Popular at such tourist haunts as Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, the bicycle rickshaw has arrived at the Sundial Bridge in Redding.

Bob Frost, a 57-year-old retired U.S. Forest Service worker, opened Sundial Pedicabs last month.

Starting with one cab and operating intermittently when weather permits, Frost will take visitors around the Sundial Bridge, along the Sacramento River Trail and even through the McConnell Arboretum at Turtle Bay Exploration Park.

Frost signed a one-year contract with Turtle Bay. The deal mandates that he carry insurance and pay Turtle Bay 10 percent of his profits each month.

“I am enjoying doing it. I spent my whole adult life out in the woods, so I love the outdoors and enjoy the weather,” said Frost, who worked in timber sales and also did firefighting for the Forest Service.

The rickshaw service charges $20 an hour, $10 for 30 minutes and $5 for 15 minutes. All rates are double occupancy.

Frost can go as far west as the Keswick Dam powerhouse and will be able to go east to the Mt. Shasta Mall once the bike path is completed in conjunction with the Dana Drive-to-downtown Redding retrofit.

Rosalinda Avitia came to the bridge Monday afternoon with her daughter and granddaughter. The Shasta Lake resident bought a 15-minute trip with Frost.

“For a relaxing day, it’s great to let somebody else take you around,” Avitia said. “I think it can be very romantic.”

With sunny skies and temperatures hitting the high 60s, Monday proved a good day for Frost to take his rickshaw out, though he didn’t have many customers.
But he is not discouraged and is confident business will pick up once the weather warms.

“I am kind of looking at people who are mobility challenged; they have a hard time getting around and want to get out and see things. I’m hoping to be attractive to their needs,” Frost said.

Frost envisions taking passengers on moonlight rides on summer nights. He expects to operate from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 to 10 p.m. during the summer.

The yellow-and-black rickshaw Frost uses was made by Main Street Pedicabs in Broomfield, Colo. Frost paid about $3,900 for the custom-made cab.

Over the next several years, Frost said he expects to see his fleet of cabs growing to four or five. He also would someday like to provide a shuttle service from Hilltop Drive down to the River Trail.

“The long range would be for me to get off the bike and manage the business,” Frost said.

Turtle Bay spokesman Toby Osborn was off Monday and unavailable for comment.

For more information about Sundial Pedicabs, call 351-1755.

Tony Benedict, right, pedals four pedestrians home from a night of partying Friday from Albert Avenue.

Wearing a black leather jacket reminiscent of Johnny Ramone, well-manicured facial hair and a big grin, Tony Benedict, owner of Pure Power Pedicab, is East Lansing’s one and only bicycle taxi.

Benedict, an East Lansing resident and former paramedic, has been serving the East Lansing community since November 2008 with his human-powered mode of transportation.

“I go completely on tips, and I do that because I don’t want to set a set rate,” Benedict said. “Some people just want a ride and they really don’t have a lot of money. I figure everyone should have a ride if they just want to go home and they don’t live too far away.”

On average, Benedict said he is tipped $5-$6 for rides that average about a quarter mile, although a particularly generous customer once gave him $100.

Benedict operates his taxi Thursday through Saturday, starting around midnight. On any given night, he’ll give 20-40 rides with two or three people riding in his cab at a time.

Aimee Ryder, an interdisciplinary studies in social science and human resources and society senior, rode in the pedicab for the first time this winter.

“It was something I always wanted to do before I graduated,” she said, “We had left from the bar, Rick’s (American Café). We were going to our house.”

Ryder said the blanket Benedict includes in the cab to keep passengers warm and his willingness to take photos of her and her friends made the ride that much better.

Benedict’s relationship with bicycles began when his truck was destroyed and he began using a bicycle as a primary mode of transportation. This, he said, was when he realized the power of bicycles.

For Benedict, his pedicab is more than a job — it also is a way to demonstrate his desire to reduce dependence on automobiles and congestion.

“I am doing it kind of for the money, but not really,” Benedict said. “It’s just very enjoyable, meeting new people and if they enjoy the ride and if these things can grow, that’s what I’m looking for — like something where I can contribute to East Lansing a little bit.”

