4 ms·

If you have a kid that's not a workable solution, moreover, safety is a huge issue on 2 wheelers.

acdha 5y ago
I’ve taken my son on an e-bike daily since he was 11 months old - he loves it compared to being in the car. There are a range of products on the market handling up to 4 kids and with creature comforts like rain shields. I use one of these: https://yubabikes.com/cargobikestore/electric-boda-boda/ https://yubabikes.com/cargobikestore/electric-boda-boda/ A relative uses one of these in the Boston area, year round: https://www.ternbicycles.com/us/bikes/472/gsd https://www.ternbicycles.com/us/bikes/472/gsd A friend loves this for their family: https://www.r-m.de/en-us/bikes/packster-70/ https://www.r-m.de/en-us/bikes/packster-70/ Not cheap, but an order of magnitude less than a car ($10k/year by AAA’s numbers) over the lifetime of the bike.
- steve_adams_86 5y ago
  For anyone with a small commute I’d recommend this too. Our Yuba (spicy curry) has around 3000km on it over 2.5 years, is going strong, and I’ll still be commuting ~30km per week over the next year with it taking my 4 year old to daycare then going to work. I’ll likely continue commuting with him on it to kindergarten and perhaps early grade school. It wasn’t cheap initially ($7000 CAD), but the cost per km drops enormously every year while the bike still rides as well as ever. The kids have all loved it, too. My youngest is disappointed when we drive places - he wants to walk or ride all year. We do have a temperate climate which helps. Our cold days in winter are typically around 5 degrees outside of cold snaps, but even then we rarely dip below 0. It’s a major quality of life improvement for us. They’re amazing grocery getters, you don’t get all sweaty on them, kids tend to love it, and they’re quite a bit easier to buy, maintain, and park than a car. We went with the spicy curry because of its insane cargo capacity (we’ve used it for its full capacity many times, especially while bike camping), but you can spend far less if you don’t need to carry that weight.
  - acdha 5y ago
    Seconding everything you wrote, especially “It’s a major quality of life improvement for us”. When we visit friends & family who live in typical car-centric neighborhoods we’re reminded of just how much time they spend sitting in cars, which is especially rough on kids. The bigger house & yard just doesn’t seem worth an extra couple hours a day sitting strapped into a car seat.
    - steve_adams_86 5y ago
      We've come to a similar conclusion. We're fairly priced out of our market when it comes to the yard and picket fence situation - with 3 kids, a 4 bdr home would cost us around 1.5M CAD to get something we'd actually enjoy livinh in and reasonably close to work. It would be old - maybe from the 60s or 70s. A similar sizes home we could afford would induce a 1-2 hour daily commute for my wife. Meanwhile, a condo near work that will fit us is around $500k less... Sort of affordable. When you weigh the pros and cons though, the condo can be alright. It's not my ideal at all but the things like the yuba can make that lifestyle so much more livable. More time with the family, more time to get out of the home if we want to, quick grocery shops, less money on commuting, etc - I think it could be alright. We fortunately live in a small city where you're only an hour drive from nature, so I suppose we could turn that into our "yard". The last thing I want is my kids sitting in a car for 30-60 minutes every morning on their way to school. Or on a public transit bus, transferring and rushing around so they can sit in school for 6 hours only to bus back the same way. I know plenty of kids do it and they're fine, it's all fine, but it's not what I want for them. I wouldn't want it for myself. There's something to be said about shedding ideals (especially with living situations) but letting my kids be kids is one I don't want to compromise on.

I’ve taken my son on an e-bike daily since he was 11 months old - he loves it compared to being in the car. There are a range of products on the market handling up to 4 kids and with creature comforts like rain shields. I use one of these: https://yubabikes.com/cargobikestore/electric-boda-boda/ https://yubabikes.com/cargobikestore/electric-boda-boda/ A relative uses one of these in the Boston area, year round: https://www.ternbicycles.com/us/bikes/472/gsd https://www.ternbicycles.com/us/bikes/472/gsd A friend loves this for their family: https://www.r-m.de/en-us/bikes/packster-70/ https://www.r-m.de/en-us/bikes/packster-70/ Not cheap, but an order of magnitude less than a car ($10k/year by AAA’s numbers) over the lifetime of the bike.

steve_adams_86 5y ago
For anyone with a small commute I’d recommend this too. Our Yuba (spicy curry) has around 3000km on it over 2.5 years, is going strong, and I’ll still be commuting ~30km per week over the next year with it taking my 4 year old to daycare then going to work. I’ll likely continue commuting with him on it to kindergarten and perhaps early grade school. It wasn’t cheap initially ($7000 CAD), but the cost per km drops enormously every year while the bike still rides as well as ever. The kids have all loved it, too. My youngest is disappointed when we drive places - he wants to walk or ride all year. We do have a temperate climate which helps. Our cold days in winter are typically around 5 degrees outside of cold snaps, but even then we rarely dip below 0. It’s a major quality of life improvement for us. They’re amazing grocery getters, you don’t get all sweaty on them, kids tend to love it, and they’re quite a bit easier to buy, maintain, and park than a car. We went with the spicy curry because of its insane cargo capacity (we’ve used it for its full capacity many times, especially while bike camping), but you can spend far less if you don’t need to carry that weight.
- acdha 5y ago
  Seconding everything you wrote, especially “It’s a major quality of life improvement for us”. When we visit friends & family who live in typical car-centric neighborhoods we’re reminded of just how much time they spend sitting in cars, which is especially rough on kids. The bigger house & yard just doesn’t seem worth an extra couple hours a day sitting strapped into a car seat.
  - steve_adams_86 5y ago
    We've come to a similar conclusion. We're fairly priced out of our market when it comes to the yard and picket fence situation - with 3 kids, a 4 bdr home would cost us around 1.5M CAD to get something we'd actually enjoy livinh in and reasonably close to work. It would be old - maybe from the 60s or 70s. A similar sizes home we could afford would induce a 1-2 hour daily commute for my wife. Meanwhile, a condo near work that will fit us is around $500k less... Sort of affordable. When you weigh the pros and cons though, the condo can be alright. It's not my ideal at all but the things like the yuba can make that lifestyle so much more livable. More time with the family, more time to get out of the home if we want to, quick grocery shops, less money on commuting, etc - I think it could be alright. We fortunately live in a small city where you're only an hour drive from nature, so I suppose we could turn that into our "yard". The last thing I want is my kids sitting in a car for 30-60 minutes every morning on their way to school. Or on a public transit bus, transferring and rushing around so they can sit in school for 6 hours only to bus back the same way. I know plenty of kids do it and they're fine, it's all fine, but it's not what I want for them. I wouldn't want it for myself. There's something to be said about shedding ideals (especially with living situations) but letting my kids be kids is one I don't want to compromise on.