Pedicabs, Bikes, EVs, Matty Green
What is a Pedicab?
It's a pedal powered people mover, often an adult-version tricycle, aka a trike. As a passenger, you'll step up under a canopy and relax on a padded bench with a back rest. My model can comfortably hold 2-3 people, with a maximum cargo load of approximately 550 lbs. To make this possible in windy and hilly Hood River I've got an electric-assist motor system that will lift us up to The Heights and speed us along at up to 20 mph on flat sections.
OUr Credo
Hood River Pedicab, EV Taxi & Delivery is here to offer locals and tourists alike novel, low carbon, and affordable transportation solutions. We were born from the rapidly progressing e-bike and electric vehicle industries and the rising desire of our community to lessen environmental impacts, reduce congestion, and have more fun moving about town. We are ready to deliver you and/or your goods into a greener future with our solar photovoltaic-generated, electric-assist RadBurro cargo trikes, manufactured by Rad Power Bikes of Seattle and a Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid minivan. Our pedaling/driving team and trikes/vehicles are permitted by the City of Hood River, fully insured, and committed to passenger safety and enjoyment.
My Story
My name is Matthew Barmann, aka Matty Green. I’ve lived in Hood River with my now ex-wife, Nicole, and kids, Jonah and Paikea, since 2014. We’re avid gardeners, bikers, boarders, boaters, natural/cultural adventure seekers, and community-minded folks. Love of nature and pedal power were imprinted on me growing up next to the ocean and a beach bike path in southern California. Having the opportunity to travel in my youth exposed me to the utility, ubiquity, and importance of human-powered transportation in much of the world.
A taste for the Pacific Northwest began with my college experience at Humboldt State University, studying natural history/ecology and appropriate technology behind the Redwood curtain of northern California. At Humboldt I was a live-in co-director at a campus demonstration home for ecological living (CCAT) and founded a bicycle maintenance cooperative. Summers I worked as a bike messenger in San Francisco or conversely, in the wilds of Alaska and the Klamath Mountains. Peak adventures during this time included bike touring down the Oregon and California coasts, and hopping freight trains around the PNW, Kerouac-style. My greater-than-fiction name, Matty Green, came to me then.
Post graduation I biked around dusty West African villages as an agricultural Peace Corps volunteer in Mali. Much of my professional career I’ve worked for federal land management agencies as a botanist and restoration ecologist, most recently at Yosemite National Park. I have a masters degree from Oregon State University in botany. Corvallis was where I first encountered and was inspired by a pedicab business.
After moving all over the Western US for much of my adult life I’m happy to say that we’re here to stay in the Gorge for a good long time. I look forward to serving the community on many levels and evolving into a pedal-powered garden/landscaping/botany, permaculture/sustainability practitioner and consultant in the not-too-distant future.