My DIY Pedicab Saga: Just The Data

(My pedicab, pre-foam-addition.)

Thanks to everybody who commented on my first post in this series: I’ve got great feedback, including a hilarious put-down from another local pedicabber (“Luke, Death Cab for Cutie called. They want a photo for the next album cover.”)

And, appropriately, there’s been a call for data. So here’s what I’ve got:

• 
  Here’s the exact analysis I sent to the City of Austin prior to my 4th meeting. (2.7 MB pdf) Not meant to be a conclusive, authoritative, automobile-worthy, or even well-formatted analysis, this was meant to show I’d put at least a little thought into the strength of the cab. The Telespar appendix mentioned in the analysis is available here.
• Here are the pictures, as provided to the city before my meeting.
• Here’s a brief examination of how other manufacturers describe their pedicab wheels and an article about a recent accident that involved a cheaply-made but commercially-available pedicab, provided to the city on 8/21.

To address some safety issues raised, it’s useful to look at the style of pedicab in use by many other Austin pedicabbers: also no brakes, and attachment to the bike by a single bolt. There are even 20+ home-brews of this style on the Texas capitol’s streets. And, to be fair, I would estimate half of the licensed pedicabs are the far-fancier (and more expensive) 3-wheeled versions (one company making these, and another.) And good luck finding any materials analysis, even to the low level I’ve provided, from any pedicab manufacturer. It may exist, but the city certainly hasn’t sought it until I came up.

So, if I may conclude this post by being overly general:

• One ought to judge product quality not on the presence of a fancy marketing apparatus, but rather on the quantitative properties of a product.
• DIYers much smarter than I are developing important products, and early versions won’t always look pretty.
• Both consumers and makers miss out by labeling anything factory-made as safe and anything home-brewed as sketchy.

As always, any comments appreciated. Including put-downs about my pedicab, so long as they’re at least as funny as the Death Cab for Cutie one:)