BY DEBORAH SALOMON: FEATURE WRITER

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. (more…)

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Jennifer Aniston put her fabulous legs to good use on set of her new film yesterday when she jumped onto a pedicab.

Filming her new movie The Bounty Hunter in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the 40-year-old’s character Cass hijacks a pedicab as she tries to flee her ex-husband, played by Gerard Butler.

The actress has spent the past two days in a black skirt and tight-fitting vest top as she films scenes for the upcoming film.

In one scene, Jennifer is fleeing Gerard when she hails a pedicab, but after deciding he isn’t going fast enough, ejects the driver and takes control of the vehicle herself.

In another sequence shot on Tuesday, Jennifer changed into jeans for an argument with Scots actor Gerard in a convertible.

The ex-couple blast each other before Jennifer gets out of the vehicle and storms off.

She plays a journalist, the ex-wife of a mercenary, who is forced to go on the run after he is hired to kill her.

Tags: action film, actress, atlantic city new jersey, bounty hunter, fabulous legs, gerard butler, jennifer aniston, Legs, new film, New Jersey, Pedicab, Pedicab News, upcoming film

Am I the last person in the western hemisphere to find out that the pedicab, known in Far East since the 30s as the cheapest means of city transportation, has made it big in the urban US? After 11 years on the streets in the Big Apple, there are enough of these bicycle-drawn passenger vehicles to rile the City Council into regulating them and banning the ones with electric motors. The spoilsports. The New York horsedrawn carriage and taxi trades are complaining that pedicabs cut into their business without having the expense of licenses and insurance.

Pedicabs are also beginning to tote tourists in downtown Portland, OR, Denver and Ft. Lauderdale, as well as in Spain, Denmark, England, Israel and Canada. Most carry two people, but there’s a four-passenger pedicab being operated in Phoenix. They’re even emblazoned with advertising, like taxis and buses.

(more…)

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