Pedal-Powered Rides in Park : Sunshine Pedicab Co. Set to Roll

More Sunshine is set to roll into Balboa Park today when the park’s only “pedicab” company recommences seven-day-a-week summer service.

The Sunshine Pedicab Co., which is expanding service from weekends-only the rest of the year, will operate seven vehicles--half bicycle, half rickshaw--to carry passengers to all parts of the park. They join a perambulating fleet of bicyclists, skateboarders, strollers, a mini-train and a tram.

The shiny yellow pedicabs begin their eighth summer in San Diego with about 40 pedalers, most of them college students. Sunshine also begins this summer with a plan to start running three more cabs in Mission Beach’s Seaport Village during concerts, said manager Chris Herb.

Herb, 21, a junior at San Diego State University and a former driver himself, is beginning his second year maintaining all 10 of the company’s 160-pound, fiberglass and steel vehicles. The company is owned by Steve Clark.

Last year the pedicab season almost didn’t happen. In April, 1987, Sunshine found it couldn’t afford the higher premiums on its city-required $1-million insurance policy. But a broker rescued Sunshine by finding a policy with affordable premiums. Since then, Sunshine has switched insurance companies twice. But, through all the changes, its pedicabs were stationary for just one week last spring.

In its eight years of business, Sunshine’s pedicabs had not been involved in a single accident, Herb said.

Most of the drivers are shorts- and T-shirt-clad college students, while others are young people who want to exercise and earn extra money at the same. The drivers rent the pedicabs from Sunshine for about $40 per five-hour shift, generally netting $35 to $60 a shift.

Drew Peloso, a soccer player and recent graduate of UC San Diego, said he earns $2 per 5 minutes--the going rate--for tours around the park.

“It’s really interesting, and I meet a lot of nice people,” Peloso said. Although he was apprehensive about the job, he said he enjoys persuading people that they are not too heavy for his two-seat cart that can carry up to four.

The pedicabs run from 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., except in bad weather.