I just want to share this little story about the pedicab driver in our village. His name is Hostino, a vibrant old man who converses with his passengers while pushing the pedals. By the way, a pedicab is a bicycle with a sidecar. You get a ride for 20 cents fare up to a distance of 1 kilometer. Hostino earns his keep by driving and he even pays for the rent of the pedicab to the owner at 1 dollar a day. In my encounters with the old man, he is staying with a family who treats him like a relative. But he proudly said that he works because he doesn't want to be a responsibility of other people. And he claims that he's still strong for age - he was 87 when this photo was taken 2 years ago. Early this year, Hostino was not seen in our village anymore because one of his children took him home to their province. I shared this story to make us feel that we are luckier to be using the computer and probably eating good food unlike that guy who used to drive the pedicab.
It's nice that he still wanted to be productive and useful, even at his advanced age. Pedicabs seem to be popular in foreign countries, but I'd never heard of them here in the United States until fairly recently. I was watching an episode of Nightwatch, which is a show set in New Orleans, that follows police, fire fighters and EMTs on the midnight shift. In that particular episode, the EMTs responded to an incident in which a pedicab driver's calf had somehow become chewed up by the chain of the bicycle. That was the first time I'd heard of a pedicab being used in the U.S., and since that took place in New Orleans, which is a tourist mecca, I think it's probably something that is taking hold in other tourist locations, as well.
They have some in some of the beach towns. They go up and down the boardwalk in Atlantic City, Ocean City and Virginia Beach. I have never rented one though. I mean I am there partly to get exercise, and renting a pedicab would kind of defeat the purpose. Besides I would rather spend my money on souvenirs and junk food.
I definitely could see the benefits of pedaling a Pedicab to earn income. There are no fuel costs, probably not much start up or keep up expenses, good exercise to keep your body healthy...and a nice way to meet people from all over the place too. The only down side would be rain and real cold weather to me.