Chicago Bicycle Taxi's (Time: lease, how much, unemployment)

[Jesse69]

Have you ever taken a ride in a bicycle taxi? How much did it cost to go how far? I ran into 2 bicycle taxi's in Downtown Chicago, the first guy I asked him how much he makes in a day. I couldn't believe it when he said $150 to $500. I've never seen a bicycle taxi loaded with passengers. I will ask more of them how much they can make. Do you know how much they can make?

If it's a low cost investment to get the rear carriage to attach to your bike, then maybe I'd try this job. But I wonder if you need a license or city permit to do this thing. It's self employed and you pay no fees to a taxi company, which is great.

Anyone know about this job? Probably I can make decent money just taxi-ing in my Wicker Park neighborhood, which is full of yuppies.

[chet everett]

I doubt that any bolt-on can compete with a $3000 purpose built pedicab / rickshaw --

Park Avenue Pedicab


Pedicabforum / Rickshawforum - Talk about Rickshaws & Pedicabs

Good luck, I think you might have what it takes to stand out and make it doing this!

[ChiNaan]

It's weird to me that pedicabs are only recently beginning to take off in Chicago. As with food trucks (another thing we were behind the curve with), the city appears to want a major piece of the pie, and entrenched competitors appear poised to fight them.

Google "Chicago pedicabs" and notice the several news stories from earlier this year.

[Jesse69]

I saw a bolt on pedicab in downtown the last time I was there; the rear cab had a bar go to the bike which had a quick release attachment to it. With that I can use my best commuter road bike, my $2800 Trek 2.1 SPA, as a driver. It should be faster than those guys hooked up to a slow mountain bike.

The good thing about this job is that you can lose a lot of weight doing it. When I was a bike messenger for 1 month in downtown Chicago I was riding 150 to 180 miles a week and I lost 5 lbs while eating a good amount of food... Like snacking on Mrs Fields cookies while there.

Discovered these two places where you can lease a pedicab to earn money for a day:
http://www.pedicabchicago.com/Home_Page.html
http://chicagopedicabs.com/become-a-driver/

It's better off to buy one from Craigslist, like this one but it's in St Louis: http://stlouis.craigslist.org/bik/3978164396.html

[Irishtom29]

Americans driving rickshaws. Who says The United States isn't declining?

[jonnynonos]

I would seriously consider doing this if I thought I could susatin myself. Let me know how it goes. I'm assuming if you owned your own "cab" you could also under report your revenue, by, oh, I don't know, 85 percent.

Unfortunately the business probably slows way down by Nov. 1 and I would imagine is shelved by the end of Nov. 30.

However... in that case you may be able to do what all the consutruction workers I knew growing up did, which was to simply collect unemployment all winter. LOL.

[Jesse69]

Yeah, I admit it's backward technology, but I'd do it because you lose weight doing this job. And if I owned my own pedicab, I can work anytime I want! I hope they don't pass an ordinance that limits them, or I might have to run one illegally.

Proposed pedicab ordinance draws criticism - Chicago Sun-Times

[jonnynonos]

I have to say I saw a bunch of them going down Michigan Avenue the other day and I thought, "If I was a driver this would be f***kin' annoying."

I don't get the laws on that stuff... why it is legal for a pedicab to take up/slow down an entire traffic lane seems odd to me. Is it that essential of a service.

[Jesse69]

This would be a great job for me as I can under report my income and still collect my SSDI and Medicare. If I owned my own pedicab I can work only peak hours and in good weather if I chose.

It's a bit embarrassing to do this job because people would look down on you. I got laughed at a couple of times when I worked as a downtown bike messenger back in May 2005.

[jonnynonos]

Hell I would do it. Who cares if people laugh at you. Plus, yeah, you can under report your income like crazy, probably.