What do you do when you have an errand to do on the way to work, or on the way home, and you need to haul something heavy or bulky?
I’m talking about groceries, or anything you can’t carry using your usual setup.
For a many of us, those are the days that we drive instead. But what if your employer provided a communal bike cargo trailer that you could check out on those days?
In my case, I really intend to get a bike cargo trailer…eventually. But for now, I can borrow one from my workplace. (That is, if I don’t just pass the buck to my wife, who drives to work.)
Friday was good example of this. We ran out of dog and cat food on Thursday night. I was determined not to dump that errand on my spouse.
I’d never pulled a BOB trailer before, and I knew I’d need the weight capacity. It was awfully handy to have the trailer set up with a cargo liner and a bungee cargo net right there at work.
Ironically, when I was on the Way to Olsen’s Grain in Flagstaff, my wife called and offered to meet me there with the car.
No! Dammit! That would ruin everything.
Anyway, I got the food home. The pets did not starve. I will not boast about the weight and the epic hill. And tomorrow I shall return the BOB back to work.
But if you don’t work in the cycling industry–or even if you do–chances are that you don’t have a variety of trailers sitting around that you could borrow.
There are a lot of difficult, and expensive things that businesses can do to promote bike commuting: showers, changing rooms, secure parking. It’s great of you have these things, but for many of us, they just aren’t going to happen anytime soon.
On the other hand, buying a bike cargo trailer seems like a relatively easy and inexpensive thing a business could do to encourage those of us who do bike commute to do it even more. Even where space is tight, there are folding and collapsible trailers, such as the Burley Travoy, that could be stored in a closet.
Tell me, then…