Mike Gifford might look out of place as he pedals his rickshaw through Wrigleyville.
The 20-year-old maneuvers bike and buggy from the bike lane into Addison Street traffic and then suddenly slips behind a police barricade to avoid the rush of cars near Wrigley Field.
Gifford’s job–operating a rickshaw for Kaz’s KwikShaw–is part cabdriver, part cycler.
Three times a week the Lincoln Park resident wheels around the North Side, taking fans to their cars after Cubs games or carting neighborhood residents home from bars. He bikes through miles of some of Chicago’s ugliest traffic, all in the name of saving gas and starting the rickshaw revolution.
“When you’re riding this thing down the street, everybody turns their head and looks,” Kaz’s KwikShaw co-owner David Kazma said. “The hardest thing with this business is getting people to recognize that it’s just a regular taxi service.”
Kazma’s modern-day rickshaw is a mountain bike with a yellow fiberglass buggy hooked to the back. The 27-year-old Lincoln Park native sees human-powered rickshaws as an alternative to gasoline-dependent taxis and, if current success holds up, a profitable business idea.
Kaz’s KwikShaw–which primarily runs on the North Side–isn’t the only company hoping rickshaws become the city’s next big trend. Roger Rickshaw opened shop in 2001, offering tours around the city. This spring, Bike Chicago Rentals & Tours purchased four pedicabs, which they lease to independent drivers to shuttle tourists from Navy Pier to Grant Park.
“There are a lot more pedicabs in other cities; in New York there’s hundreds of them,” Bike Chicago president Josh Squire said. “In Chicago, pedicabs traditionally operate more around sporting events, so it hasn’t grown yet to the sizes you see elsewhere.”
Kazma said that trend is changing. He and his brother Robert opened Kaz’s KwikShaw at the end of May, and Kazma said they’ve already made enough money to double their fleet from two bikes to four. There’s no formal charge for a ride in one of Kazma’s rickshaws; patrons pay whatever they think is appropriate.
Gifford said a typical fare is about $15 for a 20 minute ride. He said payment usually depends on the distance and the number of passengers.
The pricing policy continues to cause questions more than a month after the company’s opening. As Gifford and his pedicab sat on Sheffield Avenue near Wrigley Field after the recent Cubs-Sox matchup, Cubs fan John Sweeney asked for a price quote for a trip to Rogers Park. Gifford explained that it’s all about tipping, and Sweeney hopped in.
“I like the fact that there was no charge, that it was just whatever I wanted to pay and had in my pocket,” Sweeney, 26, said after the ride. (He paid $7).
Each rickshaw is designed to hold two or three adults, but Gifford said he has had customers “play the see-how-many-people-you-can-fit-in-the-rickshaw game.” He said it’s tougher to haul three grown men than a couple of kids, but for the most part, the pedicab rides like a regular bike in high gear.
As for safety, Kazma insists rickshaws are as safe as any car. Gifford said he rarely has trouble in traffic and that the biggest danger comes from passengers standing up or trying to jump out of the buggy.
Jenny Hoyle, spokeswoman for the city’s Law Department, said that there is no specific code restricting where and how pedicab businesses operate. Hoyle said because pedicabs are hybrid vehicles, they fall under a combination of ordinances governing things like how taxis solicit business or requiring bicycles to stay off sidewalks.
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CLINEHAN@TRIBUNE.COM
