By Daniel Luscombe

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.

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Tags: benedict, bicycle, bicycles, Cabs, community, congestion, Environmentally, johnny ramone, mode of transportation, passenger, Pedicab, Pedicab News, pedicabs, taxis, Transport, tricycle

By Rachel Kipp, The News Journal

NEWARK, Del. — Downtowns, particularly college towns, make room — and rules — for new pedicabs.

Pedicabs, adult-size tricycles with room in the back for passengers, have gone from the occasional tourist attraction to a more prominent means of public transportation, prompting a race by cities to beef up safety ordinances amid backlash from automobile cab operators.

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Tags: dan werner, downtown, Environmentally, Main Street, Main Street Pedicabs, manufacturer, nightlife, Pedicab, pedicab business, pedicab driver, pedicab drivers, Pedicab News, pedicab service, pedicabs, street pedicabs, taxi cab, tricycle

By ARIEL KAMINER, New York Times

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.

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Tags: bicycle, bikes, broadway, Cabs, central park, congestion, downtown, fun, Manhattan, mode of transportation, NEW YORK, passenger, Pedicab, pedicab driver, Pedicab News, pedicab videos, pedicabs, rickshaw, ride, three wheels, times square, traffic, Transport, tricycle

TV presenter Ben Fogle and Olympic gold medal-winning rower James Cracknell set off on their latest challenge on Saturday – a 450-mile rickshaw ride.

The adventurous duo, who have rowed the Atlantic and taken part in a race to the South Pole, are hoping to pedal the rickshaw from Edinburgh to London.

They are giving themselves just 60 hours to complete the marathon journey.

The pair set off from Edinburgh Castle with a band of pipers playing as they made their way down the esplanade. (more…)

Tags: Airmen, ben fogle, dynamic duo, edinburgh castle, esplanade, James Cracknell, journey, London, Olympic, olympic gold medal, passenger seat, Pedicab, Pedicab News, pipers, pride of britain, pride of britain awards, push bike, rickshaw, ride, royal regiment of scotland, Sailors, servicemen, trek, tricycle, US

Google’s street-level mapping service hit some privacy bumps on its recent UK launch; now it’s going off-road. The Street View Trike packs the same 3D camera usually mounted on Google’s road-travelling Vauxhall Astra cars, but it’s instead fixed on a three-wheeled bike designed to negotiate footpaths and dirt tracks.

It’s a hook-up with tourism agency VisitBritain, which — unlike recent those who complained about invasion of privacy recently — has courted Google to map UK castles, coastal paths, natural wonders, historic buildings and monuments, and sports stadia this summer.

Together, they will poll the public for map candidates in each category, with a second poll resulting in the three locations the trike will visit first. The bike is starting out in Genoa, Italy, but Google says: “Due to operational factors such as light levels and the weather (and what could be a pretty tired cyclist), the trike will only be in the UK for a limited time during the summer.”

Tags: 3d camera, google, google street view, Pedicab, Pedicab News, street level mapping, tricycle, trike, wheeled bike

I’ve seen the future of short-haul public transport in Oxford, and it’s got three wheels. Oxford’s cycling community is abuzz with talk of the new bicycle-rickshaws, or pedicabs’. You may have seen them gliding around the city centre, ferrying overdressed students to and from college balls, but I hadn’t seen one until yesterday.

They’re a tricycle with a solid 85kg chassis, highly-geared and with fancy brakes. The ample seats happily accommodate two corpulent passengers, and back at their Jericho garages, the carriages can be swapped for pick-up modules for doing deliveries.

You need to be fit to ride a laden pedicab, and bizarrely, it’s probably easier if you aren’t a cyclist. I’ve just ridden one and it was weird. Whereas on a bike, you lean into a corner, on a pedicab, you stay bolt upright – in fact, leaning into a corner makes no difference whatsoever. “They’re great fun to ride and it’s nice being able to chat to passengers over your shoulder,” says Ted Maxwell, the founder of Oxon Carts. Ted’s thigh muscles doubled in size over the busy Christmas period and he’s never felt more tired than at the end of New Year’s Eve, but he and his riders love it.

Ted got the idea while holidaying in Scandinavia last summer. “Bicycle-rickshaws are an integral part of the transport system in several Nordic cities. I thought: Why aren’t they in Oxford already?’ Oxford is flat enough and it has the cycling culture,” says Ted. The entrepreneurial history undergraduate began to put out feelers last autumn. “Of course it’ll work,” was the unanimous and obvious verdict. Although 11 years ago Erica Steinhauer’s bicycle-rickshaw business failed, Ted is convinced that times have changed. So convinced, in fact, that he before he knew it, he’d set up Oxon Carts and imported five £2,000 pedicabs from the States.

A typical pedicab journey is the five-minute hop with your suitcase from the train station to High Street or with a heavy purchase from, say, Boswell’s to Jericho – even up Headington Hill “if you ask nicely!”

Pedicabs offer the journeys that you can’t make by bus or cab through our congested medieval streets. They’re doing cabbies a favour, too, as these short but traffic-snarled journeys earn cabbies the least.

Pedicabs in Oxford tick all the boxes: no need to worry about CO2 emissions or diesel fumes. Having access to cycle lanes and short cuts means they’re much quicker than a taxi. They reduce congestion and they’re a peaceful ride for passengers and pedestrians alike. In all, pedicabs are a win-win proposition for the city.
Local businesses are already using them for deliveries large and small, and you can book a private-hire service on 07747 024600 or www.oxoncarts.com Unfortunately, due to hackney carriage licensing complications, they can’t yet act as hailable on-street cabs. However, Oxon Carts see their future as plying the streets and customers want the freedom to hail a passing pedicab, so getting a taxi licence is the next step. Gird your loins for the three-wheeled revolution.

Content provided courtesy oxfordmail.net.

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Tags: bicycle rickshaws, carriages, congestion, culture, cycling community, difference, founder, garages, Headington Hill, High Street, Jericho, Oxford, Oxon, Pedicab, Pedicab News, rickshaw, Scandinavia, summer bicycle, three wheels, transport system, tricycle

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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Tags: apprentice, Cabs, city of denver, college campuses, customers, Denver, denver business journal, Donald, donald trump, driver, Electric, exposure, Houston, Las Vegas, Main Street, Main Street Pedicabs, Manhattan, manhattan rickshaw, manufacturer, market, marketing, NEW YORK, Pedicab, pedicab business, Pedicab News, pedicab operators, pedicabs, steve meyer, street pedicabs, three wheeled vehicles, Transport, transportation, tricycle, trump