Christiania Bikes

Cargo-bike trendsetters from Copenhagen who changed the international school run

- Rob Ainsley

Ride past a primary school at rush-hour almost anywhere in Northern Europe and you'll see plenty of box-bikes, with the saddle occupied by a parent, and the crate at the front full of (usually smiling) children, bags, books and the odd teddy bear. While the Jeeps, Subarus and Range Rovers queue and drivers complain about all the traffic', the Babboes, Niholas and Bakfietses form a fluid, efficient schoolrun conveyor belt. You might see the odd Christiania Bike, too, perhaps looking a tad unwieldy and old-school: half tricycle, half-wheelbarrow.

But the Danish brand can claim to have pioneered the whole kid-carrying cargo-bike thing, over fifty years ago. In 1971, Lars Engstrøm and friends refurbed wartime cargo bikes and knocked together bike trailers to move stuff round Christiania, a former military area of Copenhagen that had set up as an autonomous, hippyish, car-free community. (It survives, firmly on the tourist route.)