A bike with kid carrying capabilities in Kanata is, in my opinion, not a one less minivan. I see a lot of trailers and third wheels, even tandem third wheels are not unusual, on Kanata roads and paths. If you walk down any residential street on a weekend, you will see open garages with fleets of bicycles inside. Around elementary and high school bike racks are always filled during school hours. It is a common sight for elementary school kids to bike (usually on sidewalks) unaccompanied by adults.

On the other hand, I have never seen a cargo bike in Kanata. I have only seen one cargo bike in Ottawa that was obviously intended for child transport. I saw it on Bank street next to Lansdowne. As a Kanata family that tries to bike as much as possible, I choose to run most of my errands by car. While it is not impossible for a Kanata family (parents with children) to cut down to one car and a fleet of bicycles, including utilitarian bicycles such as cargo bikes, I have this preconception that it would take significant sacrifices in terms of convenience and comfort. I wonder if anyone has done it and what their experience was. Frankly, I could not stand living in Kanata without my own dedicated car even before we had children, though many of my dinky friends seem to do well with sharing a single car between a couple.

Note, in this post I refer to cargo bikes as bikes with a box to carry children and groceries in. I have actually seen about half a dozen of the other kind of child cargo bike (the bike with extended back rack) this weekend on the night ride. Most of the ones I have noticed seemed to be sold at Tall Tree Cycles (though Kunstadt employee assured me that they sell Xtracycle parts). These include Kona Ute and Surly Big Dummy as well as regular bikes with Xtracycle attachment. I’ve spoken to the lady riding the Kona Ute and she was very happy with it. She lives in Ottawa neighbourhood closeish to downtown and carries a 5 and a 7 year old on the back. I did not ask her if having a child carrying bike allows her to get rid of the second family car though her neighbourhood, being somewhat older, is probably a lot less car centric than Kanata.

On re-reading this post I noticed that I have completely dismissed trailers and third wheels as utilitarian child transport, even though they are adequate for the task. In fact, the other kid in Trev’s daycare that gets biked to school arrives by trailer and, more recently, by a tandem third wheel. However, same as Trevor, he is mostly dropped off by car. We own and use a trailer, and it is not unlikely that we will get a third wheel at some point. These are fantastic products but are optimal for long distance and recreational riding. Trailers are really difficult to back up, a hassle to lock to a bike rack and require fair amount of athletic riding to pull. Any time I biked to work with the trailer I needed a shower. In my experience a trailer is not a good solution for utilitarian trips under 10km.

Edit: Yes, I know of a number of Kanata families, including families with up to three children, that only have one car. However, I do not know any family that handles the lack of second car by the whole, or most, of the family cycling.