An improbable new bike is designed to take on the minivan. In front, there’s room to cart two kids to a soccer game; in back, there’s an option to add a third child seat. When children aren’t on the bike, the seats convert into a lockable cargo area that can carry groceries.
The Taga 2.0’s minivan-like qualities: space for cargo, comfortable seats, and reclining positions for sleeping. Unlike many cargo bikes, it has three wheels, so it’s stable if the bike is stationary or hits a pothole. “It is much safer to ride a tricycle than riding a regular bike, especially with kids,” says CEO Hagai Barak.
The kids sit in front, so they can talk to the parent in the steering seat. For long distances, it’s possible to make it electric; on rainy days, there’s a canopy to keep kids dry. If someone wants to drive part of the way, the whole thing fits in a trunk.
The company previously designed a bike-stroller, which converts into a stroller when someone arrives somewhere. But they wanted to make an option that could carry more (and older) kids, with reconfigurable seats, and–importantly–that was more affordable. The new bike costs $599, half the price of some alternatives on the market.
Barak thinks the time is right for a bigger shift to family biking in the U.S., now that a quickly growing network of bike lanes has made it safer to ride in many cities. For kids, it’s meant to be more fun that riding in a car: on the request of a child tester, designers added a water gun and other toys to the front of the bike.
The company is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds.