{"id":13448,"date":"2012-04-10T00:05:57","date_gmt":"2012-04-10T07:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=13448"},"modified":"2012-04-10T00:05:57","modified_gmt":"2012-04-10T07:05:57","slug":"pedal-pushers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/13448","title":{"rendered":"pedal pushers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tOuch! <\/em><\/p>\n

That\u2019s me, wincing from the sting of rising gas prices. Shipping costs are a big part of my business. Have you seen the bumper sticker that says, \u201cIf you\u2019ve got it, a trucker brought it?\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So, we ALL feel it.<\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019re driving to work every day, working as a truck driver, ferrying kids to school, or just running to the grocery store, I bet you dread looking down at the gas gauge.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s enough complaining.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to look for alternatives, new ideas \u2026<\/p>\n

Or maybe an old one?<\/p>\n

Long before there were gas-guzzling vehicles on the road, there was the miracle of human muscle power, and it gave a whole new meaning to \u201cget \u2018er done\u201d!<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the kind of go-for-it gumption that inspired Ruthy Woodring and Alex Jarrett<\/a>, a couple of motivated Massachusetts youngsters, to put the pedal to the metal.<\/p>\n

Or, rather, the pedal to the pavement \u2026<\/p>\n

The rumps to the road?<\/p>\n

Well, anyway, Woodring and Jarrett started a bicycle hauling service called Pedal People<\/a> in 2002.<\/p>\n

The gist: Pedal People Cooperative Inc. is a worker-owned and human-powered delivery and hauling service for items under 300 pounds in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is operated by 13 active workers<\/a> who haul recycling, trash, and groceries as well as furniture, computers, cats, friends, laundry, lumber, windows, memorial stones, refrigerators, solar panels, CSA shares<\/a>, trees stumps, leaves, compost, and more\u2014and they do it year round.<\/p>\n

Love it!<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re in the Northampton area, their website<\/a> answers questions about delivery, and it also offers smart suggestions for reducing waste<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Luckily for the rest of us, the human-powered delivery service concept is catching. Here are a few others I found around the country:<\/p>\n

Bikes at Work <\/a>in Ames, IA<\/p>\n

HD Hauling and Delivery<\/a> in Ann Arbor, MI<\/p>\n

The Pedal Co-op<\/a> in Philadelphia, PA<\/p>\n

Move by Bike<\/a> in Portland, OR<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t have one near you, keep your eyes open\u2014this is just the beginning of a terrific trend.<\/p>\n

Of course, you could always get out there and start one yourself \u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, Move by Bike in Portland, OR.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ouch! That\u2019s me, wincing from the sting of rising gas prices. Shipping costs are a big part of my business. Have you seen the bumper sticker that says, \u201cIf you\u2019ve got it, a trucker brought it?\u201d Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[275,385],"class_list":["post-13448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gratitude","tag-environment","tag-gratitude-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}