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Bend's
First Bike Courier Braves Snow, Terrain
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BY ETHAN LINDSEY
OPB News, February 9, 2009
Forecasters expect snow in Bend.
Many in town are ready to celebrate – this mostly-sunny winter has been
a tough one for skiers and snow afficianados.
But at least one Bend resident wants the 50 degrees and clear skies to
stick around.
Central Oregon correspondent Ethan Lindsey rode along with Bend’s first
bike messenger.
He’s an eco advocate who makes most of his money picking up compost
deliveries.
Daniel Brewster: “Alright. Hi, I’m Daniel Brewster, I’m the owner
of Cascade Couriers and we are a bike-powered delivery service in Bend
Oregon. If someone was driving around or visiting Bend they would
notice me...Let’s start that again...I would be the guy pulling the
8-foot trailer behind me.”
Daniel Brewster: “Last year there was a week where there was 6 to 8
inches of snow on the ground, and they hadn’t plowed it. And bike lanes
were just a mess and it was just a struggle to stay upright.”
Daniel Brewster: “I basically split the city up into four quadrants,
and then I just do the compost route and combine it with Sweet Peas
diaper service, I combine it with her deliveries. So today is downtown,
by far the easiest of all the routes. It’s all flat and I have the most
compost customers.”
Daniel Brewster: “On the board there, I have all my customers listed,
and so I have it split up into weeks. This week is red week, so I’ve
got like 7 stops. What we’re going to be doing is all composting, we
have one diaper drop, but everything else is picking up food waste.”
Daniel Brewster: “It’s $7 a month. I tried to keep it so that people
wouldn’t say ‘well, we’re getting it picked up by the garbage company
for free right now, why should we pay a lot for it?’. I feel like $7 is
a cup of coffee and a cookie or something. It’s a good deal.”
Daniel Brewster: “So right now, this is a bucket that I provide, its 3
gallons and I am going to just dump it into my 18 gallon bins on the
trailer.”
Daniel Brewster: “Bend is kind of an anomaly. There is a lot of
recreational cyclists. There are a fair amount of bike commuters, but
it’s not like Portland or Eugene. It’s usually people riding for fun,
and not for getting around.”
Daniel Brewster: “For the most part people are pretty cool. Just about
everyone of them waves or smiles. People see you pulling an eight foot
trailer with snow on the ground, and it makes you think a bit more
about what bikes can do.”
Daniel Brewster: “Maybe someone sees me pulling four hundred pounds
through the snow, and the next trip to the grocery stuff they think,
‘Hey, I can take my bike. It’s alright.’”
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