dannyman.toldme.com

Notes on Family Bicycles

One of the drawbacks to suburban life is that it is hard for children to walk to school. The side streets are wide, curvilinear and disconnected, without crosswalks, often without sidewalks, ruled by complacent drivers cruising without concern for road hazards. The main streets have few lights, few crosswalks, and the cars drive fast on their way to and from the highway. Back in Chicago, the side streets were straight, narrow, predictable, consistently punctuated by crosswalks and choked with parked cars, patrolled by wary drivers on the lookout for the unexpected. For a kid walking through the neighborhood, Sunnyvale is scarier than Chicago.

My oldest son starts kindergarten next month, and I still dream of getting him the 1.4 miles to school without a car. Walking with the five-year-old over and back would be a 1-hour time commitment, but I could still be home in plenty of time to drive to work.

But I’d rather bike.

Last year, I took a gamble on buying a Radwagon online. The Radwagon is a cargo bike, and the rear carrier looks like a cozy place for a kid to ride. $2,000 altogether is cheap for a family cargo bicycle, especially with an electric motor. But the back deck is high and my older son shares my childhood aversion to danger. I understand why he doesn’t want to ride back there.

The baby would prefer I spent less time taking pictures and more time pedaling his Radwagon.

Fortunately, the electric assist makes 12+ mile per-way work bicycle commute more feasible on days I am not picking up or dropping off kids. Lately, the younger son has expressed that he really, really, likes to ride on the back of the bike, and has insisted on riding to daycare, which is good for getting me out of the driver’s seat.

Back to kindergarten, though. Tommy’s got at least two neighbors on the block attending the same school. While they wouldn’t be great for my work commute, I have been looking, (only online because we don’t have cool stuff in the South Bay) at cargo bikes. As a budget-minded guy, I have been looking at Bunch, and Wike, which are four-seater cargo trikes, or a Sweet Curry, which is like a non-electric Radwagon with a lower back that could seat three. All of these can be had under $3,000. I am also keeping an open mind around more expensive options: like the Spicy Curry Bosch, Supermarché or Xtracycle’s Edgerunner.