Grid Shots: Copenhagen cargo bikes

By Steven Vance On August 19, 2012 · 11 Comments

A woman pedals her “short john” cargo bike across the world’s busiest bike intersection.

According to Mikael Colville-Anderson, there are about 40,000 cargo bikes in the municipalities of Frederiksburg, where he and his company, Copenhagenize Consulting, live, and Copenhagen, the city where I’ve been for 5 days now.

And Saturday we held the 4th annual Danish cargo bike championships, or “Svajerløb” (pronounced zvy-uhh-loob). I participated in the Team Relay race with my friend Brandon Gobel and two Danish locals, Micha and Lasse (he cofounded the Bicycle Innovation Lab here).

A woman pushes her trike across the sidewalk in a shopping neighborhood.

One trike among many bikes parked near a Metro station and indoor public market.

Two Bullitt bikes outside the Larry vs. Harry workshop.

The City of Copenhagen found four families in the Vesterbro neighborhood who wanted to securely store their cargo bikes on the street in this pink container shaped like a car. Each family has a key to their separated compartments, and the door lifts up. The City plans to build more. Each takes up 1 American car parking space, or 1.5 European car parking spaces. Gobel and Colville-Anderson are on the left side of the photo.

See more photos from my Cargo bikes in Copenhagen set. This was an unplanned edition of Grid Shots.

Rob Sullivan

Christ, I just can’t wait until I’ve got an extra $4K burning a hole in my pocket…

http://www.stevevance.net/ Steven Vance

When you don’t own or drive a car, and you spend less of your wages on transportation than many countries (because you bike everywhere), then $4,000 is nothing.

http://gridchicago.com John Greenfield

Steven, you took the words right out of my mouth. And Rob, what are you kvetching about? As bass player for the metal band Arriver you must be rolling in dough!
Jennifer

Not always.

Val Remark

Long-time reader, first comment. The pink container is rather ugly, but an awesome storage space. Since cargo bikes are a bit too much for my budget, I bought a bicycle child trailer for the purpose of carrying groceries.

Will the future bike sharing project in Chicago have any cargo bikes for rent? Unfortunately, all the bikes I’ve seen are identical, usually with a bit of space for a purse or a gallon of milk. Bike sharing should have cargo bikes and tandem bikes to encourage those who already have regular bikes to use bike sharing. Also, if bike sharing is targeted to those on short errands (most errands involve carrying something) around downtown, cargo bikes should be the norm.

http://gridchicago.com John Greenfield

Thanks for the feedback. All the bikes in the bike share program will be uniform, which will make it easier for them to maintain an even distribution of bikes throughout the coverage area. The system will be geared towards short trips, like getting from your Metra station to you office, or zipping across the Loop on your lunch break to grab a bite. However there are probably a handful of bike shops in town that rent cargo bikes or trailers. For example, Boulevard Bikes (one of our sponsors) rents a Fresh Air trailer that people commonly use for moving furniture. It’s likely that shops like J.C. Lind or Rapid Transit would be open to renting cargo bikes.
http://www.stevevance.net/ Steven Vance

The Alta+Chicago bike sharing system will not have cargo bike or trailers. A different company, bike shop, or organization is free to begin this kind of sharing.
The City of Copenhagen loans cargo bikes to residents, as does the Bicycle Innovation Lab’s Bike Library south of the city center.
Rapid Transit Cycleshop will rent you a Surly trailer, provided you have its special hitch.

http://gridchicago.com John Greenfield

Rapid Transit’s trailer rental service sounds like a great deal, but there’s a hitch. Or, rather, there’s no hitch.

Richard Miller

Burley sells extra hitches for the Travoy trailer just buy an extra. They are about the size of a golf ball. And no, I don’t work for Burley. Although, I spent more than 4k for a Greenspeed trike over 10 years ago you don’t have too. I mostly ride a 7 year old Fuji w/a Burley trailer hooked on.