Brandon Breitkreuz defies the stereotype that Albertans don’t care about the environment.

A Fort McMurray resident for the last decade, Breitkreuz is in his third year operating an eco-bike taxi business. His vehicle is a modified pedal bike he uses to get weekend partiers home safely at night.

His main goal, however, is to promote eco-awareness and cycling as transportation within the community.

This interview has been edited and condensed for space and clarity. Our last community profile can be read here.

Why did you decide to start this eco-bike taxi business?

Just to promote and make an effort to give members of the community an economical consumer choice for transportation. And it’s fun of course.

How does your system work?

I don’t really have set system. It’s my side-job. I work on Friday and Saturday nights if I’m not on night-shift already. At around 10 p.m. I sit in front of the pubs and wait for customers. At special events I will head downtown. On the Syne they’ve had some night parties at the railcar museum.

Most of the time I stay uptown and serve the nightlife. My route right now; I’ll go from East Village Pub to about Black Horse and that’s where I cut off. But I do everything in between — Timberlea, Heritage, Dickinsfield, Thickwood.

I have responded if people message me on Facebook. If they’ve got a huge birthday party, or I did a wedding last year, which was pretty neat.

In the future this summer — I haven’t talked to them about it yet — but I would like to go to the Rotary house, a live-in centre for the elderly, and take them out on rides down to the Snye.

I’m usually for hire when they see me. I’m limited for how far I can go. I can make a pretty good mile for my customers, but I’m not going from downtown to uptown or vice versa.

You obviously love to cycle. Where did your love of cycling begin?

I do like to cycle. I biked this past winter all the way down to Mexico from Fort McMurray. I took six months off. I biked all the way Tijuana, which was fun. I lived on my bike for six months.

My love of cycling grew out of a natural concern about my waste — my consumption. I bought a cheap bike and I started biking to work every day. Now I have a half-dozen bikes.

I do enjoy cycling, but my love of it came from the environmentalist in me. I’m just making an effort. I don’t wanna come off as snooty or tell people not to drive, I just think we can be making a better effort and I’m going to try to make that effort.

One of the most rewarding things, my first customer told me he had such a fun time when I took him that he went and bought a bike, and he’d been riding it quite a bit. I took some joy and satisfaction when he told me that.

Being eco-friendly is one of your values. What are your favourite ways to be green?

That’s the biggest one — number one is I don’t drive. If I’m firing up a vehicle, I’m really thinking about it.

And my personal consumption, I don’t buy convenience. Anything that’s convenience or plastic. Convenience coffees, convenience foods, I like to not do that stuff. I make my coffee at my house.

For my clothes purchases, I try to buy Canadian-made clothes. That’s extreme, but I feel that’s what I need to do for my own mental well-being.

What are some simple ways people can alter their own bicycles to be more useful on a daily basis?

I’ve installed racks on a lot of my bikes that you can hang bags from. I go get my groceries on my bike. I’m a big proponent of fat-wheel bikes for a city like Fort McMurray. They’re a good utility bike for carrying cargo.

We tend to feel invisible in our vehicles. Are shy customers ever worried they would be too “visible” being pulled around by a slower-moving bicycle in traffic?

No, nobody told me that. When I’m operating at night, I start at 10 and it’s pretty quiet. I stick to the residential roads.

Usually at night, people love being seen in it. They’re having good time, it’s their evening out. I do see people home, but a lot of people come out for a smoke break will just come out and go for a ride, and I’ll take them around the block.

Besides being easier on the planet, what are some of the other benefits of choosing a bike taxi over driving?

I’ve got good music. It’s open air. June is a really nice month here coming up. There’s long evenings, so the sun doesn’t really go down. When I take people in the summer, it’s just a really nice ride, quiet and enjoyable.

I wish I started writing down all the things people say in the back of it. One of the best things I hear is, ‘This is one of the funnest things I’ve done in Fort McMurray.’ I get that quite a bit.

I find usually the ladies like to go more than the guys. I know they’re timid to get in there, but once they do they have fun. When ladies are out together, they always want to take it — they’re always up for fun.