On the last day of March, a Facebook friend living in Boulder CO posted photos of the pedicab scene in Denver. I responded to his post by pointing out that I’m having a great time driving a pedicab in Greenville SC.
I told him it was great to see it in Denver, and that pedicabs should be adopted in Boulder if not there already.
He responded by saying that he had a pedicab biz from 2010 to 2014 in Boulder. He noted that riders were generally only available for football games and the annual Bolder Boulder 10K run. He indicated that Boulder was not a pedicab town because of hills and few tourist attractions.
In response, I told him that in my opinion, Boulder has plenty of scenic attractions (certainly more than Greenville). Also, I pointed out, nearly all taxi rides I provide are (1) “A to B” taxi rides (i.e., restaurant to car or hotel to restaurant); (2) Romantic couple or “Joy Rides” for adults (side note: I often inform potential riders that Uber provides “rides,” whereas our pedicabs provide “JOY rides”); and (3) Gift rides by parents who give in to their pleading kids.
As for hills, that has become a non-problem — even in Boulder — now that pedicabs are equipped with electric power assist. The founder of my company was pedicabbing in Charleston SC on pedicabs without motors, so when he started the company in Greenville he opted not to install motors. That lasted a week, as drivers informed him it was not possible to pedicab in hilly Greenville without them.
Now, with motors, even relatively small female drivers are happily giving rides up some rather steep hills.
I strongly encouraged him to visit Greenville so we can take a pedicab out for a spin and he can see for himself.
Since I wrote the above, I’ve given this conversation more thought and have changed my mind a bit.
On the side of pedicabbing being more conducive in Boulder than Greenville, I would expect Boulder to attract more riders than Greenville simply for the fact that Boulder residents are generally far more wealthy than Greenville residents. That means, of course, that spending money for a pedicab ride tends to be more desirable or feasible for Boulder residents (more wealthy people, that is, tend to have more “disposable” income, as economists would say).
But there are two important downsides to pedicabbing in Boulder that I forgot about earlier.
First, Boulderites tend to be more physically fit and more likely to be bicyclists than Greenville residents. That makes Boulderites less likely to be in need of a pedicab ride. Secondly and more importantly, though, here in Greenville, pedicabs are not allowed on roads that exceed 35 mph in speed, because it is too dangerous for pedicabs and “too slow” for motorists.
Looking at Boulder on this issue, in my many years of bicycling through the Boulder town center, I noticed – ironically — how difficult it is to bicycle in the town center. Ironic because Boulder has a national reputation for being “bicycle-friendly.”
I prepared a map of street segments in the Boulder town center that are, in effect, off-limits to bicycling (including pedicabs, of course). The attached map shows in red those town center street segments that are inhospitable to bicycling – either because they are high-speed state highways or one-way street segments.
As you can see by the map, a rather large percentage of street mileage in the Boulder town center is off-limits to bicycling. Again, if any place should be comfortable and heavily used by bicyclists, it should be a lower-speed, compact town center. Yet in a city that regularly is given recognition for being “bike-friendly,” town center bicycling in Boulder is shockingly very difficult and dangerous.
In other words, it is not so much the lack of attractions or the hills that make pedicabbing unlikely in Boulder, but the fact that too many important town center Boulder streets are utterly inhospitable to pedicabs. By contrast, Greenville (which has spent far less than Boulder on bike infrastructure) has a main street that is quite safe and comfortable for pedicabs, and has far more low-speed side streets and compact housing in the town center than Boulder. Boulder, by contrast, has far too little compact housing or low-speed streets in the town center. Boulder needs a low-speed, human-scaled main street yet does not have one.
New conclusion: I think Greenville IS more conducive to pedicabs than Boulder (ironically). Reform needed in Boulder for making pedicabs feasible in Boulder (at least until the City regains its senses and makes Broadway and Canyon lower speed, human-scaled, and therefore far safer and retail-friendly) in its town center is to allow pedicabs on Pearl Street Mall.
I then got this note in response to the above: “Hi Dom, the company which made the pedicab you are driving in Greenville started in Boulder in 1992 in a garage along the canal just east of 9th Street. (near Pine St.). The original name of the company was Pearl Street Pedicabs. Changed it to Main Street Pedicabs because they didn’t work that great in Boulder, but they worked really well in Downtown Denver. Just thought you would like to know. I owned Main Street Pedicabs for more than 30 years and made thousands of pedicabs in our factory in Broomfield. I’m a friend of [your Boulder friend].”
Dom's Plan B Blog 