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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Taking it to the streets of Sydney, Australia for the first time, Yahoo!, Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) today rolled out 10 purple and yellow Yahoo! wrapped and wired pedicabs. The uniquely designed, Internet-connected and human-powered vehicles offer visitors and Sydney residents environmentally-safe free rides, and a chance to surf the Web free of charge through WAP-enabled mobile phones from Cable & Wireless Optus. Passengers can also get a free digital online picture of their visit to Sydney presented by Yahoo!® Photos (http://photos.yahoo.com), Yahoo!’s free photo sharing and storage site, and Epson (www.epson.com).

The Yahoo! pedicabs will run daily from Sept. 13 through Oct. 1, 2000 between the hours of 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on various bike paths and public routes through Sydney. A special preview of the pedicabs took place at Luna Park, right by the Harbour Bridge at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2000, in Sydney.

“Yahoo! appeals to and brings together a global audience, enabling people worldwide to connect and communicate easily with one another,” said Luanne Calvert, brand marketer, Yahoo! Inc. “We continue to look for fun and familiar ways to help people experience the Web whether traveling, on business, or at home. Through the Yahoo! pedicabs, we offer vehicles for people to conveniently use Yahoo! services including photos, news, mail and more while on the road in Sydney.”

“Since 1992, Main Street Pedicabs (www.pedicab.com) has lead the way in streamlining the design of human-powered vehicles in the United States. We continue to look for ways to introduce the pedicab to new markets, such as Sydney, and to validate pedicabs as a legitimate form of transportation worldwide,” said Steve Meyer, owner, Main Street Pedicabs, Inc. and designer of the Yahoo!-branded pedicabs. “Together with Yahoo!, we offer a comfortable, enjoyable, entertaining, and economic alternative form of transportion to visitors and residents of Sydney.”

Jump in and Jump on the Web
Each Yahoo! pedicab is outfitted with the latest Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) phones from Cable & Wireless Optus, the first carrier to provide a WAP service to Australians in November 1999. While riding in the pedicabs, people can surf the Web for free checking the latest news, stock quotes, e-mail and more.
Smile! You’re on Pedi-Camera!

All 10 pedicabs are equipped with an EPSON PhotoPC® 650 digital camera, Epson’s affordable, easy-to-use, megapixel digital camera. “With an Epson PhotoPC 650 digital camera outfitted on each Yahoo! pedicab, we are providing a simple and fun way for riders to capture and share their memories of Sydney,” said Lisa Dempsey, product manager, digital cameras for Epson.

Yahoo! pedicab drivers will take photos of passengers. The online photos will be available the following day at http://pedicab.yahoo.com, featuring a special link to Yahoo! Photos, where people can post and keep memories of their trip to Sydney, and share photos online with friends, family and relatives around the world. Globally, Yahoo! Photos is available in local language versions in the United States, United Kingdom, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, and Taiwan.

From Cabs to Pedicabs – Yahoo! Everywhere
The Yahoo!-wrapped and wired pedicabs are a visible extension of Yahoo!’s commitment to distributing Yahoo! services through a range of traditional and non-traditional vehicles and to giving consumers everything they need to communicate and organize their lives in one place on the Web. Featuring Yahoo! Shopping (http://shopping.yahoo.com), Yahoo! Mail (http://mail.yahoo.com), Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com), and Yahoo! Sports (http://sports.yahoo.com), each pedicab offers Web access and is uniquely wrapped to help people make the most of their trip to Sydney.

Pedicabs That Care!
Each pedicab features a donation box, so that passengers can easily support the efforts of the Australian Red Cross. Funds raised through the Yahoo! pedicabs will be used to support the organizations’ Migrant Youth Orientation Program which helps young migrants adapt to the Australian way of life.

Later this year, Yahoo! will auction off two signed pedicabs through the Yahoo! Charity Auctions Program – one pedicab will go on the virtual auction block on Yahoo! Australia & NZ Auctions (http://auctions.yahoo.com.au) to benefit the Australian Red Cross – and another will go up for auction on Yahoo! Auctions (http://auctions.yahoo.com) to benefit the American Red Cross (http://www.redcross.org). The Red Cross is a humanitarian organization, helping millions of people each year prevent, prepare for and cope with emergencies. One hundred percent of the proceeds will go towards supporting the efforts of this non-profit organization.

Content provided courtesy yhoo.client.shareholder.com.

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Tags: free photo sharing, global audience, human powered vehicles, Main Street Pedicabs, Pedicab News, steve meyer, streets of sydney, sydney australia, sydney olympics, taking it to the streets, transportion, wireless internet, wireless pedicab, Yahoo, yahoo photos