George Bliss (pedicab designer)
George Bliss is a bicycle designer living, working and teaching in Manhattan, New York City. He has taught bike frame welding at Parsons The New School for Design. Bliss coined the term "Critical Mass" in the Ted White documentary Return of the Scorcher (1992) to describe the way cars, bicycles and pedestrians negotiate uncontrolled busy intersections in China.
He pioneered the niche industry in Manhattan, specifically custom designed freight bicycles including the Dump Trike and the smaller Pick-Up Trike and pedicabs. From 1995 to 2005, George owned and operated a pedicab rental business (The Hub Station) in SoHo. The business also sold and repaired recumbent bicycles, folding bicycles, electric bicycles, kick scooters and Xootrs with electric motors attached.
Later he opened a traditional bike store in the West Village, near the Hudson River Greenway. As of 2011, HUB, (Hudson Urban Bicycles) offers sales, repairs and rentals.
References
- Thomas Beller's article in Slate
- Bicycle Chic Gains Speed The New York Times
- Transportation: Quadriceps for Hire New York Magazine
- Three-wheelin': pedicabs make inroads on city streets Columbia
- Additional Uses for Freight Cycles Transportation Alternatives
- Not fare, says bike taxi owner forced to sell fleet Downtown Express
- Tricycles the answer to NYC gridlock? The Christian Science Monitor
- HUB blog