RHINEBECK - Mark Dixon takes it in stride when passing motorists express their annoyance at sharing the road with his "human powered vehicle," a custom-built, patent-pending Kid Cab Trike.
"I laugh at them all," he said, chuckling. "They need two tons and a big engine to move them around. I've got a hundred-pound vehicle and me."
Dixon, 46, has been turning heads this summer as he shuttles his two children around town. Every afternoon, he made a 15-mile round trip to pick up Cole, 5, from daycare, and Chloe, 7, from camp.
"I get a lot of attention, most of it positive," Dixon said, although he gots a lot of strange looks, too.
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"It was the first time I had a serious injury," Dixon said. "I could barely move. I could barely walk."
Dixon said he wasn't able to walk again until the end of that summer, and his back was still sensitive through the winter. He reinjured his back in March 2006 while skiing at Whistler, British Columbia.
Dixon said he resolved to make a better effort at staying in shape during his eight-week recovery, encouraged by his doctor. When his wife gave him a "kid trailer" that attached to his bicycle that spring, she didn't expect him to use it to pick the kids up from school, but that's what he did. It was a great way to combine exercise with his parenting responsibilities, Dixon said, but there was one problem.
"They outgrew it in one season," he said. "Since I knew the kids were too big for the trailer by the end of summer 2006, I began researching alternatives over the winter."
Preparing for 2007, Dixon researched possibilities for a custom vehicle, and hooked up with a small manufacturer in Tallahassee, Fla., called Organic Engines. The company, run by bike builder Daniel Kavanagh, has a line of simple, lightweight bikes that Kavanagh calls SUVs, or "sensible utility vehicles." After first researching pedicabs, Dixon decided that they were not quite what he needed - they were heavy, making hauling the children up and down hills a tricky proposition, and expensive, costing around $3,500.
Putting his engineering skills to the test, Dixon designed a lighter, cheaper variant and called it the Kid Cab Trike. He sent his designs to Kavanagh, then bought an old sewing machine and crafted the sides and seat of the cab himself. The resulting vehicle cost close to $2,000, he said.
After two summers of toting his children around town in the Trike, Dixon said he's in the best shape of his life. "It's physically transformed me," he said.
"If more people did this, the country would have less health problems," he said.
Dixon believes that if more people eliminated one automobile trip per day by walking or riding a bike, the country could go a long way toward reducing energy and health care costs.
"Most people want to just start the engine, push the pedal and go," he said. "Doing things with extra effort isn't exactly the American way."
Dixon admits that his vehicle can't quite replace an automobile. For work, he often has to travel long distances, and he uses a car. When triking, he tries to keep to back roads and avoid highways, and has yellow flashing lights on the top of the cab for use when he's around traffic. The Kid Cab Trike is a fair-weather vehicle, not suited for winter use. If it rains, he gets wet, but the kids stay dry in the cab.
"It's definitely not the do-all vehicle," he said, "but the more I use it the better."
Dixon expects to use the trike to transport his children for another summer, at least. He's encouraging his daughter to ride her own bicycle, and expects to eventually transition to hauling groceries. He has a patent pending for the vehicle, but doesn't plan to quit his day job.
"I don't have any big aspirations as a moneymaker," he said. "I just want to put the idea out there."
