“Hey, Rickshaw Willie,” someone calls out as Tim Wilhelm drives his Pedicab down Main Street in Akron, Ohio. It’s a common occurrence these days, as Wilhelm, aka “Rickshaw Willie,” has become somewhat of a local celebrity.

“Everybody has to have their picture taken with Rickshaw Willie,” Wilhelm says. “People are hugging me all the time, and kids will run out to the edge of the curb to high-five me as I drive down the road. Even some local business owners came up to me while I was eating dinner and told my wife that I had become a downtown Akron icon.”

But it was only about a year ago when the 54-year-old Wilhelm found himself depressed and at a crossroads in his life. A truck driver for 31 years, Wilhelm became the victim of a sagging economy when the trucking company he works for merged with another and then decided to take him out of his truck and onto the loading dock.

“It was about the lowest point I had ever been in my life,” he says. “I didn’t know if I’d pull out of the depression, but I’m not a quitter, so I kept thinking about what I could do.”

Not one to just sit around, Wilhelm went online looking for a new opportunity and came across Main Street Pedicabs, a manufacturer of Pedicabs in Broomfield, Colorado.

“I watched some of their videos and I thought that this was something I could do,” he says. “But people kept telling me that I was crazy and too old to do it.”

One of those skeptics was his wife of 30 years, Lori.

“When Tim first spoke of a rickshaw last winter, I thought it was just a way to pass the time while he was laid off,” she says. “No way would a rickshaw work in Akron.”

But Wilhelm defied the naysayers and purchased the Pedicab anyway. Ten months later, he has had encounters with celebrities, has endeared himself to the community and has become stronger, both mentally and physically.

“As soon as I got the Pedicab and started riding it, I realized that I wasn’t too old, and I was actually getting younger as I was riding it,” he says. “I felt younger in my mind, but my body was definitely getting stronger, too.”

Wilhelm’s first official day out with his new Pedicab was during Akron’s St. Patrick’s Day parade. When some of the parade organizers saw him dressed for the occasion on his decorated Pedicab, they asked Wilhelm if he would drive Akron’s beauty queen through the parade route.

“It was a big hit and everyone enjoyed it, so I knew I was onto something,” he says. “I knew with this Pedicab that I had something special and unique in its own way, so I started volunteering for the Kids Bike Rodeo and other events.”

One of those events was a charity pub crawl to raise money for cancer research in Barberton, Ohio. Wilhelm volunteered to drive people from one bar to the next. He kept people from drinking and driving, but he also learned that he had gained a key ally.

“At about midnight that night, a Barberton policeman pulled up beside me in his cruiser, gave me a thumbs-up and told me I had done a real good job,” he says.

Wilhelm also has volunteered for events with the Copley Police Department, and even let Chief of Police Michael Mier drive him around in the Pedicab.

“Rickshaw Willie has become a regular visitor to our special events,” Chief Mier says.  “His colorful outfits and special bicycle attract a lot of attention.  Children and parents alike enjoy the ride.  Rickshaw Willie has helped make these events special and fun for the children of our community.  We have found that children have so much fun at community events that they can’t wait to return the following year.  Rickshaw Willie has been a big addition and one of the highlights.”

Although Wilhelm admits the police “looked at him a little funny” when he first got started, he says they quickly realized that he and his Pedicab were an asset to the community.

“I think they can see that the Pedicab is a safe and unique way to get around town without tying up traffic,” he says. “About a month ago, one of the Akron policemen pulled me aside and said, ‘Rickshaw Willie, if you ever need any help down here, you let us know and we’ll come from all directions.’ When the police tell you something like that, you know you are doing something right.”

Wilhelm certainly gained support from the local police, but he soon realized that others were taking notice, as well.

While driving his Pedicab around a bike rally in downtown Akron, legendary rocker Chrissie Hynde, of the Pretenders, asked to speak with him. An Akron resident, Hynde noticed Wilhelm from the patio of her vegan restaurant.

“She has been interested in bringing Pedicabs to the area, and has even brought it up to people, but no one has ever followed up on it,” he says. “So, she was surprised and excited to see there was actually one in town, and talked to me about expanding the business in downtown Akron. It was something that caught me off guard, but to meet Chrissie Hynde was real exciting for me.”

