Edwin Owusu, also known as S.I.N., was finishing a hip-hop gig downtown one night when he saw the late-model Mercedes-Benz with cab placards driving around.

He needed a ride home, so he flagged down the cab, which looked different from the other taxis that troll downtown late at night waiting for a fare.

“It was a Benz and that’s kind of cool, so I thought, ‘I’ll take a ride in that,’” Owusu said.

When he got in the taxi, cab owner and then-driver Charlie Herrick explained to Owusu why his cab was different. The Benz, it turned out, runs on biodiesel, offering passengers a more environmentally sound way of getting home.

Owusu liked the concept of GreenCab VT, Herrick’s fledgling business, and has become a regular customer. Owusu said he was “intrigued” by what Herrick was trying to do, plus GreenCab’s fares are lower than those of most taxi services in Burlington.

That’s just what Herrick likes to hear. Since there is no shortage of cabs in the area, Herrick will need more regulars drawn by his green concept and his affordable fares if he wants to stand out.

Herrick, 36, is a true citizen of the digital age. Just a couple of days after graduating from Princeton, Herrick took off on a multi-year surfing odyssey around the world. Since that kind of living doesn’t come cheap, Herrick supported himself and his adventures by working as a freelance Web master and code-writer.

Two years ago, he landed in Burlington, burned out on computers and wanting to start a business he could run himself. He calls GreenCab VT a “lightning bolt idea” that he and his fiancee, Elizabeth Keating, immediately became passionate about.

The idea of a sustainable taxi service is not a new one in this country. There are green cab options in San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., among other big cities. It seems only fitting that Vermont should have a similar enterprise, Herrick said.

Herrick, who used to buy old cars at auction to fix them up and sell them, had no problem finding a start-up vehicle. In February, he purchased a 1993 Mercedes that had been driven only 75,000 miles in 14 years by the elderly woman who owned it.

Since then, Herrick has slowly built up the business. He’s hired drivers and recently bought another car for the growing fleet — a low-speed electric car that will do non-highway runs only. Herrick said the company is looking to expand its offerings in the coming months to include hybrids and fuel cell cars.

“We want a diverse fleet of choices,” Herrick said.

Herrick’s company isn’t the only part of the region’s public transportation system to experiment with alternative fuels. The entire fleet of CCTA buses uses biofuels and a number of the University of Vermont buses are experimenting with compressed natural gas. Dan Bradley, transportation planner with the Burlington Department of Public Works said these initiatives are in line with the city’s transportation goals.

Bradley applauded Herrick’s efforts to make taxi service more environmentally sustainable. Having access to alternative forms of transportation like GreenCab VT will give people a choice of how to get from one place to the next. That could make the difference in whether a family has to buy a second vehicle, Bradley said.

Unfortunately, Herrick is starting his company at a time when there are not many incentives for green transpiration, and state and federal transportation support is lacking. But as more and more people look to public transportation to get around, the various governments will have to take notice, Bradley said.

Herrick said he is confident that once people come to know GreenCab VT as the reliable, green choice for taxi service, they will be customers’ first call. Already, Herrick has built up a stable of regulars like Owusu for whom the company’s environmental message is the primary reason for using GreenCab VT.

In the future, Herrick sees GreenCab VT’s becoming completely carbon neutral. Until then, Herrick is happy to be the only green taxi option in the region.

“We’ve been growing every day and we get more calls every day,” Herrick said.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080630/BUSINESS/80629007/1003