I'm thinking of selling one of our vehicles (we have 2) and getting an electric cargo bike to fill the gap.
Some background, we've only been a 2 vehicle family for a year after getting surprised with twins and not having enough room in our existing car for 3 car seats (also have a 2.5 year old), in that year I've put less than 6000kms (3700mi) on the car, mainly driving to work. I used to bike to work but now I drop the oldest at daycare and park downtown. The demands of infant twins had me running home a lot during the day to assist, so biking wasn't a great option. With my wife going back to work from mat leave and our offices only being a couple blocks from each other I expect one vehicle to sit at home depreciating, using less kms than even the last year.
Where I live we have a good solid 5 months of winter with a decent amount of snow and at least 2 months of regular -20C weather or worse, so I won't be biking year round, but I would like to stretch it as far into the cold as I can. The ride to work is 7km each way, combination of bike paths and road, plus I would plan to use it to go to grocery stores and other regular destinations within easy biking distance. There are some pretty good hills to tackle no matter where I'm going.
Currently when I ride I pull the twins (1 year olds) in a chariot trailer behind my bike and the 2.5 year old in a Thule seat on the back of my bike, which makes for about 110lbs of extra load on some killer hills. Will continue with this setup for at least the rest of the summer since the chariot has good support and straps for the little guys.
Anyone have a cargo bike? I'm looking at electric options to help carry the load. What ones would you recommend? So far I'm drawn to the front box type as they seem easy to load and unload the kids and carry other items, as well as being able to keep an eye on everyone, something like the Urban Arrow or Electric Bakfiets.nl Cargobike Long.