Dutch Cargo Bicycle

1. Rence
   May 29th, 2008 at 2:34 pm

   made by these guys:
   http://www.fietsfabriek.nl/

2. redphone
   May 29th, 2008 at 2:44 pm

   It seems like a good idea, but it takes some skill to balance those, especially with unpredictable children inside. In the event of an accident (even a minor oops where everyone falls over at low speed), those kids are not very well protected. (where-as in a safety approved covered trailer, there is frame protection and a layer of material to protect them from road rash.) There's also much less chance of a turn-over, even if the bike rider falls over.

3. SenorMysterioso
   May 29th, 2008 at 2:49 pm

   Seems like the kids in the pics can ride their own bike

4. webdiversions
   May 29th, 2008 at 2:50 pm

   oo i want one. that would be great for new york grocery shopping.

5. Honk
   May 29th, 2008 at 3:37 pm

   Over the last year, I've seen a fair amount of them around town (which, in my case, is Portland, OR). Usually the riders are either delivering food or carrying around their worldly goods. So far, I haven't seen any children in them (and I doubt I will any time soon).

   Probably not too common elsewhere given how much Portlanders love the bikes.

6. Little Green
   May 29th, 2008 at 3:45 pm

   we just spent some time in the Netherlands and every family, it seams, has one. My husband builds cargo bikes and I have two small children. Both fit in the front and the bike is very easy to ride. They have a stable center stand that keeps the bike upright when loading and unloading.
   pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/freakstorm/2518492335/
   This one is in partial stages of completion

7. Xinavera
   May 29th, 2008 at 3:54 pm

   It always gets me that the kids wear helmets (incorrectly in some cases) and the adults don't. It's great you're getting out and exercising with the kids, but let's set a good example while we're at it, eh?

8. Fritz
   May 29th, 2008 at 6:32 pm

   Lot of things you can do with a bike ,I tow a rowing shell with mine

   http://farm1.static.flickr.com/17/21313717_aadefea7fc.jpg?v=0

9. Herb Robert
   May 29th, 2008 at 6:57 pm

   Here in New Westminster, BC, one of the street people modded a shopping cart into a trailer for his mountain bike. He cut off the under carriage, turned it backwards, added two 12 inch wheels-and-axle and a hockey stick for a tongue (attaching to his seat post). Ideal for hauling recyclables or all your worldly goods. The hockey stick is a nice Canadian touch I thought.

10. Zeytoun
    May 30th, 2008 at 1:20 am

    General safety nannies and helmet Nazis:
    Are more interested in the illusion of safety than real safety numbers. Check out Netherlands fatality and injury while biking numbers.

    Realize that the dutch do not wear helmets.

    Then get a life.

    The leading cause of death of American children is car accidents.

11. K!P
    May 30th, 2008 at 2:31 am

    there was a study somewhere that if you wear a helmet cars will pass you closer.

    also: for the stabilaty: tehre are also (more common in the Netherlands)3 wheeled variants. Google images for the word: "bakfiets" for examples.

12. Amazone
    May 30th, 2008 at 3:48 am

    What Zeytoun and K!p say. Yes, I'm a Dutch Amsterdammer, and this is the best way around town with kids and groceries (quicker than by car, no parking fees, you don't poison yourself and others) and you don't have to worry about the gas prices.
    Plus contrary to the picture: most kids in the bakfietsen don't wear helmets: it would give them the idea that cycling is dangerous more than fun.

13. Demos
    May 30th, 2008 at 6:42 am

    Of course, in Holland the traffic is used to lots of cyclists. So altough you only see small kids wearing helmets in Holland (because they tend to, you know, fall over a bit more), in an environment where cycling is less common (say, the US of A), using helmets is much more advisable.
    Then again: to each their own..

14. Morgan
    May 30th, 2008 at 12:43 pm

    What ever happened to kids walking to and from school? When I went, we had a group of the neighbourhood kids walk together. Parents are allowing children to get way to lazy. I can't even count the amount of parents I see parked out front of the schools to pick their kids up, then drive them home, which is around the corner or up the street.

15. Fumbata
    May 31st, 2008 at 6:39 am

    I'm an American who grew up in suburban Pennsylvania. I had my first car (a big fat pickup farm truck) when I was 15 years old. Later I moved to Atlanta, where it is difficult to do anything without a car.

