| Utilitarian Pedaling |
|
|
| Written by Joshua Liberles | |||||
| Sunday, 07 October 2007 | |||||
|
It doesn’t come as news to most of us that bikes are the most efficient form of transportation ever devised. Most of the bike use in the United States is for fitness or just pleasure cruising. About as utilitarian as we tend to get is bike commuting or running occasional errands. In places where bike use is strongly supported (i.e. Europe) or where economics precludes widespread use of costly vehicles (China, et al), bicycles are commonly used to transport cargo.
“Work bikes,” or utility cycles, while not unheard of in the U.S., are not in common use. Bikes can be adapted to carry more than 800 pounds on flat terrain. Of course acceleration is a bit slower, but once cruising speed is reached, the overall effort isn’t much more than an unencumbered bicycle. On more hilly or rolling terrain, up to 300 pounds can be transported in relative comfort.
The Bay Area groups who assembled the parks for Park(ing) Day used various work bikes and trailer configurations to transport all of the necessary equipment to the park-sites. Those committed to a car-free existence have done cross-city moves via bicycle. A well-equipped work bike can tow a refrigerator, stove, bed set, or couch.
Work bikes come in many shapes and sizes. There are the front-load types off add-ons, similar to those found throughout Amsterdam. These are popular both for hauling gear and loading up the kids and cruising around. More common in the U.S. are the one-wheeled B.O.B trailers (available with a shock-spring for off-road hauling) and the Burley trailers.
These and other models are covered by Metaefficient. Also, for a site completely devoted to the topic, check out the Bike Trailer Blog.
Via Metaefficient. Photo courtesy of Bikes at Work.
Comments (2)
Steve
said:
|
|||||
 |
Most Americans who regularly ride bicycles ride bicycles for fitness or pleasure. Very few Americans use their bicycle as a utility, as we do with our cars. There have been better designs for bicycles for about a century. Politics in the world of competitive biking have kept these alternate designs down. These designs are better suited for using bicycles for everyday transportation and shopping. If you want more to use bikes instead of cars these are the bikes to encourage people to try: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recumbent_bicycle |
 |
How'd you miss the Xtracycle? It's what I've got instead of a car. Seems some of teh bicycle sellers are figuring out that there's a non-competitive market out there, tho' they're a little sluggish at figuring 'em out. Wish they'd figure ouit turn signals, myself. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Cars are the most inconvenient convenience we have. We're required to have them, but increasingly, we dislike them. At Carectomy, we're trying to figure out how to extract cars from people.
The operation is a little bit painful, but life afterward is much more awesome. If you're interested in carectomies, sign up to our newsletter, or subscribe our RSS feed below.
Subscribe to this comment's feed