I drove my car for some errands on the weekend. To be clear, it is perfectly okay to drive a car. Sometimes they are the right tool for the job.
In this case, I had some bulky, heavy items to pick up. I went to five different places for items as varied as a dozen eggs, big bag of horse feed, 20 kg of meat and several cases of soft drinks.
But earlier in the day I had gone 26 km on my bike so I found myself comparing rides. All I could think as I drove was how much empty space there was. Single story shops, surface parking, empty lots…
And then I thought about how I had been to almost all of these places before on my regular bike, most of them in a single trip. And at one place where I finally gave up because I couldn’t find a parking space anywhere in the massive lot, I had easily parked my bike in front on previous visits.
On that morning ride, there had been at least ten different styles of cargo bike, plus a few trailers. I was riding my e-bike, so I knew how easy it was to go that distance. In fact, I could have doubled it easily. Coincidentally, that shopping trip was 30 km long.
It would have been a piece of cake with a bike like this, if I put on its huge panniers and packed my bungee cords:
I’m hanging onto my car for now, mostly because it’s the best way to visit with my elderly parents and take them places, especially in winter. But I definitely see a cargo bike in my future.