Carrying children by bicycle is a fun and practical way of getting to school and around the town. With the right bike and accessories, it is possible to pick-up the kids, their backpacks, and stop on the way home to get the groceries, all while enjoying exercise, avoiding traffic, and parking close to your destination.
There are a great number of options for carrying children by bicycle. In order to help you find the right fit for your needs, we have written the following multi-part primer to help make it easy to understand the options and select a fun and functional solution to carrying your kids and gear by bicycle. Many of these bikes are often called “Cargo Bikes” or “Utility Bicycles” and are designed to haul people and gear, and this series focuses heavily on these bikes while also looking at “standard” bicycles.
Part One of this series is a general overview of traveling with children by bike. It covers some general considerations that will help you to select a suitable bike for the job, and examines some of the benefits and challenges of choosing the bike over the car.
Part Two of this series is an exploration of the different types of bikes available, some of the pros and cons of each type, with one or two popular examples from each category.
Part Three is a collection of rider profiles. We have interviewed riders of each of the bikes profiled in order to get their opinion on the benefits and tradeoffs of each style and model profiled.
We hope that this series is helpful to you in making the decision to travel by bicycle with your children. It’s amazing What a Bicycle Can Do for your health and happiness and that of your community and the planet.
