bakfiets

My uncle's father (Ome Jaap's father) had a bakery in The Netherlands. Here's a photo of his father on the bakfiets / cargo bike.

Jaap says: "die bakkerskar komt me erg bekend voor. Hierbij een oude foto van mijn vader op zijn bakkerskar tijdens het brood venten.

Dit was ook ons vervoermiddel naar verjaardagen; de jongste in het voorste bakje en de rest in de grote bak met het deksel half open en mijn vader fietsen."

Translation: "This 'baker's car' is very familiar to me. Here is an old photo of my father on his bread baker's car while peddling.

This was our transport to birthdays; the youngest in the front compartment and the rest in the big box with the lid half open and my dad bikes."

My mother took this photo during a recent trip to The Netherlands. She knew I had some fondness for these ungainly bikes. This bike was used by a bread baker, and has been gathering dust for some time.

Bakfietsen made a resurgence in The Netherlands long after bicycles hit their second wave. About ten years ago manufacturers like Workcycles started building updated versions of these bikes, but geared not just for carrying lots of cargo (like the one in the photo by Workcycles) but also for young families who needed to ferry their children around. Now, not only are they quite popular there but they've created a mini-revolution in North America.

Mari on bakfiets with kids: Photo by Andrew Tolson for Maclean's

There aren't any statistics, but it certainly looks like there are lot more "bakfiets" / cargo bikes out on Canadian streets ("bakfiets" is Dutch for box bike and is a general term for any bike with a box for cargo or kids). Mainstream Maclean's magazine rarely pays any attention to urban alternative transportation, let alone bikes, but even they've noticed a proliferation of cargo bikes. It's not exactly booming but these bikes stand out in a crowd, particularly if a slight woman is pedalling a large bike with kids in the front. The cars move out of the way and pedestrians stop and stare.

Riding bakfiets with groceries

I was confidently biking on the bakfiets when I realized that I should take the bike out for a proper test by going food shopping. I promptly drove it on to the local, granola Karma Co-op, parked the bakfiets on its sturdy double kickstand, locked its integrated lock, and purchased a load of groceries that I'd normally find challenging to take home on my smaller bike. It was just too easy.

And since I now had all these groceries, I would have to also drop them off at home. I was a bit worried for the eggs over some potholes, but everything survived the drive.