The KC transportation company upping their game for the World Cup
When visitors from around the world descend upon Kansas City for the 2026 FIFA World Cup this summer, the streets will be bustling with people seeking to take in all the city has to offer.
And they’ll all need transportation to get around town.
As the smallest World Cup host city out of the 16 in North America, KC’s public transportation infrastructure looks fairly different from others, like L.A., New York/New Jersey and Boston. KC officials have a plan of action for how to get people around the city efficiently. Completing the KC Streetcar route down Main Street was a major hurdle recently cleared. Plus, the city also added about 200 more buses to their bus fleet to transport people to watch parties and to Arrowhead for the four matches slated to take place in June.
Coupling the city’s plan for transportation with regular rideshare options such as Uber and Lyft, there may still be some gaps, or at the very least, traffic might be a challenge.
Enter E-Z Pedicabs.
The local pedicab service, which was started in 2024 by Atticus Sloan and Mark Madden, offers an environmentally friendly, traffic-evading mode of transportation. It wants to be a go–to option this summer for traffic-weary travelers to get around the city.
A pedicab is exactly as it sounds: a cab with pedals. Except these bikes are motorized, can reach speeds of up to 30 mph, have three wheels, and seat up to 6 people.
And because the cabs are technically still bikes, they can use the many bike lanes around the metro. That, combined with feeling the wind in your hair and taking in the sights of the city, make these vehicles not a bad option to beat traffic and get where you need to be before kickoff.
The start of the pedicab company
The idea for E-Z Pedicabs came after a trip to the Bonnaroo Music Festival in San Diego in 2024, where Sloan took his first ride in a pedicab.
“It was a great experience. It allowed us to get around pretty easily and it seemed like a fun, sort of dream job just to go have fun riding around at a music festival,” said Sloan.
Initially, Sloan thought he’d take a couple of bikes and go to music festivals as a potential hustle. But he quickly realized there was a need for pedicabs in Kansas City, and started the company soon after.
“[Downtown] there’s a need for transportation and we’re happy to be able to fill that gap,” said Sloan.
Riders can expect to see the city in all its glory on a ride in the back of the pedicabs, especially if they frequent any spots to the east or west of downtown, areas that the streetcar doesn’t currently traverse.
“We’ve found ourselves becoming very complimentary to the streetcar,” Manning explained. ”The way the city is laid out, (there are places) that are almost too far to walk to, but too close to drive to. We pull up to these events and people see us and say, ‘Oh! Perfect.’” .
After starting the company with just two cabs, E-Z Pedicabs is now upgrading to eight cabs this spring, and will begin training a new crew of riders to account for the anticipated increase in demand for their services around the World Cup. They plan to ride all day and night.
The pedicabs come prebuilt without customizations, but can take a long time to make. And they’re easy to spot around town, with each cab sporting bright lights covering the vehicle at night and brightly colored homemade awnings during the day, handstitched by Sloan’s own mother.
“We’re excited about the visiting countries coming, so we’re going to do some feature awnings, highlighting the colors of their flags,” Sloan added.
‘Once in a lifetime opportunity’
Kansas City is already becoming a World Cup destination. Three teams ranked in the top 7 by FIFA — Argentina, England and the Netherlands — are set to make base camps in KC for the duration of the tournament, in part because of the metro’s centralized location.
And while KC is no stranger to hosting large events — coming off of several recent Super Bowl appearances and parades, the Big 12 basketball tournament, music festivals and more — the World Cup this summer is expected to reach another scale entirely.
With 650,000 visitors predicted to flood KC, according to VisitKC, a large number of those are expected to come from outside the United States, where similar modes of transportation are more prevalent.
Manning said he’s looking forward to debunking the stereotype of this country’s — and city’s — dependence on cars.
“These are very similar to tuk-tuks or rickshaws that are ubiquitous in other countries, so it’ll be fun to show them our version of this,” Manning said.
“It’s going to be a huge, once in a generation, once in a lifetime opportunity to really showcase the city to the world.”
This story was originally published February 22, 2026 at 6:00 AM.