Benedict’s pedicab weighs in at 185 pounds. The giant tricycle can hold three passengers, has 21 gears, disc breaks, turning signals and brake lights. Brandished on the back of the pedicab’s chassis is a painting of a tiger, a symbol that Benedict chose, he said, because “it gives it strength.”

Benedict sees the future of pedicabs and that of the East Lansing and MSU communities as intertwined. Aside from being environmentally friendly, to Benedict, bicycle taxis could contribute to the area’s “flavor.”

“I do know MSU and East Lansing are definitely looking for new ways to stimulate the city as well,” Benedict said. “This would just be something to help stimulate a little of it. Give it something new, something different.”

Philadelphia Daily News, November 3, 2009

Energetic entrepreneurs will be peddling a new form of transportation in the city soon – at least, they will be if City Council votes as expected to legalize and regulate the pedicab industry.

Pedicabs, or bicycles that tow a trailer with seating for two to four passengers, are common in Boston, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and other cities.

City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown decided to introduce the pedicab legislation after seeing the vehicles in New York City.

“I came back to Philadelphia . . . [and] saw there were a couple of pedicab companies, but they were not regulated,” she said.

“I thought it would be a chance to get Philadelphia on the map like other cities and municipalities around the country,” she said. “It creates eco-friendly jobs and is a tourist attraction. It would add charm to the city.”

The bill is scheduled for a Council vote on Nov. 12.

The lack of pedicab regulation in the city had been a problem for local companies and for operators in other cities that wanted to set up shop here.

Ben and Tom Dambman co-own Chariots of Philly, a pedicab company that operated in Manayunk from 2003 until 2005.

When the brothers tried to expand into other parts of Philadelphia, the Department of Licenses and Inspections ordered them to cease operations until pedicab regulation was in place.

For the last three summers, they operated their business in Avalon, N.J.

“We want to work exclusively in Philadelphia – this is our home, and this is where we want to live and work,” said Tom Dambman.

Assuming the legislation passes, Dambman said, “Hopefully, within a couple of weeks we’ll be up and running.”

They hope to have 20 employees by next spring, he said.

Ben Morris, president of Boston Pedicab, also runs pedicab services in Newport, R.I., and San Francisco. He looked into expanding to Philadelphia in spring 2008.

“I thought it would have been a really good fit,” he said. The lack of regulation prevented him, he said.

Now that the legislation looks likely to pass, he said he would “absolutely” look into starting an operation here.

“We’re always looking to expand,” he said.

Philly cycling enthusiasts cheered the news.

“It’s good for the environment, it helps the health and quality of life for Philadelphians,” said John Boyle, advocacy director of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. “It helps residents and tourists quickly get to where they need to go, and provides green jobs for the city.”

If Philadelphia cabbies were worried by the possibility of competition, they were playing it cool.

“We have two different markets,” said Ronald Blount, president of the Taxi Workers Alliance of Pennsylvania.

“Their market is more of novelty travel.”

And in winter, he said, “no one I know is going to want to get on the back of a cold bicycle to get to where they need to go.”

The bride stood out against the backdrop of Central Park: The temperature was in the 50s, yet she had nothing more on her torso than a lace bustier. Below, her dress was as voluminous as an inflated parachute, dragging as she hobbled along the path. I was gliding along comfortably in the back of a pedicab, with plenty of room next to me on the seat. So I offered her a lift.

The look she gave me was not gratitude. After a few more friendly entreaties, the groom caught up to us. “She doesn’t want to,” he said. With that, they turned off the path and she hobbled onward, juggling various hems.

I was stunned. Did she just reject my chivalrous offer? Could I possibly look that weird? Then I thought: Oh wait, she’s seen the video.

If you have not caught it on YouTube or the evening news, the video shows a pedicab driver getting into a brawl with a taxi driver on Broadway, and it has given pedicabs — already viewed as suspect — an unwelcome moment in the spotlight. In June, one got into an accident after crossing the Williamsburg Bridge into Brooklyn, where pedicabs are not allowed in the first place. By the time a Fox 5 cameraman caught the pedicab driver hurling a garbage can at the taxi driver, the whole fleet was in for a whupping.

Now the City Council has passed a law requiring all pedicabs — there’s no reliable figure for how many are on the road — to be inspected and registered by Nov. 20. “Pedicabs have been for too long acting like they rule the streets ahead of any other mode of transportation,” City Councilman Leroy G. Comrie Jr. told The New York Post.

