizing is the healthy state of this enterprise. The Peeles have ordered a second pedicab and are seeking personable, industrious, qualified drivers who pass a background check and are willing to work for tips, bookings, sleeker torsos and stronger legs.

Then, Ed Peele will pedal off to something else.

“I’ve got resumes out,” he says. “I’m looking for a career to replace the job I had. When I find one I’ll phase this over to the younger guys.”

Contact The Ride Peddler at www.theridepeddler.com or email hello@theridepeddler.com.

“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.

Regulation threatens a booming business with, er, a cyclical downturn

AP

A PEDICAB borrowed from a friend for a conference on pedestrianisation in 1990 got Steve Meyer pedalling what is now a fast-moving business. Hoping to liven up the often-deserted streets of downtown Denver, his hometown, he bought two of the bicycle taxis. But they did not work very well, so he started building what has since become the industry standard, with 21 gears, hydraulic brakes and so on. His firm, Main Street Pedicabs, now caters to rising demand both in America and abroad.

Alas, regulation in two of the biggest markets for pedicabs threatens to puncture Mr Meyer’s upbeat mood. Last month New York’s city council voted to impose onerous rules on the hitherto unregulated pedicab industry and to limit the number of pedicabs to 325. A protest prompted Michael Bloomberg, New York’s mayor, to veto the new rules, apparently out of entrepreneurial fellow feeling for the pedicab drivers, but the city council is likely to override his veto, perhaps as soon as next week.

Pedicabs first started operating in New York in the mid-1990s, but their numbers soared from around 100 to over 500 after they featured in an episode of Donald Trump’s business reality-television contest, “The Apprentice”, in 2004. For the sort of fit youngster who wants a flexible job—many drivers in New York are actors or students—it pays well: $300 on a good day, though typically half that. The cost of entry is low, perhaps $4,500, compared with $400,000 for a yellow-taxi medallion.

Pedicabs are under attack in London, too, where an estimated 400 operate. Transport for London, a regulatory body, is reviving its controversial claim that pedicabs should be regulated as “hackney carriages”, like the city’s black cabs. Chris Smallwood, chairman of the London Pedicab Operators Association and boss of Bugbugs, a 60-strong pedicab firm, says treating pedicabs like black cabs would impose unbearable costs on the industry. He has helped to draft an amendment to a bill now before the House of Lords that would introduce lighter pedicab regulations.

There is striking agreement between the pedicab trade groups in both London and New York that some sort of regulation is needed, not least to deter rogue operators. But current proposals seem to serve the interests of motor-taxi drivers, who want their rivals off the road.

The irritation is that pedicabs do not compete much with motor-taxis, say Messrs Meyer and Smallwood. Pedicab journeys tend to be the short trips that drivers of gas-guzzling taxis hate most. Pedicabs’ main competition is walking, says Mr Meyer, who points out that if New York’s 12,000 yellow cabs were replaced with pedicabs, “there would be a lot less congestion”. Here’s hoping that politicians on both sides of the Atlantic cast their votes for pedal power.

Copyright © 2007 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved.