Your Bike Can’t Do That? You Might Have the Wrong Bike

In case you didn’t hear, this week is the Week Without Driving. It’s the time of year advocates suggest thinking about your transportation choices and how you can reduce your reliance on driving everywhere, whatever the reason(s) you might have for doing so.

We’ve all been there: that moment when you discover you need to transport something (a couch), or someone (maybe a few friends), and the vehicle you have just isn’t up to the task. It could be a lack of seating or storage, but it’s a fundamental principle when it comes to cars and transportation: the right tool for the job is critical.

Imagine a family of five with three young kids (like mine!), excitedly planning a day trip. But the family car is a sleek and powerful two-seater sports car. It’s patently absurdity right? Even a simple trip to the grocery store would be a logistical nightmare. We wouldn’t all fit, and even in a sporty, 4-door sedan there’d be no room for bags. The entire endeavor would be an exercise in frustration.

We intuitively understand that if this family needs a vehicle, it should be a minivan (don’t mention SUVs please, those large, heavy vehicles that fail at both storage and effective passenger transport). A car trip like this is tailor-made for a vehicle specifically designed to haul both people and cargo at the same time, to functionally serve its intended purpose. You wouldn’t say “driving a car everywhere is impractical” just because a sports car doesn’t meet your families’ or businesses’ needs.

So, why is that logic hauled out so often to delegitimize bikes as a potential form of transportation just because a mountain or road bike can’t easily be used for a grocery haul?

How Does This Happen?

This disconnect becomes glaringly obvious in my work as a community organizer whose main mode of transportation is a bike. When I tell my neighbours in an article or in the park that I do at least weekly grocery runs by bike, I’m often told there’s no way they could even consider doing that. And the point here is not that they’re wrong, at least for their current bike.

They’ll rightly point out how hard it would be to bring home a backpack full of milk and bread on their shoulders while navigating traffic on a lightweight road bike, or how impossible it would be to attach child seats to the aggressive and minimal frame of a mountain bike.

The problem isn’t the act of biking to the store or daycare; the problem is trying to do it with the wrong tool. You wouldn’t try to haul lumber in a sedan, and you shouldn’t be expected to haul a week’s worth of groceries on a bicycle designed for racing or shredding mountain trails.

Yet when most people shop for a bike (especially if they only have one), they usually end up with a bike that is designed around leisure trips, with almost no practical storage that trades ride comfort for a slight boost in speed and acceleration from a very aggressive posture.

What Is “A Bike”?

It’s well past time we stopped thinking of “a bike” as a single, monolithic thing. Just like cars, bicycles come in a vast array of specialized designs, each built for a particular purpose:

• The Sports Car (Road Bike): Lightweight, aerodynamic, built for speed and sport. Fantastic for long rides on smooth pavement, absolutely terrible for carrying anything more than a water bottle.
• The Off-Roader (Mountain Bike): Rugged, with knobby tires and suspension, designed to conquer dirt trails and rocky paths. Inefficient and cumbersome on city streets, and usually impractical for cargo unless you’re willing to strap on some extra storage.
• The City Car (Hybrid/Commuter Bike): The sensible sedan or hatchback of the bike world. Often features fenders, a comfortable riding position, and attachment points for racks and panniers, making them great for leisurely rides and light errands.
• The Minivan (Cargo Bike): Ah, now we’re talking about the family hauler! This is where my personal experience comes in. My cargo bike is specifically designed to replace a car for most daily tasks. It has a long wheelbase and robust frame to safely transport my children on the back, and plenty of space in the front basket for multiple bags of groceries, library books, or even a set of camp chairs for watching a kids soccer game. It’s the practical, utilitarian choice that makes living car-lite in the suburbs not just possible, but genuinely enjoyable.

This isn’t about being anti-car, not even a little bit, they are a superpower. It’s about diversifying our transportation toolbox. For too long, the default assumption in our suburbs has been that the car is the only tool for almost every job. But if we want to build a new Orléans – a community that offers mobility choices, fosters connection, and reduces our reliance on a single, expensive mode of transport – then we need to equip ourselves properly.

The issue isn’t that “you can’t do errands by bike.” The issue is that many of us have only ever owned a recreational bike and have never been exposed to the wide world of utility cycling. We wouldn’t fault a carpenter for struggling to complete projects if all he had was a hammer. We’d suggest he get a saw.

Does this trip need to be by car?

There are all kinds of reasons you might want to drive less. It could be the environment, your own health, saving money by not buying that second vehicle, the list goes on. The next time you find yourself thinking about whether you really need to jump in the car for a quick errand, or to shuttle the kids to a friend’s house just a few blocks away, ask yourself: Is my bike truly the right tool for this job? Or am I trying to pound a nail with a screwdriver?

Having the right tool doesn’t just make the job possible; it makes it enjoyable. For my family, having the right bike didn’t just help us not feel the need for a second car; it gave us a better, more connected, and more joyful way to live in our community. It’s time we brought the same practical logic we apply to our car choices to our bikes, and unlock a whole new level of freedom and convenience. Your wallet will thank you too, since a whole fleet of top-of-the-line bikes of all shapes and sizes still costs less than even the average car these days.