Pedicabs bring leg-powered locomotion to downtown

local schmocal wrote:

This is cool! I'll hop on the first one I see.
BTW, you folks complaining about traffic downtown need to sloooow down any way! Have some respect for your fellow Man.

I love that you and others that get public assistance can slow things down. I, on the other hand, have to hurry to get the job done. So that I can make money, to pay big liberal taxes, so you all can slow things down. Vicious cycle.

Why don't all of you idiots shut up. Stupid is stupid, somebody is always in a damn hurry. yona, do you speak greek or just hog crap?

Freak Finder wrote:

Why don't all of you idiots shut up. Stupid is stupid, somebody is always in a damn hurry. yona, do you speak greek or just hog crap?

Although yona is a bit on the arrogant side, I would say that he speaks ENGLISH. Seems to me you're the idiot.

Last Buffalo wrote:

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Although yona is a bit on the arrogant side, I would say that he speaks ENGLISH. Seems to me you're the idiot.

Thank you, you beautiful woman you.

yona wrote:

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Thank you, you beautiful woman you.

Kissy, kissy. lol

Maybe this'll be a chance to have more awareness of electric-assist bicycles - that's what the motors on the pedicabs will be, once they get the right ones.

Current state and Federal laws are listed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_bicycle... and have speed and power limits which the technology is outgrowing. My electric-assist bike is the cheapest one I could find from a company I had heard of (a Currie, which cost $340 delivered from walmart.com last year). The small motor helps a lot with the pedaling especially up hills and top powered speed is maybe 18 mph. You can coast faster downhill if you want.

But there are kits to put on regular bikes which offer a lot more hill-climbing power and all-around speed. The laws need to evolve to allow and regulate that kind of hardware. Then, more people will use it for transportation, at least part of the time.

Electricity for my ebike (as they're called) costs me about a tenth of a cent per mile. A car getting 40 mpg has fuel costs almost 100 times greater. Let's get some stronger ebikes on our streets than can better keep up with low-speed traffic and save some money!

Now there is really nothing downtown that draws me there, but there wasn't last week either.

Asheville_Native wrote:

Now there is really nothing downtown that draws me there, but there wasn't last week either.

LOL. You are so crotchety. I love it. OMG. Still LOL.:)

Wow, I have little experience with this forum, but I'm already amazed at how small minded, negative, and just generally nasty so many people are who write on here. I'm out.

local schmokal wrote:

Wow, I have little experience with this forum, but I'm already amazed at how small minded, negative, and just generally nasty so many people are who write on here. I'm out.

Be careful, birds of a feather tend to flock togethe.

Last Buffalo wrote:

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Be careful, birds of a feather tend to flock togethe.

LOL. Thats what Buncy said to me yesterday in regards to Ghost Dog Asheville. He said he was scum and birds of a feather flock together. I adore Buncy, but hes wrong.

Where are the pedi drivers going to whiz? Same place as the homeless I guess. Who cares all of downtown smells like urine anyway. What is a little more LOL

Asheville_Native wrote:

Now there is really nothing downtown that draws me there, but there wasn't last week either.

Yeah, I know. I'm no longer in the veterans shelter.

local schmokal wrote:

Wow, I have little experience with this forum, but I'm already amazed at how small minded, negative, and just generally nasty so many people are who write on here. I'm out.

See that it is easy for you to git overwhelmed. Bye.

Wow! Do people ever get touchy when something new comes around and they are scared to try it. I do not mind if you would rather drive or walk, go right ahead. I do not care if you drive an SUV or a scooter. It would not bother us if you have decided never to take a ride with us. We won't do more than ring our bell and ask you if you would like a ride. It's fun!

As for the comment about slavery being brought back by a black woman; I can't stop laughing. It does feel like I'm driving Miss Daisy sometimes. Or rather, Miss Daisy can walk faster than I can pedal up some of these hills. But, starting any business requires saying, "Yessah, massah" to a great many people in all colors of the rainbow.

To Yona, we have 5 pedicabs. I do not hire employees. Our drivers are independent contractors. Although we are free to post a fare, we would rather work for tips.

To everyone, be kind to each other. If it isn't already in existence, a patent will be created (or stolen) that will lead to the invention that solves all of our problems for the next 70 years.

:)

We're starting to look more like China every day.

yona wrote:

This might make it eight months. They will do pretty well during the summer, but remember they can't go into street festivals any more than cars can.
Come cold weather business will dry up and they will have to store the rickshaws. That is expense without income. They will lose their employees due to lack of work.
Next spring, if they haven't closed already. They will have to hire all new staff, and incur those expenses. It will be like opening all over again, and any business owner will tell you opening a new business is the most expensive time.
You eco weenies enjoy them now, Mark my words, they will not be back next year.

This might be true for now but I overheard talk of allowing them closer if not even inside the festival areas, which of course has been changed to include not only areas that are not being used to include the entire downtown. But this rule is being unevenly applied as the pedicabs taxis & buses were allowed to ply their trade without special use permits unlike the street performers. as far as suv's and the cost of operation, the people who can truly afford to purchase them are not overly concerned about the price of fuel. so that is a mute point. you can't allway's look at things from your broke assed point of view, people with money will allway's be able to afford bigger & more of them.

Hellbender wrote:

I remember when the French Bar tried this back in the mid 90s. Gravity, hills and a broken arm put an end to that experiment. Glad to see Darwin brought them back.

hellbender it was not french bar who tried that, I was one of the operators back then. It was the flying frog, this kind of thing never has any real demand in winter when there are no tourist here. The owner of the contraptions tried to extort way too much income from the drivers of the rigs, 1/2 the cost of a tour when the driver was the one who sold the tour & did the work on top of paying a lease for the vehicle. Every other type ride the driver got all the money as the rigs were leased.

Silverwolf 104 wrote:

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You're gonna be glad these cabs are around one day real soon when you find out you can't afford to run that gas hog. SUV's are gonna go the way of the dinosaur, and real soon. Just look at the used car lots of the new car dealers in town. They can't give the darn things away! So don't be jumping ugly with this young woman who has seen a need and is attempting to fill it. You'll probably be one of the first to flag her down for a lift!!

My daughter just bought her first vehicle - a Mercury Mountaineer. We love it. Lots of room for all her stuff going back and forth to college, etc. Got a pretty good deal, too. Thank goodness the price of gas is going down. Much safer than a little bitty thing, too. I feel much better knowing she is driving something with some metal around her.

I remember when horse drawn carriages were give the go ahead, only to have one horse break free and drag the driver off and left the carriage rolling down Patton Avenue!

Not to mention that the animal rights folks went bonkers.

Maybe we could harness up the homeless like a team of clydesdales and provide tours for are precious visitors!