I’m at the stage in my life where the possibility of having kids is quite real. It takes a lot of planning for me to get into “big projects” and kids are the biggest project of all. So I’ve put some thought into a few things like how to do groceries for a family and how to get places with a child in tow without owning a car. Though I’m still up in the air on whether to even have a child, if the situation arose I have decided that I would buy a trike bike. But the only ones I ever see are the old-school models which old men ride around on collecting empty beer bottles.
Well, I discovered this trike beauty called Trix (photo above). It is made by a company called The Product Group. It took first place at the 10th annual International Bicycle Design Competition in Taipei, Taiwan. It would be great to see people using these all over the city, or even courier companies and restaurants that do deliveries.
Another innovation (completely unrelated to having a kid) is a hydrogen fuel cell unicycle called the Embrio One-Wheel Concept developed by Bombardier. While not human-powered, it is something that could be of personal use in dense urban centres. Obviously, we’d experience similar boundary-pushing incidents like we have for pocket bikes and Segways. But the most practical use of this contraption would be in the business world at large facilities, I would assume. But with gas prices hitting $1.10 a litre who knows what our transportation future holds.
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Velo Vision magazine from the UK has covered some really excellent options for carrying children while cycling (in addition to their excellent coverage of other cycling topics!).
There really is an amazing array of bicycle ingenuity, outside of the usual mountain/road bikes that we typically see around the city. Cargo-bikes, pedicabs, recumbents, velomobiles, etc. can extend the utility of cycling.
There’s a new “Human Powered Vehicle” group here in TO now. We’re meeting up on Saturday (tomorrow!) at 1:00pm at Velotique to check out a Velomobile that’ll be on display. Or course, a bike ride followed by food and beer is on the agenda too. More details on the website, for anyone who is interested in this sort of thing:
Oops. Website is here: http://hpv.gedris.org/
In Madison last week i saw a couple ride, and the father had a bike-side-car with a kid in it. i’m sure i’d slam the side car into a pole or curb. would take some getting used to not to do that.
They are all great but I have to admit, yesterday, I saw someone riding a bike that pulled their child along behind in a little tent like trailer and as cars were whipping past it I thought I could never put a child in that risky position.
My 4-year old son has almost outgrown his child’s seat on my bike. He’s small, so we’ve been able to stretch using a child seat a little longer than usual. I’m thinking the we’ll move to a trail-a-bike — those attachments that let your child sit on a seat, and even peddle if they want. I have to get him his own bike too, but that’s not ideal for the kind of commuting we usually do. Anyone have experience with the trail-a-bike option or other options for kids aged 4+?
I only recently started towing my two-year-old around in a bike trailer, as his daycare moved about a mile away from my house so now I drop him off and continue on bike to work (leaving the trailer which quickly converts to a stroller for my partner to take him home in, often with his best bud and neighbour tucked in beside him for company).
Fortunately I have a bike lane (Davenport) and then side streets so I feel pretty safe (and I bike a lot slower), however I don’t know that I’d want to chance some of the more bike-hostile streets with it. The only challenge is getting little Griffin to wear his helmet.
You can pack a heck of a lot of groceries in there if you want to, so I’d give the trailer idea the thumbs-up.