Building the Cycling City by Melissa Bruntlett

Author:Melissa Bruntlett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Island Press
Published: 2018-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Lost But Not Forgotten

Fast-forward to the late nineties, when after seemingly disappearing from existence for 20 years, the bakfiets began a quiet resurgence. But once again, the credit doesn’t necessarily go to the Dutch. In nearby Denmark, industrial designers adapted the traditional tricycle to a sleeker, faster design, with a narrower front box and the two front wheels replaced with a smaller, single wheel connected to the front fork to improve maneuverability and responsiveness. Thus, the two-wheeled “long-john” style was born—the most recognizable brand being the popular Bullitt bike.

Around that time, Jos Sluijsmans—a lawyer who lived and worked in Nijmegen—was riding his recumbent bike to work every day and found himself wondering why so many of his colleagues were commuting by car when they had such great cycle infrastructure at their fingertips. That daily puzzlement eventually inspired a career change, with Sluijsmans dedicating his energy and passion towards cargo bikes. “At a certain point, I started to make a living by cycling, and one of the first things I did was start a bike messenger company,” he recalls. “But I wasn’t the type to ride a fixie [i.e., a fixed-gear bicycle, popular with messengers] with a bag across my chest, and I felt cargo bikes could be used to do the transport instead.”

Serendipitously, the local SPAR—a grocery chain—had brought in a cargo bike for deliveries as a part of a pilot for the Province of Gelderland, but unfortunately, due to changes to the store’s physical space, the grocer was no longer able to get it into the store. Sluijsmans saw an immediate opportunity and negotiated a deal whereby he would perform deliveries for the grocer as needed and, in exchange, would have free use of the bike for his own needs as a bike messenger and for his own personal errands.

Inspired by its Danish counterparts, the bakfiets has enjoyed a bit of a resurrection throughout the Netherlands. Sluijsmans recalls hearing stories of gatherings at Amsterdam’s Vondelpark as early as 1996, where families would meet up with their cargo bikes and show off their ability to transport children. But their potential as freight vehicles was not really being discussed. Having used his own borrowed bakfiets for such a purpose, Sluijsmans felt a responsibility to demonstrate what was possible. “Internationally, you could see in other countries that people were using bikes more for fun than practicality, as we were in the Netherlands—usually by artists, the fringe, more creative people,” he recalls. “I thought, in order to get people invested in cycling you have to make it more fun, more attractive, and of course showcase the designers that are using different materials to make bicycles.”

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