    I've lived in Amsterdam, Netherlands for the last two years, and I have driven a car a grand total of 3 times since I've been here! I have a old rusty single-gear bicycle with a milk crate strapped to the front (for the dog to ride in) -it's the poor man's Bakfiet.

    I'm absolutely in love with the Dutch cycling culture, and I wish it would take hold in more places around the world. Dutch people in general are fit, happy, and healthy, and I attribute a lot of that to riding bicycles instead of driving cars. I think there are basically 3 reasons why it works:

    1. Dutch people have bicycling in their blood. Kids learn to ride bicycles just after they learn to walk (small wooden balance-bikes with no pedals). To this da, the Dutch are still pissed that the german occupants stole their bikes at the end of WW2 (never mind all the other Nazi atrocities!)

    2. Lawmakers prioritize in this order: people, bikes, and THEN cars. There are just as many bike paths in this country as there are roads. Most urban centers do not allow cars at all. Parking is a nice to have, not a must have. (In contrast, in Atlanta several downtown bars were shut down a few years ago because they did not have the legally required amount of parking spaces - where's the logic in that?!)

    3. As Zeytoun so aggresively mentioned, they keep bicycling fun and accessable to all. No helmets required, no fancy $1000 mountain bikes, no lycra shorts. Anything that even barely resembles a working bicycle is perfectly acceptable, and anyone is welcome to join in.

    So maybe that's the recipe: more bikes for a healthier, happier population. Wouldn't it be nice if more cities/countries had the same approach?

16. Pol x
    May 31st, 2008 at 7:48 am

    I remember the one time I went to Amsterdam, there was a barge dredging the canals, the cargo bay was a giant heap of dead bikes.

    All the giant Dutch sit up and beg type.

    I loved amsterdam for the bike culture, but i did no cycling.

    I was in Denmark and cycled an almost identical bike from Helsingor to Copenhagen, which as much as I love them old style bikes was bloody hard work, they weigh a ton.

    In DK the priority is as Fumbata said about Holland, people bikes cars.

    There's a law that states if you in a car bang into a cyclist it is automatically your fault.

    The emphasis is that if you are driving a car you are in charge of a deadly weapon and so should duisplay greater care.

    which is absolutely bang on.

17. Dave
    May 31st, 2008 at 10:57 am

    A couple of factors that Fumbata forgot to mention in regard to the popularity of bikes in the Netherlands; the climate is relatively temperate, and the terrain in much of the country is very flat. If I lived in a place where the roads weren't covered in ice three months of the year, didn't have to deal with hilly terrain, and was able to get to work without smelling like a horse in the summer, I'd definitely ride a bike most of the time.

    As it is, I can accomplish bike commutes about half the time total, but the weather & terrain in the upper midwest just don't work in your favor. I'm guessing that's also the case in much of the rest of the US, although having an infrastructure built around a biking mindset would certainly help.

18. David Hembrow
    September 15th, 2008 at 3:51 pm

    There are a few misconceptions here. The photo was taken in England, hence the helmets. You only very rarely see kids wearing helmets on bikes here. The same goes for adults unless they're racing.

    The bikes in the picture look more like the ones made by http://www.bakfiets.nl than the fietfabriek model (there are quite a lot of manufacturers in competition for this market). They handle well and are very stable to ride.

    Kids do cycle and walk to school. It looks like this: http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=2n_znwWroGM

    As for temperate... It was -6 C ( 21 F ) for several days last winter and no-one stopped riding, and it hit 35 C ( 95 F ) in the summer this year, and that just meant that the bikes were ridden to the beach. And hills ? Having ridden in hilly places and here, I can assure you that the mighty headwinds that you get in a flat country are much worse than hills. You don't get to go back down the other side of a headwind. Note also that levels of cycling in Switzerland are significantly higher than the US or UK. Switzerland is anything but flat.

    And how much are bikes ridden here ? Well, in this city the average person makes 1.2 cycle journeys per day.

19. tracey
    April 6th, 2009 at 3:51 pm

    Hi, these bikes are great, i just got myself one imported from a company in the netherlands whom sell and deliver these for around $2000, I use it to go to central park and drop my little pride and joy at the playground!.

20. Missy
    April 21st, 2009 at 10:32 pm

    Where did you get yours?, I have been looking for a Bakfiets for a wile but so far all i have been able to find are ones with a $3000 pricetag?

21. Tracey
    April 28th, 2009 at 9:18 am

    Hi missy, their website http://www.doubledutchbikes.com

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