Having never thought to ride one — any more than one of those ridiculous party bikes (which probably are fun if you’re drunk enough to get on) — I had to wonder, could pedicabs really be that bad? Worse even than buses, the oblivious, lumbering bullies of the city streets? So I spent a few days being driven around on three wheels, and even on occasion taking the handlebars myself. Let’s just say I do better in the back than in the front.

The drivers who congregate at 58th Street and Seventh Avenue said they were delighted someone was finally going to regulate their business. They take their jobs seriously, and say people who don’t should be kept off the road.

Bernard Treanor, a driver for six years, has an impeccable pedigree: He trained with George Bliss, an industrial designer, who started one of the city’s first pedicab companies in 1995. “We were all actors and musicians,” said Mr. Treanor, who recently appeared in an independent film and is writing a novel about Central Park. “We needed to do this so we could hit our auditions.”

Today, many drivers are recent immigrants who rent pedicabs by the week (around $200 in summer, as low as $80 in January). Before, “the only thing in these guys’ way was maybe, like, a random goat,” he said. “And now they’re guiding a family through Times Square?” It’s turning police officers, who used to cheer him on, into enemies, he said.

I felt a little silly the first time I climbed into the back seat, but despite the autumn chill I warmed to it quickly. As with riding a bicycle, you see things at that pace that you can’t see from a car, and you get to put your feet up in a way you obviously can’t while walking. If your driver is full of interesting historical information, great, sit back and learn. If not, tell him to shut up (but apologize with a tip).

After a few rides, I persuaded a driver to let me try. It’s hard to keep the wheel straight, and during turns I kept thinking it was going to tip over, as a bicycle might. (A girly shriek ensued.) Of course there’s almost no way to tip over: the vehicles are solidly balanced on three wheels, with a lot of ballast keeping them that way. Especially if your driver hops in the back, as mine eventually did, then invites his friend in, too. By that point I was laughing too hard to go very far. I got no tip.

More seriously, it’s about as green a conveyance as anyone is ever going to find. But what do the tourists who typically ride them care about keeping our streets and our air clear? Perhaps, I started to think, pedicabs are being wasted on their passengers — and perhaps that is part of the reason they’re largely reviled. What if New Yorkers exercised eminent domain and reclaimed these overgrown tricycles for our own daily use?

To lead the way, I tried hiring a pedicab to run a few errands: dry cleaning, deli, the basics. Fine. But when I thought about visiting Aunt Frances at Mount Sinai Hospital, I found that at about $1 per minute or per block, what would be $15 in a taxi would be a trip to the A.T.M. in a pedicab. Fail.

I turned to Mr. Bliss for guidance. “The goal when I started this was that the pedicabs would actually be less money than a yellow cab,” he said.

He began that experiment downtown, where he thought people would be open to the idea, but he found they were too self-conscious to ride in a pedicab. It worked for a while in Midtown, but today, he said, sounding melancholy to the point of despair, the dream is dead.

“The pedicab industry itself became self-marginalizing,” he said. “It became more and more tourist oriented, less transportation oriented. We need drivers who are educated, fluent in languages. They need to be ambassadors to the city.”

We also need stricter regulation of the fleet, he said, and electric-assisted pedicabs — which he developed with a state grant, but the city does not allow. In short, we need the city to decide that a fleet of law-abiding, low-cost vehicles that consume no gas, is in everyone’s interest.

Take that to its logical conclusion and you get people commuting by rickshaw, exchanging newspaper sections with the guy in the next lane at a red light. Kids picked up after school by a parent on three wheels who has already stopped for groceries. A bride in Central Park accepting a lift from a pushy but well-meaning stranger. Wouldn’t you like to live in that city?

It seems a lot of people would say no.

In 2007, a city councilman was quoted in the Village Voice saying that pedicabs caused pollution by increasing congestion. Perhaps he’s right; perhaps pedicabs and cars cannot coexist in Manhattan. Maybe it’s not safe to have three wheels darting in and out of four-wheel traffic. Maybe the time has come to make a change. How about we get rid of the cars?

FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

Visiting San Francisco once, Michael Rosemond took a ride in a pedicab along that city’s famed waterfront. The pedicab — a small carriage attached to a bicycle operated by a driver — made him an instant fan.

