In keeping with today’s unofficial theme, here’s another person around town making the bicycle economy happen. Anne-Marije Rook from the Ballard News Tribune took a spin with Sacsha Toda-Peters , a pedicab driver with attitude and great knowledge of the history of rickshaws in Seattle.
Wearing a crisp white button-up shirt, a colorfully striped bow-tie, and over-sized non-prescription glasses, Sacsha Toda-Peters showed up in style to meet me for our ride.
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“I don’t sell rides, I sell smiles,” he said and I was entertained before we even started the tour.
Toda-Peters is the owner of Greener Cab, a commercial passenger tricycle service that offers transport and unique tours of Seattle.“If someone wants transportation, there are other options that may be quicker on average. But we’re looking to provide a greater value and to be a great resource to the city,” Toda-Peters said.
Toda-Peters bought his single-speed rickshaw almost three years ago off Craigslist.
“These trikes are actually manufactured this way. It’s not a Franken-bike. This particular model is a Chinese model,” Toda-Peters said, making himself comfortable on the rider’s seat of a sturdy, pedal-powered tricycle with a cabin that can carry three people in addition to the driver.
Comments
2 responses to “Riding Reporter: A ride with a pedicab tour guide”
Nice! I like the fact he installed both good brakes and an electric assist motor. Now all he needs is a solar trickle charger to keep it fully charged. There’s no reason not to use an assist to move 300lbs of passengers + 150lbs of driver + 70lbs of pedicab up a hill. Even if you used the lowest gearing that would still be a lot of effort.
The only other idea is to add passenger pedals so they can help pedal. It would have to have some sort of clutch so that only if the driver was pedaling would it push the bike forward.
I took a ride in a pedicab the other night with my gal for the first time to a Mariner’s game from King Street station. It was an easy walk for us but I thought it cool to donate to the cause and as such tipped him nicely. It was pretty cool.