Moving House By Double Bike

Currently Copenhagen seems to take over the position of world cycling capital from Amsterdam, considering the bicycle culture blog Copenhagenize and the amazing Copenhagen Wheel. Nevertheless, the Dutch come up with an innovation — the cargo bike. For two years Onno Sminia and Louis Pierre Geerinckx, two students at the Technical University of Delft, have been working on the concept, and now it’s there.

According to Springwise cargo bikes like de ‘Vrachtfiets’ will become immensely popular for short-haul urban transport. The bike is primarily created to help people move house without renting a van. The idea of de ‘Vrachtfiets’ is enabling people to collaborate in moving the bike forward. Usually moving heavy furniture isn’t a solo effort, as proclaimed by the makers. Therefore the bike is a two-person vehicle equipped with two sets of pedals. The bike also includes an electrical assist, which will be solar-powered in upcoming versions. The cargo bike can become a huge contribution to a cleaner city with less emissions, taking the fact that at some hours half of all local traffic looks to consist of white vans transporting whatever. In addition, last week the city Amsterdam announced the plan to organize future light distribution and retail suppliance by bicycles.

The cargo bike facilitates a mobile lifestyle. Whereas most people still prefer to buy as much stuff as they can, another group attempts to create a new minimalist stuff-independent lifestyle. Instead of a cupboard full of heavy books and pretentious CDs, these people have taken their material footprint back to a notebook and a Kindle. This makes it lots easier to move house when necessary or pleasant.