Pedal-powered taxis

There's a new taxi service in Santa Rosa and Windsor that's turning heads, prompting smiles and generating curious looks.

Three bicycle taxis operated by Rickshaw Rudy's Pedal Cab Service take people in Santa Rosa from bar to bar, to restaurants and to hotels. The company also has two bike cabs in Windsor, shuttling visitors and families around the Town Green.

Before long, they'll be in Healdsburg, providing environmentally correct alternative transportation for Wine Country tourists. This week, the Healdsburg City Council gave approval for the bicycle taxi company to operate in town.

"I think it's going to take off. We're doing a lot more business this year than last year," said Rickshaw Rudy owner Dennis "Rudy" Rutkowski, who also works as a firefighter in Larkspur and as a volunteer for the Windsor fire district.

The pedal-powered bike taxis are more common in Manhattan, or along San Francisco's Embarcadero and Fisherman's Wharf, and a lot of folks do a double-take when they see them on Santa Rosa's Fourth Street and elsewhere downtown.

They've also been cropping up in Sacramento, San Jose and even Fresno.

"People aren't used to us very much yet. A lot are interested in riding but are timid to ask how much it costs," said Erich Rudolph, who was ferrying passengers at this week's downtown market in Santa Rosa.

Rudolph, who leases one of the bike cabs, said he usually just tells people to pay him whatever they feel like.

As a result, he might get only $2 or "a lot more" to take someone a half-mile or so from Old Courthouse Square to Railroad Square.

Some of the bike cab drivers charge by the block. The target fare in Healdsburg is $4 for an eight-minute ride and 50 cents per minute after that.

"It was pretty cool, and it was so cheap," was how Nino Rabbaa described the recent ride he took around downtown Santa Rosa with his 2½-year-old daughter.

"He asked me for $5. I gave him $10," he said.

By comparison, Rabbaa was recently in New York City, where a pedal-powered cab ride around Central Park ended up costing him $150.

Rabbaa, who is opening the restaurant Rendezvous downtown, said the bike cabs have the potential to catch on with tourists and couples out for a dinner date.

"I like the concept," he said, although he said it would be better if the drivers also pointed out some Santa Rosa history as they pedal around with their passengers.

The carriage-like seat can handle three adult passengers, or a couple with children, and is rated for a 600-pound load.

Rudolph said he's hauled as many as six adults at a time -- three guys with three girls on their laps -- from one bar to the next.

"I do this because it's fun, I get exercise and I enjoy meeting people," said the 38-year-old Rudolph. He also works as a dispatcher for a plumbing service and as a counselor at a group home for displaced teenagers.

He's taken passengers as far as Fulton Road on the outskirts of Santa Rosa and had one guy offer him $75 to take him to Rohnert Park at night, which he declined.

But the drivers have few qualms about sharing the road with cars.

"In evenings, the traffic is pretty light," said company owner Rutkowski, who also pedals one of the cabs.

He said he probably won't be operating in Healdsburg until the end of the year or early next year because he has to increase his insurance coverage to meet city requirements. He also must hire new drivers, who in turn need to pass a background check conducted by the Police Department.

City officials don't believe the pedal-powered cabs will provide competition for conventional taxis.

"It's a different enough form of taxi service; it won't take away from them. He won't take people at 2 in the morning to Dry Creek Road," said Healdsburg Councilman Gary Plass. "He's more of a sightseeing thing."

But Susan Graf, the owner of Healdsburg Taxi Co., isn't so sure.

"As much as I support green transportation, I would most certainly say it would hurt our business," Graf said.

"I can't imagine how they will make money," she added. "The reason I've struggled so much is I have to pay this insurance. It's prohibitive."

You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com.