I love bikes and biking. Not as a sport but as a weekend and week day activity on my own and with my family. I live in Madrid, Spain - I mostly bike everywhere. It's not for environmental reasons, it's mostly because I find it enjoyable and because it's very practical. I don't understand people who will take a car to move 4 or 6km - or less!
For those who are not parents, it's important that one adult be able to move all the children in a family.
If that isn't possible, everything becomes harder.
You have to collaborate with the other parent for almost anything which reduces what you do.
Which reduces your will to live.
That is why it was important for us to have a bike that one parent could use to take the kids to school.
Madrid has a lot of hills, which meant that it was going to have to be electric.
After much research and deliberation, we decided to buy a Bicicapace JustLong.
People are long and thin.
That means that if you want to pack them into a small space you set them up like sardines.
A cargo bike with the cargo in front is less effective for moving people.
So much so that with the Bicicapace you can even carry an adult and child in the back, most cargo bikes can't even carry two 5 year old children!
Also, the bike is more narrow.
In Madrid, biking is still not the preferred way to get around.
That means that you find yourself going between cars often.
That is much easier to do with a longtail than a cargo bike.
When you carry people on your bike, even kids. They have stuff with them: helmets, backpacks, toys etc. The JustLong has a 20 inch wheel in the front which gives space for a 80L bag in the front. Most other longtails have a 700mm wheel in the front - which means they have a small baggage rack only. The 20 inch wheel in the front has certain drawbacks when it comes to comfort, it's totally worth it.
Whether it's to take the kids to school or to get groceries; this bike is a lot of fun to ride.
I think it has a lot to do with the small wheels.
They make the center of gravity of the bike super low, which adds a lot of stability.
It's not a sporty ride, but when you have to stop for a light every 500m that's not the point.
Carrying groceries is super easy too. The back rack with the gard-rail becomes a big bucket you can fill up.
Not to mention the 80L on the front.
I'm not going to say that that makes it more comfortable because it's simply not true. I will say that I have seen cracked frames on cargo bikes before and when the frame is made of steel you can often fix it!
It's surprising but on a lot of longtail bikes the rack is not integrated on the frame. The fact that it's integrated, makes the bike much more solid. Especially the rack since that is where you will be carrying load. Some bikes like the Rise Muller Multitinkerer don't have an integrated rack! The Rise Muller is also much more expensive.