“I talked to one of the owners. He said, ‘Man, you’ve got to start these up in Detroit. People love them,’ ” Rosemond said last week.

That bit of advice led to Rickshaw Detroit, part of a small but growing pedicab trade in and around downtown Detroit. Rosemond operates Rickshaw Detroit with his business partner, Terry Walker, and they say that the growing number of clubs, restaurants, and special events downtown and up through the Midtown district prove ideal for the pedicab trade.

The business requires a lot of pedaling each partner rides perhaps 20 miles a day on summer weekends at the height of their season. But business has been brisk enough that Rickshaw Detroit no longer charges fares but gets by on tips.

“You can actually get more when you just ask for tips,” Walker said. “People love them so much.”

Rosemond added, “Once they get in, they don’t want to get out.”

The partners operate a lot along Detroit’s RiverWalk, carrying passengers along the waterfront promenade or to downtown restaurants. They also hire out to special events like weddings or the annual open house sponsored by Crain’s Detroit Business.

Both men live in Detroit and have other jobs. Walker, 50, is a safety officer with the Detroit Public Schools and a master sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserve. He has served two combat tours in Iraq. Rosemond, 59, is a receptionist at the Detroit Institute of Art.

The partners met at a Detroit City Council meeting where both were lobbying for approval of a pedicab business. “We said, ‘Why don’t we get together? Two heads are better than one,’ ” Rosemond said.

The up-front investment remains modest. Each of the pedicabs, purchased from a Denver manufacturer, costs from $3,200 to $4,200, depending if you buy frills like a canopy. Then there’s insurance and a variety of other out-of-pocket expenses. Operators must obtain a rickshaw license from the City of Detroit.

The partners own three of the pedicabs, operating two themselves while they look for a third driver.

“It’s one of those businesses that you can start right out of the box,” Walker said. “You have the potential to recoup your investment really fast.”

Pedicabs offer the potential for advertising tie-ins and various partnerships. Walker said he also has benefitted from entrepreneurial training offered by TechTown, the business incubator operating on Wayne State University’s campus.

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.

Every time Brett and Matt Dingeldein pass each other while operating one of their pedi-cabs, they salute each other by ringing the bell.

“We’ve got both hands on the handlebars when we’re pedaling,” Brett said. “The bell is right there by your thumb, so it’s a good way to say ‘Hi.’ And we ring the bell at everybody downtown.”

Since Memorial Day, the father and son have operated Green Street Pedicabs, which offers pedi-cab service around downtown Naperville. Brett, 57, got the idea for the business two years ago. While working out, he was listening to Marketplace on National Public Radio. As host Kai Ryssdal talked about being in the Far East and using pedi-cabs as a method of transportation, inspiration struck.He put together a proposal, which then began making its way through the city’s review process. Earlier this year, the City Council gave Green Street the green light.

“We hope that what we’re doing can change the way some people in this town look at short-distance transportation. Because it’s really easy to get in your car and go to the grocery store, but the consequences of that are the continued consumption of fuels and all the things that always get beaten around in the news,” said Matt, 25.

By day, the Naperville residents work at their landscaping company, Oak Grove Gardeners. But at night, they drive one of their three pedi-cabs around downtown.

“As more things start to happen in the fall and on weekends, we’re going to start operating on the weekends during the day as well,” Brett said.

“This is the best part. It’s free,” Matt said. “We encourage gratuity, however at this time, we are not offering a fare in order to promote our services.”

Each pedi-cab sits two adults. Along with Brett and Matt, there is one other driver, Liz Shuter. Operating the cab is less about skill than it is about physical endurance, Matt said.

Each pedi-cab weighs 150 pounds. If you have another 300 pounds of passengers and add 150 for the driver, “you’re pushing 500 pounds when you’re pedaling,” Brett said.

At the beginning, they were exhausted.

“But not anymore,” Brett said.

While they don’t have any plans to add more pedi-cabs, they might add a different model that can accommodate more passengers for things like weddings. And they are working with Ghost Tours of Naperville to soon provide tours by pedi-cab, Brett said.

“The whole experience has been great,” Brett said.

1. Which do you use more often, car or bike? Matt: We tend to use our bicycles more for in-town travel. Our office is located almost at the corner of Naperville, Aurora and Plainfield, so we tend to drive to work. But when it comes to getting around downtown, I’m always on my bike.

