We cannot put a price on clean, fresh air – it is be priceless. City mamas and dads are trying their best to preserve this precious thing for the next generations by adopting cargo bikes as a mode of transportation and replacing family cars.
I recently came back from a three-week cycling trip around Taiwan Island and I was surprised by the bike-friendliness of a several cities such as Taipei, Yilan and Kaosiung, where cycling lanes are integrated into the main road system and scenic routes are well designed. It’s just relaxing to bike around these cities, but on the other hand a hectic experience once you are commuting from city A to city B when there are no bike routes available and you must “befriend” motorbikes and big trucks and cars while desperately trying hard not to get hit or choked by smelly black smokes and emissions.
Yet documentary filmmaker Liz Canning shows us that the use of cargo bikes for families to transport grocery-goods and pick-up kids is not an old wives’ tale, it’s happening more and more. In fact, it’s become such a global trend that she produced a film Less Car More Go (funded via crowdfunding) that features more than a hundred ‘co-directors’ from around the world who discuss the birth and boom of the Cargo Bike.
It was a pivotal, magical moment: I typed “carry kids on bike” and hit “search”: endless images of smiling families in gorgeous bakfiets, with groceries and even pets in tow, bike camping or touring on longtails, businesses trading in trucks for a fleet of cargo bikes, grocery stores offering delivery by bike. – Liz Canning
The project started three years ago, when Liz was web-searching families that ‘carry kids on bikes’. She was inspired by those smiling families who replace cars with bikes to do their shopping, go camping, courier stuff around and even move house. She then invited cyclists around the world to send footage to her and tell a story of bicycle – how it commutes and connects people within a community and a family and is a means to let us think about simple ways to bring possible changes with action. The project called for over 60,000 USD and was backed by more than 700 people on Kickstarter to support its production costs.
What are you waiting for? Restructure your routine, cycle for less cars and more go.
