A new environment-friendly cab may make it easier to navigate through the crowds at Jack Trice Stadium during football season.

The pedal-powered taxi, called a pedicab, is the latest in a long line of human-powered devices made and operated by Jim Gregory of Ames.

Gregory, co-owner of Fresh Aire Delivery and Fresh Aire Trailer Works, said the pedicab got its start when a friend expressed frustration with traffic congestion around Jack Trice Stadium on football game days. Gregory said his friend suggested that the bike-powered taxis he had seen used in Asian countries might be a good idea for Ames.

Gregory said he did some research, came up with a design and built a prototype pedicab using recycled materials, including parts of three bicycles.

He has been testing the pedicab around town, with friends and neighbors near his home at 216 N. Hazel as his first passengers. Gregory said he has carried as many as five people on the pedicab at one time.

Pedicabs are not new to the United States, said Joan Stein, Gregory’s partner. They are in use in several cities such as Green Bay, Wis., where four of the bike-powered taxis are used for quick transportation through congested traffic at Green Bay Packers football games.

In Ashland, Ore., pedicabs are used for guided tours of the downtown historic district, where the operator provides a narrated tour of points of interest.

Stein said traffic congestion in Denver and Phoenix is often so great that pedicabs have been one of the few vehicles that could move passengers around quickly.

Gregory said that the bike-powered vehicles can transport cargo as well as passengers.

“One of the things we are working on now is a way to replace the bench seat with an insulated box that could be used to carry hot or cold foods,” Stein said.

Selling ice cream with the pedicab is a possibility, he said.

The pedicab is just one of a number of bike-based inventions Gregory and Stein have designed. They also use bicycles to tow aluminum trailers fitted with plastic containers around Ames and the ISU campus. The bicycle-powered rigs carry everything from recycled beverage cans from the residence halls to newspapers on the way to pickup locations all over campus.

In addition to the trailers, which are built to a design Gregory developed and now sells nationwide, Gregory has built and operated a bike-powered lawn mower and has constructed several alternative-design bicycles.

“I’ve always been interested in mechanical things,” Gregory said. “And I’ve always liked things that are simple. Bicycles seem like the perfect combination of the two.”