“But I also started to realize that I was becoming my own celebrity,” he continued. “When the big celebrities start to notice you, it means you’re catching somebody’s eye.”

And he was right. Wilhelm caught the eye of another celebrity when he took his Pedicab to the LeBron James Bike-a-Thon. That’s where Mo Williams of the Cleveland Cavaliers asked Wilhelm to drive him through the course in his Pedicab.

“It was pretty exciting and I was more than happy to do it,” Wilhelm says. “We pulled over near the crowd at one point and we were swarmed by people who wanted to see Mo Williams. I turned to him and said, ‘Mo do you want me to get you out of here,’ and he said ‘go, go go,’ so it was exciting to bust out of the crowd like I had Elvis Presley in the back.”

In addition to meeting many interesting people, Wilhelm says his Pedicab business has improved both his health and morale.

“I’ve gotten a lot stronger,” he says. “In fact, I just got back from the doctor and they were impressed with my heart rate and blood pressure, especially for someone my age. I ride with the Stark County Bicycle Club out of Canton, and they’ve really noticed how much stronger I’ve gotten. It has made me a stronger person, and I think I can attribute a lot of that to the Pedicab.”

And it’s not only Wilhem’s physical strength that has improved.

“A guy I work with told me that he noticed a big change in me not long after I got my Pedicab,” he says. “He could see the improvement in my attitude and that I was smiling again. He could see that I was a much different, much happier person.”

Wilhelm still works on the loading dock, however, and he’s still not happy about it. But instead of letting it get him down, he now focuses on brighter things.

“Instead of worrying about that job, I think about all the opportunities with my Pedicab business,” he says. “It took my mind off of the negative things and put me on a different direction.”

And Wilhelm likes the new direction his life is headed and takes pride in the courage he had to invest in a new business, and himself.

“Just knowing that I took a business where everyone told me I was too old to do it, and I actually did it makes me feel good,” he says. “It’s getting bigger for me everyday and it’s just as exciting for me today as it was the first day I started driving my Pedicab.”

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?

Cars pollute as soon as they are turned on, whether they are moving or sitting still in traffic. To blame air pollution on rickshaws because they slow down cars is outrageous. Even when moving smoothly and well-maintained, cars pollute.

Internationally, cars are the major polluters of our air and the major contributors to climate change. Worldwide, the most air pollution is created by the United States, not because their cars are slowed by rickshaws, or because their cars are poorly maintained, but because Americans drive so much. Cars pollute; lots of cars pollute a lot. CNG is cleaner than other fuels, but as it is a carbon-based fuel, it still releases carbon dioxide into the air as well as the cancer-causing chemical benzene, for which no safe level of exposure is known.

People travelling by foot, bicycle, or rickshaw arrive at their destination without contributing to air pollution; people travelling by a motorized vehicle, even a bus, contribute to air pollution. While the rich are the main sources of air pollution, everyone breathes the air. Meanwhile, if the rich believe they are somehow immune to air pollution because they live with air conditioning, they might wish to remember that they too must breathe the same air that they are polluting; the more cars, the more they too will suffer.

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.

Chicago – The city is contemplating a new set of rules that one entrepreneurial duo says would wreak havoc on its fledgling pedicab business.

For one thing, the proposed ordinance would forbid pedicabs from displaying advertising, “the largest form of income I have available,” argues Julia Samuels, 24, who operates Chicago Rickshaw LLC with partner Rob Tipton.

Chicago Rickshaw owns 20 pedicabs, which it rents to drivers. Those pedicabs now can display ads at a rate of about $150 per day, per vehicle — “real money I can count on,” Ms. Samuels says. “The legislation they have proposed can easily put us out of business in a matter of months.”The proposed ad ban is about public safety, says Norma Reyes, commissioner of the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection. The city ordinance would require pedicabs to display a rate card, license number and the pedicab company’s name and phone number. “I don’t think there’s space there that will accommodate all the things that are going to be required,” Ms. Reyes says.

Ms. Samuels isn’t buying it. “I’ve got 40 square feet of brandable space” on each pedicab, she says.

Mr. Tipton, 32, also is confused by the proposed ad ban. Aside from Chicago Rickshaw, he also co-owns a pedicab company in New York, Mr. Rickshaw LLC. He says New York doesn’t prohibit pedicab ads.

Another aspect of the proposed ordinance that concerns him: a ban on pedicabs downtown before 7 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Mr. Tipton says Chicago seemed like a perfect fit for the business — with flat terrain, traffic problems that pedicabs could help alleviate and a mayor with a bicycle-friendly reputation. He says Chicago Rickshaw has a waiting list for drivers: “People need these jobs.”

But those jobs may not be around for long. “We’re just getting started here in Chicago, but (the proposed ordinance) would definitely force us to close our doors,” he says. “We’re probably going to have to take the fleet to a different city and try again.”

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.

Thanks again,
Sarah Johnson
Greenstreet Cycles, Omaha, NE

We received the bikes. They are awesome, and on our test drive around the block a wedding photographer pulled us over and booked us for July. You weren’t kidding. These are going to be a big hit.

Thanks for all your help and hope to purchase more soon.

Andrew, Montgomery, Alabama

We love our Pedicab!  Our primary vehicle year-round in Ithaca, NY!

Thanks for all you do.

Elisabeth Harrod (mom of 2 boys), Ithaca, NY

I received the pedicab that you made for me.  All I can say,… it is beautiful!   It was a little bit of work riding it 7 miles home… but have to say, I have never been happier to have my legs feel like rubber… I knew that it would be harder than a regular bike… riding against the wind and up hill… still, I don’t think that I could be any more pleased.

I just want to thank all of you, for the work that you have done, to build this Pedicab for me.  I promise that I will take as much care it riding it as all of you have taken in building it.

Again, thank you all, very much.

as I am
R Henry Blum, Madison, Wisconsin

The cooperation I received from the people at MainStreet Pedicabs in Denver, Colorado was exceptional and they worked very hard to make our Pedal Pickup unique.

The bike has been used for a week now and is working out very well in assisting me in the performance of my normal work duties.  Most noticeable to me is the reduction in noise pollution.  What a quiet ride.  Also notable is the reduction in air pollution and natural resource consumption.  Additionally, the purchase cost was less than our gas run work vehicles, the maintenance cost will be reduced considerably, and fuel cost will be zero. It is my hope that a few more of these work bikes can be put to use on this campus in the future.

Thank you,

Michael Griffith, Groundskeeper, UC Davis

Got here today, looks great, rides great.  We’ve been around pedicabs for years, working with them almost evey day.  We’ve also had experience with several makes:  Main Street Pedicabs are the best.
Jim Wallace, Charleston, SC

Our family and friends marvel at this unique transportation. My parents are in their mid 80’s, and they absolutely love to ride around the neighborhood in it with us. My Grandchildren think that it is an awesome toy. People stop and comment about it all the time. We are having a blast with it! I am 58 years old and love bike riding. This system is so easy to handle! My 10 year old Grandson handles it just as easily as the adults that have ridden it.
Thanks again, Connie Davis, Lexington, SC

Let me first tell you that the white cab ROCKS!  It looks awesome at night, and it really stands out. I know I have gotten rides (customers) only because people can’t believe how nice it is (really)! You guys definitely set the standard. Natasha and I feel lucky to have gotten as much help, and a sweet pedicab, from you at Main Street.
Matt Elliott, Modesto, California.

Wonderful!! Our guests love them.
Mandie Brenczewski, The Department Restaurant, Joliet, Illinois

I am thrilled to say I received the pedicab yesterday and it’s everything I’d hoped for and more. It’s beautiful to ride and the family love it. I can’t thank you enough for your help and totally love my new pedicab.
Kindest Regards Andrea Kumar Whyalla, Australia

This year i got a Main Street Broadway pedicab. This is the king of pedicabs in the U.S. and it shows. I was never as happy as when I rode this yellow monster. If youre going to buy yourself a pedicab dont mess around and buy some cheap sh-t from ebay, spend the cash and get one of these. They’re worth every penny.
Cole Bates, Muskeegon, Michigan

I have never had anyone be so accurate with describing a new product to me as you did with the motor for my Trike. You are the greatest. Thanks for encouraging me with my selection and with your problem solving after the sale. I really appreciate you.
Glenn Ballantyne, Pueblo, Colorado

The traffic was so bad (at the Obama Inauguration), and so chaotically handled, that everyone had a story. Mine: Stuck for more than an hour near the Mall one night and late for an appointment, I jumped out of a car and hailed an open-air bicycle with a backseat. The driver threw a blanket on me and began to pump the pedals. “What is this called?” I shouted as we raced around limos and town cars. I expected some politically correct name like Energy Saving Mobile Apparatus. He looked back at me quizzically. “A rickshaw!” We got there on time, 15 blocks in four minutes, and like a happy capitalist, the driver, gauging the moment, the need and the competition, opened bidding at $25. I was grateful to pay.
Peggy Noonan, author and former speech writer for President Ronald Regan.

From Pedicabs to Peddling Cosmetics, Economy Pushes Some to Seek Extra Work

Shelby Shenkelman enjoys working as a pricing analyst for a company that produces airline meals. At 25, she is making more than $50,000 a year.”It should not be a bad salary,” she said. That is, unless you have $30,000 in student loans, a $300 a month car payment, some credit card debt, grocery bills that seem to be going up and rent that definitely is going up. “I can survive on my one paycheck, but it’s very, very difficult. It’s very, very tight,” the Reston resident said. In December, she decided to take a second job. Two nights during the week and on weekend days, she works as a personal shopper at a clothing store, earning $9 an hour plus commission.

With a grim economic outlook for 2009, more Americans are not just cutting costs but are finding ways to make more money by taking part-time or odd jobs, employers and economists said. Many are doing it because their wages have stalled while the cost of living has gone up. Others are picking up extra work to pay off debt or cushion their savings. For others, it’s a backup plan in case they get laid off from their full-time jobs.

In a survey of 1,400 workers by the staffing firm Express Employment Professionals, 42 percent said they were looking for a second job to make ends meet. In a Pew Research Center survey of 2,413 adults, 24 percent said they or someone in their household has taken an extra job because of economic troubles.

Meanwhile, staffing agencies across the country are seeing an uptick in the number of people seeking evening and weekend jobs, even if they are overqualified for them. And traffic is increasing for Web sites such as SnagAJob.com that specialize in hourly work.
“I think a lot more people are open to just doing any kind of job, maybe not specifically in the field they have been trained for,” said Amy Little, branch manager of Manpower Inc., a national staffing agency. “They will just do anything and everything to make ends meet.”

For Nate Chenenko, having two jobs has made traveling on weekends more difficult. “My free time has a much higher opportunity cost now: Taking a weekend trip costs me the price of the trip plus the wages lost from missing work at my part-time job,” he said. On weekdays, Chenenko dons a collared shirt, tie and dress slacks and heads to the Navy Yard where he is a contract specialist for the U.S. Navy.

On Thursday and Friday nights and on weekends, he switches to ski pants and a cap and drives people around the District in a pedicab, or bike taxi. Since he started in October, he’s been making about $19 to $23 an hour pedaling as many as four people at a time to such destinations as Union Station and the White House. It’s a big help, he said, especially considering that he is making about $40,000 a year, and that his grocery and utility bills have gone up.

“Instead of buying or purchasing expensive things, I’m trying to save,” he said. “I took this to build up that safety net.”

Labor experts said you should avoid any conflicts with your primary employers by checking your employee handbook and making sure you are even allowed to take a second job. If a second job is permitted, be honest with your employer about your extracurricular work. And whatever you do, never do work for your second job while at your full-time one. Keeping that primary job should be a priority.

If you’re like me, you’ve invested more than a few idle minutes thinking about being a professional cyclist. What could be better than getting paid to ride all day long? Daydreams are fun, but sober reflection on the shrinking nature of the pro pelotons, both worldwide and domestic, would lead most of us to conclude that cycling for a living is not realistically in our future.

So what if I told you that I could get you a paying cycling job tomorrow? That you would enjoy the consummate cosmopolitan benefits just as other top cycling pros do. And to top it off, even though you’ll be riding 6-8 hours per day, you’ll never have to tackle a hill and headwinds will be as rare as a 12 ounce Ruth’s Chris ribeye. Furthermore, you’ll never have to answer to a surly directeur sportif who doesn’t even speak your language, never have to sacrifice your legs for an ungrateful prima donna team leader and never suffer the ignominy of watching an Italian gregario who has been latched onto your wheel for untold kilometers suddenly bolt by you to win a Grand Tour stage that so rightfully belonged to you.

To be perfectly honest, I’m not talking about a racing gig, but rather the next best thing – raking in the big bucks as a pedicab driver! On a recent trip to New York City I learned all about pedaling tourists around from Kemal, a young Turkish student who has been plying this trade for close to a year. To cut to the chase, in New York, a pedicab driver can make $200 or more per day working a full 8-hour shift. Steady income is not guaranteed, however, as weather, time of year, day of week, event calendars, police forbearance, level of competition and a host of other contingencies make the average day somewhat of a crapshoot. At 9:30 pm on a Tuesday night when our show got out, there were dozens of available pedicabs prowling the theater district, so competition appears to be fierce.

In the very best case, a hard-working, hard-selling, extremely fortunate pedicabber might be able to net $400 per day. There is no legislated or regulated rate structure for these things, but the standard rule of thumb is $1 per city block. The night my wife and I took a pedicab, we got toted 15 blocks, from the theater district to Grand Central Station, for $20 (plus tip). It was an exciting ride, because Manhattan traffic is pretty Darwinian, and Kemal took enough chances with our lives to get our hearts racing. Pedicabs are not required to be licensed in New York City at the moment, but that rule has been on and off a number of times as the city and pedicab owners bicker over the right amount of regulation. Even though licensing is not currently required, city police officers can find plenty of other regulations to use as excuses for citing pedicab drivers whenever the whim strikes them. Kemal complained bitterly about a few $150 tickets he had received lately and one afternoon near Time Square we saw two pedicabs being written up simultaneously by the same officer.

The cab we were in had a 21-speed drive, rear disk and front V-brakes along with taillights and LED turn signals. Despite the 21-gears at his disposal, Kemal never shifted once, preferring to stand on the pedals from a stop and slowly lug his way up to a more comfortable cadence level as he got the big rig moving. He was not a very big guy, so it was impressive that he was able to get his 600 pound payload rolling at a decent speed (I’d guess we traveled at around 5 mph). Just for clarification, my wife and I are not 300 pound behemoths, but the weight of the rider, the cab itself (well over 100 pounds) and passengers definitely adds up.

Kemal is not a racer, and was not even a bicycling aficionado when he started his run as a pedicab driver. He was (and is) a smoker (he’s Turkish so it’s almost a cultural requirement) but he is very proud of the fact that he has lost close to 10 pounds and is in great physical shape by virtue of his daily pedaling. He told us that most of the cab drivers were really not that interested in cycling as a sport, but that a few were pretty serious bicyclists although he was unaware of any who were notable racers.

There are a couple of local connections to this story. Pedicabs have become more and more common on Denver streets, especially around the theater center and the 16th Street Mall. Even more impressive, most of the pedicabs serving New York and Denver are made right here in Broomfield, Colorado by a company called Main Street Pedicabs. Considering their size and weight, they appear to be bargains at pricing well below the cost of a mid-level carbon racing bike.

On balance, it’s possible that being a pedicab driver is not quite as glamorous or lucrative as racing for a Pro Tour team. Still, the chance to spend your days outside doing something you love is worth at least a few minutes of daydreaming the next time your day job makes you want to take up voodoo.

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.

Bobay says he has 40 pedi-cabs on the street, each one rented to its driver for $500 this week. All are working around the clock right now, charging roughly $2 a block. All are hoping for a generous tip.

“We are definitely doing better business, probably at least twice the revenue we’re normally doing down here. The DNC is definitely significantly helping us out. We can ride in the bike lane, weave in and out of traffic, we can even hit up a couple of sidewalks here and there,” said Bobay.

Normally, Mile High Pedi-cabs charges its drivers $150 to $200 for pedi-cab rental. Because business is so good this week, the price has jumped to $500.

Mile High Pedi-cabs has been in business for 15 years.

(Copyright KUSA*TV. All rights reserved.)