Additional Uses for Freight Cycles

Overnight delivery and messenger services are only one obvious market for utility cycles. With a little imagination, other businesses — laundries, small contractors, caterers, florists, garden centers, recycling businesses, department stores and the U.S. Postal Service — could easily take advantage of the quick, efficient and inexpensive delivery offered by human power.

George Bliss, a leading inventor of and spokesperson for human-powered vehicles, has designed an array of vehicles that take advantage of the possibilities inherent in a simple tricycle. [9] His most popular designs are the Dump Trike and the smaller Pick-Up Trike. Both consist of Worksman frames fitted with ½- or 1-cubic yard polyethylene containers in front. Bliss's Dump Trike, designed for construction or landscape work, tilts forward and back from the driver's seat and has a reverse gear to maneuver in tight spaces. The Pick-Up Trike, intended for street travel, features a rear suspension and angled wheels for a steady ride and safe turns. It can also be fitted with a collapsible, removable canopy, complete with a zip-on rain shield.

Dump Trikes are already in use at several recycling companies, including the Village Green Recycling Team in Manhattan, and New York University's comprehensive recycling program. New users include a South Bronx recycling team that plans to collect 80% of household wastes by having teenagers ride door to door.

Bank-sponsored pedicab service, Germany. Photo: Bicycle Network.

Pedi-cabs are an increasingly popular sight in tourist areas in European cities and in downtown Seattle, San Francisco, some towns in Florida and in Mexico City. But their potential as serious transit for New York City has not yet been tapped. Bicycle or tricycle taxis, which can easily snake through traffic jams where cabs could never fit, could become formidable competition to yellow cabs and radio cars. Not only can they reach destinations faster and at less cost, they can provide an enjoyable ride. Bliss has built enchanting pedi-cabs with padded chaise lounge seating and Cinderella-like chariots with a bent-wood chair mounted under a large umbrella.

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