2. What is the most unusual request or story you have? Brett: I had, last Saturday night, a father and his daughter that were downtown. (She was) maybe 5 or 6 years old, and they came from Cookie Dough Creations walking across Chicago Avenue. They were obviously dressed to ride a motorcycle. They both had their leather coats and their leather boots. And the little girl was just riding with Dad. And they both hopped on their motorcycle and talked for a while, then came over went for a ride with me. They had just done a motorcycle trip to Toronto, Canada, together. They were just a cool pair. That little young lady was — she was a cool little girl.

Matt: Probably one repeating theme is people want to drive it, all the time. We always get people who want to take pictures with it, or on it.

3. Do people call to make an appointment, or can you just hail a pedi-cab like a taxi? Matt: We’ve had great success with both. Our telephone number advertised on the pedi-cab is actually a cellular number, so if somebody calls it, and they see us on the street they can say, ‘Can you pick me up at Potter’s Place in a half hour and take me to my car?’ Or Jimmy’s. Or home, if they live close enough. So that makes up a much smaller percentage of our pick-ups than the impromptu, ‘Hey pedi-cab’ or ‘Hey rickshaw …’”

Brett: “…take us for a ride around town.” They’ll come out of a restaurant or bar and just want to go for a quick tour around Naperville.

4. Has anybody every yelled at you for driving slow? (the cabs move along at 9-14 mph) Brett: “No. We’ve been very pleased. That was also a question in my mind as to how traffic is going to react. And traffic moves slow enough downtown that I’ve never been honked at or yelled at … And actually, it’s motorists (who yell) “Hey cool!” and “Right on!”

5. Is there something you learned about downtown that you didn’t know before by driving the pedi-cabs? Brett: How energetic and lively downtown Naperville is at night. The energy that’s going on later in the evening, say past 11.

Matt: Between Main Street and Washington Street on Chicago Avenue, it’s just this constant pulsating sea of activity and people. It’s so great, and if you went by it during the day, you would have no idea. But from two people who have spent the majority of their lives in Naperville, it’s exciting to see. My dad could probably appreciate it a little more than I can, how downtown Naperville has evolved. Because really there are people that come from all over the suburbs that come to enjoy the festivities downtown.

Like many students on St. Patrick’s Day, senior Brendan Blume was up all night splitting time between Brown Street and the student neighborhoods. But unlike anyone else, instead of walking it, he was flagging pedestrians down asking if they wanted to ride on the back of his bike.

As a co-owner of Blume Brothers Pedicab, based in Chicago and less than a year old, Blume brought the pedicab to campus in March. He works Thursdays to Saturdays from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m., when he’s not on duty as an RA in Stuart. It’s just him and a 21-gear bicycle with a carriage-like seat attached.

“When (passengers) get on it they think they’re kings of the world,” Blume said. Entire parties turn and cheer when they see his bike and passengers go by. “It’s like chariots of fire.”Blume, 21, started the business with his 24-year-old brother last summer because neither had a job. Instead of continuing their job search, they looked into buying a pedicab bicycle, of which there are only about 50 in Chicago.

“It was a turning point in my life,” Blume said. “We said, ‘Let’s do something new, something clean’.”

They were attracted to the idea because it could fill transportation needs in an environmentally friendly way. They also liked the idea of being their own boss.

“We started a snow shoveling business when we were young, we’ve always been entrepreneurs,” Blume said. “We were both home schooled so we have the drive inside of us. We don’t need to have a teacher telling us what to do.”

On the suggestion of their father, also an entrepreneur, the brothers signed a notarized agreement about the business. They bought insurance and a bike with operating break lights and turn signals in the dark.

Their goal was to make the 81 home games for the Chicago Cubs and hit as many Chicago White Sox games as they could. Both being water polo players and feeling fit, the Blumes weren’t ready for what pulling around the weight of two or three people does to a person’s body.

“The first week it was so hard because it is a strain on your body, no matter how in shape you are,” Blume said. They decided not to stick to their original plan of riding every day.

The brothers did work enough to increase their business by three bikes and hired more riders in Chicago. Their goal for this summer is to double their business. Though they do not have set ride prices, it’s usually never more than $10 for all riders combined.

