Where will we ride?

I'm not looking to ditch the car and replace it with a cargo bike, Toronto's inter-community transportation network is not up to par for me to consider it yet.  However in my immediate neighbourhoods a cargo bike could allow me to park my car and keep it parked.

While mapping out my "community cycle circle",   I've confirmed that everything I need to fulfil a simple yet social life with my family and children resides within a 5km zone. I do not need a car to get the Food Folks and Fun.

My wife seems to think this could work.

I concur.

Car vs. Cargo

It may be a current trend or maybe we Canadians are just waking up to common sense. Maybe its the high gas prices combined with the cry for closer communities. Or maybe its just my children.

Whatever the catalyst, I've been fixated on figuring out what my options are for pedal powered parenthood.

I've made it through the first 5 years of balancing the budgets of marriage, mortgage and multiplying. And with maternity leave ending in June, my wife and I find ourselves in planning mode for having hoards of little ones invade our corner lot. Apparently we volunteered our home as the drop off point for my two neices who will be enjoying unsubsidized and sometimes unsupervised care with the assistance of my Grandma in law who has transformed our basement into the bouncy castle of cartoons, crayons and cookies.

With 4 kids under the age of 5, the challenge of school, day camp, and other extra curricular activities begin to depend on the ability to get to the chosen venue and back.

Grandma does not have a drivers licence, and after multiple car crashes on the Delta Bingo Circuit, Grandpa is banned from having anything to do with driving my precious cargo around.

In my daily existence between the High Park and Markland Woods neighbourhoods of Toronto I have noticed the stroller gangs, two wheeled toddlers and bike babies strapped to their wheels of fun. Those are sufficient options for when you have one or two children, but four?  We need something bigger.

Enter the cargo bike.

In my other endeavour at 416cyclestyle i've been exposed to multiple forms of  global transportation by two or three wheeled pedal powered vehicles. Their are a few blogs dedicated to the box bike culture, but I couldn't find anything that combined a review of city, culture and taking those first steps to make the cargo bike choice.

2011 has been a surprising one for Toronto we are lucky enough to have some big names in the Cargo bike industry descending upon us.
Boxcycles, Babboe, Nihola, Velorbis Workcycles and others are now or soon to be available for the Toronto audience.

I hope to review the pros and the cons as I embark on my journey to reduce my dependency on my car and invest in my community via a cargo bike.

Please join me.