Fifteen-Passenger 'Pedicycle' Helps Burns Calories Between Bar Hops
By John McDevitt PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It's been in Philly for a few months and turning a lot heads.
It's a 15-passenger, open-air tour bus of sorts, where pedal power gets you to popular pubs and historic sites.
The contraption is known as a pedicycle. It has four wheels and a roof, but most of passenger seating is on bicycle seats complete with pedals, which participants move to the beat of the music as they make their way along the streets of Old City and center city.
Recently in Old City, Sheldon Lovelace (below) got a bunch of friends together for a pub crawl.
"People were smiling, people were taking pictures, we loved it all around," he said. "We had a great time."
"We do both historic tours and pub crawls, so during the day we hit all of the historic sites around Independence Mall and Old City, and at night we go on pub crawls -- we hit four bars in two hours," says Jessica Tischer, general manager of Big Red Pedal Tours.
Tischer says there is a guide on board and a driver who is able to turn on the motor when needed.
"It's an assist motor only, so if we absolutely need to help out -- up the hill, or if people get tired -- we can do that also. It's not supposed to be super-strenuous exercise. It's fun," Tischer added.
Hear the expanded story in this CBS Philly podcast (runs 5:50)...
Pedicycle Tours
