“There are so many ways to get from point A to point B, and we chose the one that is most unfamiliar to the public.” Christoph Herby is describing the counter-cultural move that led him and business partner Ian Ayers to start Happy Rickshaw, their campus-area business, after a few years as competitive road cyclists.
After graduating from UVA, each earned Division III professional cycling contracts racing for Colavita/Sutter Home and Rite Aid-sponsored teams. Two years of globe trotting was enough, so they decided to come back and set up shop. “Bikes bring out the child in you,” says Herby. “You go outside and smile at people.” To which Ayer interrupts, “Oh yeah, it’s hard not to be happy when you are on a rickshaw.”
“We actually don’t do it for the money,” says Herby. “It’s for the pleasure of riding.”
Happy Rickshaw’s 20 drivers serve the UVA area and Downtown most weekends, including football weekends. These specialized three-wheel machines are bikes, and, like their two-wheel counterparts, they have to put safety first when they encounter narrow or nonexistent bike lanes.
 For a non-New York-taxi price, Christoph Herby (left) and Ian Ayers’ rickshaws serve the UVA area and Downtown most weekends. |
“We train our drivers,” says Herby. “But rickshaws move at a human pace. You can only go as fast as people can pedal.”
On a typical night between about 8pm to approximately 2am, a driver can make $16 an hour, more or less. Fares range from $2 to $7 per person, based, according to Happy Rickshaw’s website, on “many factors: how far, number of passengers, how much time it takes, the service demand, up/down hill, driver mood.”
Driver mood? “Yes,” says Ayers. “Riding a rickshaw is a hard thing.”
