Wheels of Fortune

While they're talking, they constantly scan for clients. The target customer is someone who is "mobility-impaired," a term Meyer uses to describe anyone who's having trouble getting to where they need to go on foot, from people with physical disabilities to those with one too many shopping bags. Pedestrians who are late for meetings and women suffering from uncomfortable shoes also count — as do drunks.

As game time approaches, business picks up. To get the stragglers and the bar crowd to the ballpark in time, drivers slalom through oncoming traffic and thread their way down sidewalks — neither of which they're technically allowed to do. According to city ordinance, pedicabs, like bicycles, have to abide by essentially the same traffic laws as cars, like staying on the road at all times. In the chaos of Opening Day, though, the cops have more pressing matters to attend to than a scofflaw pedicab or two.

Word is there are about forty pedicabs plying downtown right now, double the usual amount on a warm weekend night and quadruple the cadre who stick it out through the winter months. According to the city's Department of Excise and Licenses, approximately 100 people hold current pedicab driver's licenses, but many drivers who do get a license use it only occasionally, Meyer points out.

That could soon change, however. Greg Duran, the former manager of Mile High Pedicabs, recently split to start his own business, Colorado Rickshaw, with his wife, Teri Robnett. "It's going to be small, it's going to be elite, and it's going to provide optimum customer service," says Duran, who also runs a pedicab consulting company. The operation, which will include city tours and other novel pedicab uses, will be based at what will be called "City Cycle Lodging" — a bike-related garage and office on Arapahoe Street, a few blocks off the 16th Street Mall.

By the time the game starts, the drivers are flush with cash and eager for a break before the long afternoon ahead. Some plan to work the post-game crowd and continue on until after bar "let out" at 2 a.m. "It definitely is a lot of work," says Martin.

Thankfully, the average ride is a scant few blocks. Pedicabs focus on an area bounded by Broadway, 23rd Street, Platte Street, Colfax Avenue and Seventh Street on the Auraria campus. They also cruise the Pepsi Center, Elitch Gardens and Invesco Field (some rides are longer; there's a rumor that a driver once took a customer all the way to Stapleton). And while the pedicabs weigh between 150 and 200 pounds without a driver or passengers, they're deceptively easy to pedal, says Martin. "I'm a slight 160 pounds," he says. "As far as difficulty goes, it's fairly easy to do."

That wasn't always the case.

---

Meyer's first fleet of vehicles didn't work very well. Their braking systems were meager, at best, they had only five speeds, and it was nearly impossible to find replacement parts. So in 1993, Meyer decided to make his own pedicabs, cribbing design elements from mountain bikes and enlisting the expertise of a CU engineering class. Soon he had a rugged, attractive vehicle with 21 speeds, top-of-the-line brakes and fully interchangeable parts.

With help from his wife, Ruth Vander-kooi, business boomed. Main Street began manufacturing vehicles — now sold at $3,000 to $5,000 apiece — for buyers in Portland, Washington, D.C., London and Sydney, cities where popular destinations are too far apart for easy walking but too close to necessitate a taxi or bus ride. In 1994, Meyer quit his planning work to focus on his new obsession full-time.

"I am not against cars," he says, admitting that he and Ruth drive their thirteen- and eleven-year-old children around in a minivan. But "I have a realization of what a perfect city would be." It's one where pedicabs and small electric cars ply the streets, people and bicyclists flow from one destination to the next, and typical automobiles are largely a thing of the past.

In 2001, he spun off Mile High Pedicabs into a separate company, which he expanded to ten vehicles. Co-owned by pedicab driver Ed Oliver, Mile High now sports twenty cabs, which it leases to drivers for a daily rate of $25 to $75, depending on the day, or $340 to $415 a month, depending on the length of the lease.

And for the most part, downtown enthusiasts have embraced pedicabs. "It enhances the ambience downtown, and it enhances the experience downtown," says Aylene Quale, transportation manager for the Downtown Denver Partnership, which presented the company with an award in 1995 for its positive contributions.

"When you have a downtown that is welcoming to pedicabs, you are also saying our downtown is good for bicycles, it is good for pedestrians," she adds.