On a recent Sunday, while I was dropping off some donated wheels and frames at the Durham Bike Co-op, two of Durham’s newest taxi cabs stopped by for repairs. MarcDreyfors parked his cab on the sidewalk, jacked up the front end to remove the front wheel, and brought the wheel inside the Co-op for aligning. After a few minutes in the truing stand, his wheel was straight, and he popped the front wheel back on his pedal-powered taxi cab.
A pedicab, as it is known, is basically a giant tricycle. It looks like a regular bicycle in the front (with one wheel, handlebars, and a seat above the pedals for the driver), but the rear expands to a convertible, padded two- or three-person seat stretching across the back end’s stabilizing pair of wheels. The pedals power a two-wheel drivetrain, geared like a mountain bike with 21 speeds. The rear of the cab has brake lights, turn signals, and all the benefits of riding a bike without any of the work –that is, if you’re the passenger.
Riding in the back you feel the wind in your hair, the connection with the street, and without the sweat or muscle burn.
Rickshaws — more commonly used to ferry sightseeing tourists around cities of the Far East, west Africa, or Manhattan — will soon be shuttling folks around the Bull City.
“Greenway Transit is the merger of our green transportation business and Greenway Pedicabs, which opened in Chapel Hill in 2006,” says Marc Dreyfors, owner of the business. For shuttling people around the Triangle, Greenway Transit offers a 6 passenger minivan that runs on ethanol and 12, 15, and 34 passenger buses running on bio-diesel. But modeled on the success of their pedicabs program in Chapel Hill, Greenway Transit’s pedicabs will take to the streets of Durham in May.
I have said before in this column that Durham’s hot spots of commercial activity are like islands — Ninth St, Brightleaf, Five Points, American Tobacco — and that the areas between can be difficult for pedestrians to navigate.
Throughout the summer, Greenway Transit’s pedicabs will provide an alternative mode of transit between Durham’s islands. Dreyfours expects to run shuttles between Ninth St and Duke’s campuses, between the Durham Bulls Athletic Park and Durham’s downtown core, and between downtown Durham and Brightleaf.
Just imagine it; from dinner at Xiloa on Ninth St you could take a bicycle-based taxi to a Bulls game, from a Full Frame session to Amelia for coffee, or from The Federal home safely.
Thirteen year old Mike lives near Greenway Transit’s industrial facility near the intersection of Alston and Angier Avenues. Curious how someone could make fuel from vegetable oil, he started hanging around the business to learn about biodiesel. Dreyfors perceived Mike’s mechanical inclination right away and started teaching Mike what he didn’t already know about bike repairs.
At Durham’s Earth Day event, Mike drove a pedicab around the festival’s parking lot demonstrating the pedicab concept and helping get the word out.
“He came back to me at the end of the day asking what he should do with the money he made,” says Dreyfors. “I told him he could keep it.”
“Riding people around Earth Day was fun,” says Mike. “I carried six people. Kids were pretty amazed by it, telling their moms they wanted to ride.”
Dreyfors echoes Mike’s observation. From the driver’s seat of a pedicab, Dreyfors sees people break into smiles and wave when he rides by. “We need to get back to the sense of neighborhood, sense of community, and [the pedicabs] do that,” he adds.
While we’re talking, Dreyfors hands Mike a multi-tool so that the young apprentice can adjust the handlebars of the two-person pedicab. Later, Mike takes me for a spin down the sidewalk. He says the hardest thing about driving a pedicab is remembering that it’s wider than a regular bike. “You have to be careful about the sides.”
After a short trip, we switch places. While I pedal Mike back to the Co-op, he says “it’s cool; it’s like being chauffeured.” But the best part about driving a pedicab is the attention, Mike says. “People just sit and stare,” when they see the pedicab driving down the road, he adds.
“You can make some pretty good money on the weekend shifts,” says Dreyfors.
Though the details of the incentive structure for drivers are still being worked out, Dreyfors says driving a pedicab can be “a good part-time job; you set your own hours and, after an initial buy-in, you keep what you make.” He tells the story of a UNC student and pedicab driver in Chapel Hill who, because the student is willing to work the late shift (i.e. 12AM — 3AM), can make more than $125 in one night.
Anyone who wants to learn how to work a pedicab shift, rent the pedicabs for an event (a wedding or party), or learn more about the company can reach Greenway Transit at 957-1505 and find them on the web at http://www.greenwayrides.com