Life in the Trike Lane

During Bike Month 2010, RR hosted its inaugural Organic Transport for New York event at The Commons, in Brooklyn. Turns out the audience member typing furiously on his laptop and asking all kinds of incisive questions was in fact the articulate and perspicacious Chris Hunt, who writes for EcoCentric (”a blog about food, water and energy”). The fruits of his labors, titled Rethinking Local Food Distribution: Revolution on Three Wheels are now available for your reading enjoyment.

Thanks, Chris! RR thinks your “Awesomeness Factor” is pretty high too!

Also at our Bike Month event, RR received some great audience suggestions for a new name for our cargo vehicle – we were looking for something that conveys its brawn, and also its reliance on pedal power. One that’s stuck with us is freight trike, the contribution of Adam Horwitch, Brooklyn-based rooftop farmer and transport buff.

A belated three-wheeled thank-you, by the way, to all who attended. And if you’re an educator/event organizer/conference maven looking for panelists or presenters from the cutting edge of organic transport – you know whom to call!

Mmm...hauling organic matter via organic transport...

Here’s what Alisa Gravitz, Executive Director of Green America, has to say about the BP oil spill:

“[A]s heartbreaking a disaster as this is, it’s critical that we remember.  It’s not a natural disaster.  It’s not an aberration. It isn’t even a surprise!

“It’s only the latest in a series of economic and environmental disasters that will continue to strike our nation and cost our economy billions of dollars — as long as we continue to rely on dirty, dangerous sources of fuel like coal, oil, and natural gas.”

In a message titled “Stop the next oil spill before it starts!” she goes on to suggest that Green Americans put efficiency first, invest in Clean Energy Victory Bonds, and support creation of Clean Tech Jobs.

Yes, yes, yes! And trike, trike, trike!

Here at RR we are by no means clean of addiction to ancient sunlight: Our trikes wouldn’t exist without the fossil-fuel-powered equipment and tools used to make them. If not for asphalt and steamrollers we wouldn’t have paved roads to ride on. Parts orders roll up to our door in a UPS truck.

However: When you ride a pedicab or freight trike, you don’t ever have to stop at a gas station.

RR: Boycotting BP (and Exxon, and Chevron, and so on) since 2005.

No oil spills in this picture! ("LOTS" stands for Local Organic Transport Systems.)

Lincoln Tunnel Farm

Rush-hour traffic at a Lincoln Tunnel entrance…yawn…what else is new? But wait! What’s that in the foreground? It’s a roof…it’s a shipping container…it’s a farm!

More precisely, it’s Lincoln Tunnel Farm, installed this spring atop the Beta shipping container (40′ x 8′ x 8′) in RR’s parking lot. We’re growing lettuce, spicy greens, hardy greens, cucumbers, green (and purple and yellow) beans, radishes, herbs, snap peas, watermelons, nasturtiums, and flax (because this clueless dude I ordered seeds from didn’t have mache and decided I’d have fun growing a plant I don’t know how to make clothing out of). The farm is a partnership between RR and Lots to Eat (my gardening company and gardening philosophy, merged into one memorable phrase).

Would Lincoln Tunnel Farm qualify for organic certification, under the national organic standards? Probably not. The vegetables are, after all, basking in the pollutants and particulates that we Manhattanites inhale every day. (Hint: If you’re afraid to eat food that grows where you live, turning your car into a planter is a good first step towards ameliorating the situation.) However, they also get to drink NYC’s excellent tap water, and eat NYC-generated worm compost (mixed into the 800 pounds of potting soil we purchased from the Lower East Side Ecology Center). On special occasions, I treat them to coffee grounds from Starbucks (free at the 9th Ave & 15th St location, thanks to the Grounds for Your Garden program). And I saw a ladybug up there the other day, so I must be doing something right!

Oh, the little darlings! Lettuce and green beans grow up together.

Organic Transport for New York: Moving People & Cargo by Pedal Power

Tuesday, May 11: 7:30-9:30pm

Trike is the new truck! Join Revolution Rickshaws for a lively slide presentation on the present and future of pedal-powered cargo and passenger transport in NYC. Learn how an average human can pedal 500+ pounds around town, without fuel. Get the inside scoop on driving a pedicab in Midtown. Find out how NYC might transition from fossil-fuel-dependence to vigorous self-reliance in the realm of short-hauling heavy stuff.

Speakers: Gregg Zukowski (Founder & Owner) and Helen Newman (General Manager) of Revolution Rickshaws. A former state committee member of the New York Green Party, Gregg has been pedicabbing in NYC since 2003 and running RR since 2005. He is president of the
NYC Pedicab Owners’ Association. Helen learned to drive a giant trike in 2008. She holds a certificate in permaculture design, and is in the process of starting a rooftop farm in the RR parking lot.

$10 suggested donation

Location:
The Commons
388 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn
Closest to A, C & G (Hoyt/Schermerhorn), but near the B, M, Q, R, 2, 3, 4, 5, and F

Contact:
Revolution Rickshaws
http://www.revolutionrickshaws.com
helen@revolutionrickshaws.com
(212) 239-0200

A couple weeks ago – on Sunday, March 28th, to be exact – Gregg & I triked over the Manhattan Bridge to Kensington (Brooklyn) to help kick off the Prospect Avenue Farm. The event announcement said to bring rakes and shovels…and it’s pretty hard to balance rakes and shovels while riding a two-wheeler…so we figured we’d travel by trike!

Gregg's so used to trike-versing the Manhattan Bridge, he does it with his eyes closed!

About 100 people showed up to clear brush, prep terraces for planting, and create an area for composting. Tom Angotti – who owns the steeply sloped farm-to-be abutting the Seeley Street Bridge – is currently getting the soil tested, and planning a CSA for next year. Community composting is in the works, as is another work day: Sunday, April 18th, from 9am to 1pm. (Write to tangotti@nyc.rr.com for more info.)

Pick-up trike at Prospect Avenue Farm, with the Seeley Street Bridge in the background

Here’s to community involvement, organic transport, and growing food where you live!

All the bike has to do is sit there & look pretty!

See the yellow oval bikon (new word, freshly coined, short for “bike icon”!) on the motor weapon’s rear panel? It’s a schematic drawing of the Long Haul cargo bike, manufactured by Human Powered Machines in Eugene, Oregon. The company deploying the motor weapon is Checker Courier, based on East 11th Street. From looking at their website, you’d think they ran cargo bikes exclusively. Not! But they sure do play up the valor thereof.

And they’re not alone. Upper Crust Pizzeria, in Boston, sports a tuxedoed pedaler in its bikon – and delivers catering via motor weapon. Butter Lane (for which RR did deliver a number of cupcakes, back in the day) features a Long John cargo bike as its clickable “Delivery” bikon. When’s New Belgium Brewing Company going to get its ranger on a rickshaw van, so he can really be a hero?

Come on, people! You talk the talk – you flaunt the bikon – how about you get in the saddle and pedal the pedal?

Thanks to the gobs of people descending on Manhattan for the parade, St. Patrick’s Day tends to be a bonanza for pedicab drivers. Huge crowds + too few yellow cabs + intensive revelry = lots of rides and, with luck, big tips. Even I – dilettante pedicabbie that I am – plied the streets for a couple hours. A very kind passenger with shamrocks on his tie told me his juant from 46th & 7th to West 4th & 7th wasn’t his first pedicab ride but it was his best (and gave me a big tip too).

Gregg – a professional pedicab driver for six and a half years now – was out raking in the green as well. Here’s a cab-ful of his pleased passengers:

Nothing beats an open-air cruise with your gal pals on St. Paddy's Day!