The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Minnesota mom embraces electric cargo bike lifestyle
Last spring, Aimee Witteman bought an electric cargo bike. The fateful purchase, she says, changed her life.
A fervent cyclist in her younger years, the south Minneapolis mom found it increasingly difficult to find time to bike after having two daughters, now ages 6 and 3. Plus, she has a full-time job leading the climate change program at the McKnight Foundation. Her busy life involved frequent schleps here and there — usually in a car that was on its “last legs.”
Witteman’s cargo bike, which cost about $5,000, has a long tail that gives her enough room to pack up the kids for runs to the grocery store, the park, school, the bus stop and work in downtown Minneapolis. The electric assist is available to help haul the load without getting sweaty or tuckered out.
Since May, Witteman has biked about 1,000 miles around town. She’s part of a growing movement of families — particularly moms — looking to minimize the drudgery of commuting and endless errand-running, all the while minimizing their impact on the planet.
“I’m not emitting carbon, I’m getting exercise. I put my earphones on when I’m on the bike trail and I’m jamming out to
Beyoncé,” said Witteman, 42. “It’s like an antidote to a midlife crisis. It’s my version of a Corvette.”
The kids, she adds, love it. A crowdsourced documentary filmed in Minneapolis, called “Motherload,” is a labor of love for California-based filmmaker Liz Canning. It details Canning’s quest as a new mother “to understand the increasing isolation and disconnection of the digital age, its planetary impact, and how cargo bikes could be an antidote.”
The film comes at a time when sales of e-bikes are booming across the country. According to the Bicycle Product Suppliers Association, a Colorado-based trade organization, sales of the bikes have increased from $43 million in 2016 to $143 million last year.
Cargo bikes, which originated in the Netherlands as a workhorse means of transport for food delivery, have long been popular abroad. But now they’re starting to take hold in the United States, particularly in urban bikefriendly places such as Portland, Oregon — and the Twin Cities.
Witteman says Minneapolis’ network of bike-only thoroughfares and dedicated bike lanes is key to making her cargo-bike lifestyle work.
“It’s not only great to be outside with your kids, you’re role-modeling as a new way to get around,” she said. “You’re getting exercise, and you feel the sun on your face, which is hard to get when you’re working.”