Life in the Trike Lane

Pedicab Princesses: Ride of the Day (ROTD)

Gregg — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:12:16 +0000

Three local lasses loaded up on an RR pedicab last night and lapped up their entire adventure from midtown to 15th St & 7th Avenue, where a manicure and pedicure awaited them and their clients. Each one thanked thoroughly their perspicacious pedicab peddler for convincing them to climb aboard, wondering aloud about why they’d failed to take a ride all these years despite consistent exposure to pedicabs as midtown professionals.

Another gotham pedicab story with a happy ending – as almost all expeditions on Revolution pedicabs seem to end . . .

Trouble in the Hamptons

Gregg — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:46:43 +0000

So Helen and I were cycling through Southampton for the very first time, curious of what the hub bub was all about – and we get stopped by a young gentleman in a light blue shirt telling us that we have to dismount our Bromptons because it’s illegal in the town center to ride a bicycle! Of course, we were dumbfounded at first; eventually, we became extremely disturbed.

The police officer told us it was very dangerous for us to be biking there. I mentioned I bike in Manhattan daily. He insisted we dismount and walk our bikes. It just didn’t seem worth the trouble to mount an impromptu civil disobedience action – we were on a fun day-trip, for goodness’ sake – so instead we stewed for a bit and then soldiered on to Shelter Island with the help of a route provided by a friendly local organic farmer sited at one of the farm stands in the town car park for the Sunday Farmers’ Market.

Suffice it to write we won’t be returning to the Hamptons any time soon. Shelter Island? That’s a different story . . .

The sign indicating the ban on all human powered conveyances in town

Do you believe in freedom?

Helen — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 01:57:19 +0000

That is, the freedom to walk a pedicab over an NYC bridge (rather than load it into a gas-guzzling motor vehicle), in order to provide eco-positive passenger transport to the noble folk of the outer boroughs. If so, please attend a fundraiser Monday night, August 9, to help fund the legal battle to keep this freedom legal.

Place: Duncan Elder’s cool DUMBO theater/loft space in Brooklyn at 75 Hudson Avenue.

Time: Doors at 7pm; program at 8:30pm.

Cost: Sliding scale of $15-25.00.

Admission price will include food, adult beverages, and entertainment. There may be a screening of the Chinese pedicab action film, “Pedicab Driver.”

Getting there: Take the F train to York Ave (first F stop in Brooklyn) or ride a bike over.

Rain or shine.

Those were the days....

NYC Food Systems Network Grows

Gregg — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 01:06:47 +0000

RR participated in Food Systems Network NYC’s inaugural Policy Subcommittee meeting, keen to bring to the table the eco-logical transport & logistics programs in town that help forge the often missing link in local organic food sales. RR is a member of the network and is keen to help build the eco-logical food network in conjunction with local farmers, distributors, marketers, and retailers. Our partner in business Basis Foods is also a member of this network.

Revolution in the News

Helen — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:58:39 +0000

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...

The Strength to Move Melons

Helen — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:52:06 +0000

A few weeks ago, when Gregg was shopping at the Union Square Greenmarket, he ran into Shelley Rogers, director of the delightful, dirt-defending documentary What’s Organic About Organic? Turned out she needed a load of organic Florida watermelons delivered to six Manhattan restaurants below 59th Street, as part of a promotion for the film’s week-long NYC premiere (yes, the premiere is now over – but you can still host a screening of your own). So, on Monday, June 22nd, two of RR’s crack cargo couriers set out to distribute a few hundred pounds of mouth-watering fruit (we know it was mouthwatering because, um, one of the melons, um, “fell off the back of the trike”). RR did, yes, breathe a sigh of relief when RR received confirmation that the melons were going to be transported from Hunts Point to our depot by a vehicle boasting eighteen wheels, instead of three.

Intrepid RR Courier #1

Intrepid RR Courier #2

Unloading Melons at Fatty Crab

And speaking of watermelons – we’re growing some at Lincoln Tunnel Farm!

See the baby melon in the foreground?

Pedaling Beyond Petroleum

Helen — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:04:10 +0000

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.)

If you can’t beat it, farm it.

Helen — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 10:56:13 +0000

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.

Basis’s RR Eco-Transport Program Grows

Gregg — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 22:56:01 +0000

Our partnership with Basis: Good Food to You is nearing the 100 weekly customer mark, which is exciting news for Team RR. Began in earnest in March of this year, the RR delivery program for Basis is adding tomorrow Monday 14 June 2010 a second weekly delivery date to the current Thursday-only schedule accommodate growth as well as the quirks of summer demand; to wit: many New Yorkers skip town during the hazy, lazy weekends of July and August, making Thursday delivery less appealing.

On Thursdays, RR deploys four freight trikes for afternoon Basis delivery. We’re eager to continue on a growth path with Basis and help distribute as much local organic food as we can manage! (Disclaimer: Basis distributes primarily, though not all, local organic foods.) Check them out and tell them RR sent you!

Come to RR’s Bike Month Event – TONIGHT!

Helen — Tue, 11 May 2010 14:17:45 +0000

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