The night I assembled my Workcycles bakfiets in the Autumn of 2007 and rode it home, I cried tears of joy. For me, the bakfiets was a release from the obligation most parents feel to trap themselves in minivans, traffic, stress, and health and happiness goals that are “unrealistic given our hectic schedule”. It was a middle finger to the entire 20th century pattern of sprawl, urban ruin, and disgusting over-investment in a car-only lifestyle.
Over the past couple of years, we’ve sold cargo bikes ranging from the lowly Flying Pigeon bakfiets (an illegal-in-Europe knock-off of the Workcycles bakfiets I own), to XtraCycle and Yuba Mundo rear loading cargo bikes, Nihola tricycles, Torker Cargo-T, Gazelle Bloom “mommy bike”, Gazelle Cabby bakfiets, and most recently Christiania cargo tricycles from boxcycles.
Each of these machines has brought something special to the families that bought them. Something special enough to deserve a documentary? That is how Liz Canning sees it. This mother of two is working to create a crowd-sourced documentary about cargo bikes. The trailer you can see above; you can find more information on her site for the Cargo Bike Documentary.
Anyone out there interested in creating a Los Angeles segment for this documentary? I have a big bakfiets which I use daily (just this morning I rode my daughter to school in the front, and my wife to work on the back). Maybe we can take turns filming each other and interviewing each other? Maybe we can organize a cargo bike rally and party? We’re game. Contact me at josef@flyingpigeon-la.com and let’s coordinate something to make it clear that the everyone can cargo bike in LA!