Starting Thursday night, people will have a new way to get around Tallahassee. A local startup company called Capital City Pedicabs is rolling out its modern rickshaw service just in time for the legislative session.
On Thursday, Milton Torres is showing off a pedicab in front of FSU’s Turnbull Center.
“ People love the bell,” he says, ringing an old-fashioned bike bell on his handlebars.
Torres, who runs a Jacksonville pedicab company, is here helping his friend, Ron Goldstein, launch Capital City Pedicabs in Tallahassee. The fleet of seven pedicabs will be ready for legislators returning for a 60-day lawmaking session, for people coming out of bars on late nights and for families coming and going from downtown festivals.
He said, “Originally they were called rickshaws. They were picked up and people used to run with them. Now they’ve come to what you see here, which is a trike-style unit. They have brake lights, turn signals and canopies. So they’re more like the luxury model.”
Goldstein said, they’re not only safe—they have seatbelts—but they’re also an eco-friendly mode of transportation. And he hopes to see them in Midtown, Downtown and anywhere people want to hire them for the evening.
“We’re very excited to bring these to Tallahassee,” he said. “This event is kind of a kickoff for the business community.”
Goldstein was at the Leon County Economic Development Council meeting on Thursday to pitch his new company, as a recent graduate of the council’s Entrepreneurial Excellence Program. Program director Larry Lynch said, he thinks Capital City Pedicabs has a bright future.
“When I first heard the plan, I said, ‘You’re nuts,’ but the more I heard about it the better it sounded. I think he’s onto a winner,” Lynch said. “Last week, on Thursday, after 24 years with the state, he quit his state job. On Friday he woke up, and he was the only full-time employee of Capital City Pedicabs. And the rest, we hope, is going to be a great history.”
Lynch said, since the Entrepreneurial Excellence Program started three years ago, it’s helped 55 companies get off the ground. The four-week course helps early-stage startups with things like intellectual property, marketing and finance.
Economic Development Council Chairwoman Karen Moore said, it’s all about encouraging people with great business ideas to put down roots in Tallahassee.
“We want to put together that master group of a support system that can help our young entrepreneurs make their business successful,” she said.
Capital City Pedicabs is officially in business this weekend. On Friday, drivers will be available at Railroad Square’s First Friday and then at the “Saturday in the Park” jazz concert in downtown Tallahassee.
For more information on how to catch a ride on a pedicab or to become a pedicab driver, check out the Capital City Pedicabs website.