What about a walk-bak?

I often find myself lugging things just a few blocks, and wishing I had a good, capacious cart to lug everything from animals to furniture just the 1/4 mile to my apartment. I've been taking note of how people are getting this done right now.

We are very accustomed to seeing people lugging shopping or laundry around in these:


...and regularly see kids, dogs and entire picnics loaded in these:

And I just saw a construction worker towing tools in this:

And this really wouldn't be a surprising sight in my neck o' the woods:

All of these solutions work, but I feel they all have weaknesses. The granny carts are made very cheaply, and are too deep to reach down into. The Radio Flyers are not very durable, and like the strollers, really are just made for kids, and the utility cart is just too .... utilitarian.

As much as I love the idea of loading all of this on some cool bakfiets (Dutch for 'box-bike') and zipping off, the idea struck me that the bike part of a bakfiets makes the cargo part very incompatible with owners living in small apartments, who don't have a good place to store them, and it also makes adding collapsibility very challenging.

What if there was just a really spacious, durable cart for schlepping things a few blocks in your neighborhood? What about a collapsible walk-bak?

Musing #1: What's missing from this picture?

Over the weekend, I saw a woman riding one of these, with a baby  in a carseat, strapped into the rear basket. Props to her for being so resourceful, but there was no room left for a sack of groceries, or even a diaper bag. The basket in back is woefully inadequate for her needs, because it's been over-engineered. Worksman Bikes are rated for 500 pounds of cargo (way more than most other bikes), and the basket is kept small, perhaps to prevent tipping over when someone drops a Chevy transmission in the back (car factories are one of Worksman's top buyers). What's missing is a basket designed for the purpose of carrying babies + groceries (or dogs), which collectively still won't weigh anything near 1/4 ton.

For a long time, I've felt that the answer to lack of capacity would be a 'tadpole trike', where the two wheels are up front like this one:

But I tested several at Chicago's first Cargo Bike Roll Call, and was quite surprised at how unstable they were in turns, even at slow speeds.
The Dutch and Danish bikes are a bit more stable, but 2 or 3 times more expensive.

I think America's own Worksman trikes are ripe for some modding improvements, and the tadpole is ready for some serious problem-solving.

So, here goes....

I'm starting a small company designing and making products that encourage and empower urban people to be mobile without motors more often, and throughout the entire year.

I anticipate the product offerings to grow to cover a wide range: accessories for pedestrians, gear for bikes, things to improve your transit experience, and (eventually) commercial-grade cargo bikes.

This blog will track my process of building the business from scratch. It is a way of keeping me honest and proactive. As my viewers increase, I will undoubtedly feel more responsible for making evident progress, and documenting it for your viewing pleasure. And quite frankly, I'm hoping it will also generate interest in the products and services I will be developing.

And though it might sound ungracious or naive, I'll admit that I'm hoping for support, but not necessarily advice. I've done this before, and I will not be taking the normal route of starting a business. So your well-intentioned advice to go talk to SCORE will go unheeded. I also share the view (with many others) that design by committee often leads to compromised results. I will definitely solicit suggestions when I'm stumped on something, but for the most part I'm looking for nothing more than positive feedback.

I will post progress here weekly, and occasionally post surveys that offer rewards for completion, and even host events where I get to thank you for just being there.

Oh, and the name of the company (for which I've already procured a domain) will be Toynbee Carriage Co.