It's hard to miss Benton Stone as he rides around downtown Kansas City on an electric bike hooked up to a bright yellow pedicab, covered with a green, knitted awning.
On this mild Wednesday afternoon in June, his open-air cab includes green hearts and flags that represent the different countries playing in the World Cup, and music blares from a set of the speakers — he's a one-man party on wheels.
"Would you like a ride?" Stone asks a group of four Dutch fans, dressed head-to-toe in orange, near Union Station.
They agree, and are whisked away on a swift, breezy ride to the Power and Light District.
"It's good — it's going fast," says Sandra Tatga, who is visiting Kansas City with friends to attend a group-stage match between the Netherlands and Tunisia, at the temporarily-renamed Kansas City Stadium.
"So we don't have to walk," she says, holding on to her bright orange cowboy hat as Stone zips easily up Main Street.
As they make their way up the hill, Stone asks a question he's posed to every World Cup visitor he's met: "What do you say for, 'go team?'"
"Hup, Holland, Hup!" Tatga and her friends respond with laughter, delighted by the question.
Stone repeats the phrase a few times and, soon, they've arrived at Power and Light. The Dutch group leaves Stone with a small token of appreciation: a keychain of orange clogs.
It's just the kind of interaction Stone has been reveling in this summer as a driver for the Kansas City company EZ Pedicabs. He says it's akin to joyriding for him — a chance to meet new people, introduce them to Kansas City and practice his Spanish a little.
"Being on the bike is like this fun way that I get to hang out with people, and kind of just get a bite-sized dose of their night, over and over and over again," he says.
Throughout the World Cup, these pedicabs have offered scores of visitors another mode of transportation, adding to the existing streetcar line and regional public transportation network, which has struggled at times to handle the influx of tourists.
"Being on the bike, it's like being an ambassador for the United States and being an ambassador for Kansas City," Stone says as he heads back south toward the FIFA Fan Festival.
"And it's just fun," he says. "I mean, once you ride, you can't imagine not riding."
A part of World Cup transportation
Atticus Sloan and Mark Manning co-founded EZ Pedicabs in 2024. The idea came to Sloan as he was researching how to better transport his 12-year-old Great Dane around. In the process, he learned more about electric bikes and pedicabs.
Inspiration also came from riding in pedicabs at music festivals in other cities and countries. And in San Diego, Sloan saw that pedicabs were an integral transportation option.
"It kind of became a realization that this wouldn't just be a travel, festival, fun side hustle. It could be something important for Kansas City," he remembers.
Sloan started by studying downtown traffic and determining service rates — $10 for a 10-minute ride, and $15 for 15 minutes — plus group and tour rates.
After that, EZ Pedicabs started rolling, with two pedicabs and a wagon called the "boom mobile." Soon, the fleet grew to four cabs, and in 2025 the company won the $35,000 grand prize in the AtlCap Your Biz Pitch Competition.
"It was well embraced when we first landed," Sloan says.
With the money, EZ Pedicabs expanded its fleet, hired more drivers, and relocated to a garage space in the Westside, off Southwest Boulevard. They've also launched advertising partnerships with the local marketplace in Union Station called City of Entrepreneurs, and Swade Cannabis dispensaries.
Sloan knew the World Cup would be a chance for EZ Pedicabs to shine, so they recently hired more drivers to ensure visitors could catch a ride any time day or night. The Pedicabs have a 10- to 15-mile radius, and the pedal-assisted electric bikes allow drivers to zip down bike lanes and streets, bypassing traffic.
Riders can get a ride as far north as the Berkley Riverfront and CPKC Stadium, south to the Country Club Plaza, west to the West Bottoms, and east to the 18th and Vine District.
"It was always part of the plan to be a big part of the transportation — a support for this influx of people," Sloan says.
'Fun and memorable'
Sloan's pedicabs look more colorful than usual for the World Cup. Ribbons of lights are wrapped around each bike and cab, and the top of each cab is covered by a hand-knit awning decorated with hearts made by Sloan's mother.
"We want to celebrate everybody that's here with this tournament and highlight those colors and make them feel at home," Sloan says.
Since the tournament kicked off, Sloan says many riders are giving people a quick lift uphill from Union Station to the entrance of the Fan Festival, at Main Street and Memorial Drive, which can become a long walk in the summer heat.
"If you're coming from other areas, it's even further," Sloan says. "So a lot of people have realized that there's value in just the ride alone. But it's also a fun and memorable experience, because you're getting a cool breeze when you ride around, you're playing music."
With the streetcar expansion to the riverfront and the Plaza, and including existing public transit options, Sloan now sees EZ Pedicabs as another part of the city's transportation network.
"We just want to be another reliable and convenient service that they can call," he says, noting pedicabs' ability to bridge the east-west divide in Kansas City.
"As we know, most of those busses, streetcars only go north-south. So people are coming from different areas, and are having to walk to those things," Sloan says. "Now they have the option, they don't have to (walk) at all, because we can be door-to-door — the last-mile transportation option."
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