They work when most students would be out with friends, like New Year’s Eve, but Blume said as he pedals he forgets he’s working.

“You won’t look at it as a job. You’re riding and you’re having a conversation with the passengers.”

While the partners do face some problems with the economy, like having difficulty obtaining loans, Blume said he brought the business to Dayton hoping to help students’ economic troubles improve.

“With the state the economy is in, we want to create jobs,” Blume said. “We can give students rides while creating jobs for them.”

Blume will be riding around campus until next December, when he plans to graduate with an accounting degree. He’s looking for employees for the business so it can continue when he moves back to Chicago.

“I’m going to ride full-time until I stop having fun, which won’t happen.”

Jennie Szink

News Editor

On a bad day, cycling in London feels like dinosaurs versus mammals. You, the warm-blooded cyclist, may ultimately inherit the earth, but until then you run the grave risk of being squished by a lumbering, petrol-fuelled sauropod. You have the acceleration, the visibility, the manoeuvrability; they have the weight, the momentum, the airbags.

There are good days, of course, when pedalists and petrolheads give way to each other in a haze of goodwill. But they are rare. So it is with some trepidation that I approach BugBugs’ Holborn Viaduct lock-up. My task is to give one of its pedicabs a test-ride; and pedicabs – as their operators prefer to style these latter-day rickshaws – are the SUVs of London’s bike scene: big – maybe too big – and apt to provoke extremes of opinion.The Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association (LTDA), for example, hates them. “Whilst the third world is doing all it can to lose the last of these degrading pedal-powered contraptions, some unscrupulous operators are clogging up the streets of the Metropolis with the same slow, traffic-halting bikes,” it says on its website. It claims that pedicabs charge rip-off fares and are fundamentally unsafe. To prove this last point, a video clip shows a yellow cab ploughing into a hapless crash-test dummy astride a pedicab; it’s unclear who the menace is here but the animosity towards pedicabs is clear.

In the event, my test-ride proves to be confrontation-free. This is largely because Friedel Schroder, BugBugs’ owner and my instructor in the art of pedicab-riding, refuses to let me on to the main road. Instead I am confined to a short stretch of Shoe Lane by the lock-up. Schroder, a trim, crop-haired 40-year-old in fleece and jeans with just the faintest trace of a German accent, is big on safety. Before they can go out on the road, BugBugs’ riders must be trained up to National Cycling Standard Level 3 and need to have a grasp of pedicab mechanics. Passengers are asked to use the inertial seatbelts that are standard on the newer pedicabs, which may seem a bit excessive but it does send out reassuring signals.

Decidedly not sending out reassuring signals is my right foot, which, Schroder informs me as I swing my leg over the saddle on first mounting, has connected with the shins of my imaginary passengers. Suitably chastened, I start pedalling and I’m off.

“Watch the front wheel,” Schroder tells me, “where it goes there the rest of the pedicab will go.” This seems obvious but is good to know, given the metre-plus-wide passenger platform clunking along behind me. Schroder’s advice turns out not to be strictly true: as I try to do a U-turn, I skim the front wheel past the kerb but the rear wheel hits it. I have to put the bike into “reverse”, pushing the front wheel backwards with my foot.

After a few more turns up and down the road I feel like I’m really getting the hang of it. Schroder, ever safety-conscious, urges me to keep my fingers poised over the brakes – hydraulic at rear, simple cantilever at the front. It’s a bit tricky to glance at what’s coming behind, because of the passenger canopy: I either need to stand on the pedals or crouch down to see through the transparent rear panel. I’m also self-conscious about not repeating the error that every two-wheel veteran apparently makes on a trike: leaning into corners. On a bike, turning a corner feels like a kind of controlled fall; on a trike you need only to steer.

The pedicab is a less responsive ride than a bike, of course, but it doesn’t feel sluggish, even when Dan, who’s come to photograph proceedings, gamely agrees to be my passenger. And this machine, the US-manufactured Main Street, in New York taxi yellow, is only the Ford of pedicabs. The BugBugs fleet also boasts the Audi – the German-made Velocab – and the Rolls-Royce, the Bath-made Cycle Maximus, yours for £4,000.

Their common virtue is that, aside from manufacture and shipping, they all emit zero carbon, as Schroder cheerfully points out. They are, he says, the way forward for cities striving to cut carbon, or cope with resource constraints (Schroder is involved in a scheme to get cargo versions of the pedicab on to the streets of Gaza).

He also diligently rebuts the LTDA’s arguments against his beloved trikes, and observes, with sly diplomacy, that cabbies are skilled enough to be able to negotiate his machines without difficulty. Talks with Westminster council about official pedicab ranks appear to be bearing fruit; and no, he insists, fares aren’t a rip-off. They are more than a cab, certainly, at about £5 per person per mile, but that’s because of the muscle power involved. As for safety, Schroder points out that it’s a crucial part of the training you receive when you hand over your £140 for a month’s pedicab hire. BugBugs is also pressing for industry regulation, including a licensing system.

This is, Schroder says, a career option suited to those who have to work around other commitments, such as studying, or who need money to travel. There’s more than a hint of the backpacker hostel in the agreeably shabby common room by the entrance to the BugBugs lock-up, with its collection of grimy sofas, iMac terminals and well-thumbed paperbacks.

The rest of the lock-up is a truly impressive chain of barrel-ceilinged vaults stretching west towards Holborn Circus, one of those unsuspected spaces that London surprises you with from time to time. It houses not only Schroder’s fleet, some 47 of the capital’s (by his estimate) 700 or so pedicabs, but also other operators’ machines. All are tipped up on their back ends to save space, rank upon rank rearing up: a taxi driver’s subterranean nightmare. To Schroder, it’s a zero-carbon dream come true. “I love this to bits,” he says.

As I leave, in the early afternoon, BugBugs’ workers are starting to arrive and to pedal their machines into the teeming streets. It seems a convivial enough operation, although I’m glad to be hastening back to my snug office. Later in the day, oil is a snip at $37 a barrel, and the following day a climate scientist warns that the environmental costs of global warming will be more severe than we have so far supposed. I wonder if evolution is on the pedicabs’ side.

Matt and Natasha Elliott will do the legwork for your next night on the town.

The Modesto couple have started a pedicab business, pulling customers in a small, open-air coach attached to a bicycle.

The business, Downtown Peddlers, is believed to be the first of its type in the city. It started in November and could add a second vehicle next week.

“We always wanted to do something that would be environmentally good, and we also get to work out,” Natasha Elliott said.

The pedicab mainly ferries people among nightspots in downtown Modesto. It also serves the neighborhoods near Graceada Park and the Modesto Junior College East Campus.

The 21-gear vehicle was made by Colorado-based Main Street Pedicabs. It has a detachable top that can be used when it’s wet. The pedicab holds three adult passengers or two adults and two small children.

The lowest fare is $5 per trip between any two destinations in the downtown core. For $20, passengers can ride from a restaurant to the Gallo Center for the Arts, then to their car after the show.

The most popular package is the four-hour “pub crawl,” costing $155. The pedicab also can be hired for weddings in Stanislaus County — $420 for four hours of service — and for customized events.

The Elliotts run the business in addition to holding down their day jobs with AT&T. Matt, 34, is a lineman, and Natasha, 33, is an engineer who hires contractors for the company.

They have a son, 5-year-old Beau, and a daughter, 3-year-old Piper.

On a typical night, Natasha Elliott operates the pedicab from 6 to 10 p.m. Her husband, a former semipro bicyclist, takes over from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m.

The pedicab weighs about 200 pounds without people on board, but the flat Modesto terrain makes the going fairly easy.

“You’re very invigorated when you’re done,” said Natasha Elliott, who had bicycled for leisure before operating the pedicab.

Pedicabs are in use in many cities, including San Francisco and Sacramento. They provide pollution-free transportation while helping keep drinkers from driving.

The Elliotts did not need a special license for the pedicab because it is not a motor vehicle, but they did get safety advice from the Modesto Police Department.

Tresetti’s World Caffe on 11th Street is among the restaurants that have spread the word about the service.

“It’s kind of like the feel of riding the (horse-drawn) carriages in Central Park, on a much smaller scale,” restaurant co-owner Mitch Maisetti said. “If they can make people happy and cruise them around in this weather, imagine what they can do when it’s summer.”

The service area could expand in the future if the business catches on, Natasha Elliott said.

“The downtown clientele, the evening crowd, has been amazing,” she said. “They’ve been glad to see us out and about.”