Originally Posted by
CrankyOne
I certainly wouldn't call them "questionable popularity in it's country of origin" (which could be either Denmark or Netherlands as Christiania and Bakfiets.NL came out at about the same time). If you sit on just about any corner in Amsterdam or Copenhagen (or Utrecht, Rotterdam, etc.) you'll likely see one about every 2 or 3 minutes (along with 50-100 regular bicycles). They are heavier and a bit more difficult to maneuver so many people do prefer a regular bike and most people who own a bakfiets also have a regular bike and only use the bakfiets when hauling stuff. If you go to a kindergarten or primary school then maybe 1 in 20 parents will be picking up their children in a bakfiets with most of the rest on regular bicycles.
Expensive depends. How much does it cost compared to owning a car? Or, how much does it cost to drive a car. If a bakfiets saves you 1,000 miles per year then how long until it pays for itself? In my case my bakfiets replaces about 800 miles per year of car driving (roughly 20 4-mile trips) at about $1 per mile so $800 per year or maybe a 3 year payback. It was payed for long ago. A friend purchased a bakfiets about two years ago which allowed he and his wife to sell one of their cars so he figured he'd paid for it in about 1 week.
As to usefulness... The majority that I see are used for hauling cargo, not kids. People use them for grocery shopping, trips to the hardware store, and they are extremely popular with delivery companies.
Bakfiets make a lot of sense for commercial deliveries, but for a family to have a bike dedicated just to grocery runs or hauling stuff seems like overkill when a trailer is a lot more versatile and folds up when you're not using it. From a kid hauling perspective, a trailer means that kids are behind rather than in front of you which is a drawback, but not nearly as much as being implied. Sure, the kids' view towards the front is somewhat impeded but it's not like they can't see anything and they are certainly capable of turning their heads so they can see out the sides.
When our kids were young enough to ride in the trailer, we usually put half a dozen little picture books in the pockets along with whatever small toys they were into. They were in their own little worlds and really didn't pay that much attention to what was going on outside the trailer. More often than not, they were asleep within 10 minutes. The real bonus with that type of trailer (a Burley) and others is that it doubled as a stroller so it was also very useful once you got to where you were going. The rain canopy was always available, you just rolled down the clear flaps in the front and back and snapped them into place. With a bakfiets it sounds like it's quite a bit more hassle.
We spent $400 on the Burley 15 years ago and it seemed like a small fortune to us at the time. It's more than we've spent on any single bike purchase. We still have it and use it for cargo hauling but most of the time it's folded up hanging in the garage. It folds flat so it'll fit easily into the trunk of a small car which may not have much value from a European perspective, but for us that was a big plus.
Would the OP want to use a trailer on busy urban streets? That's a legitimate question. A bakfiets might feel safer which is important but it's probably more psychological than real. A trailer like a Burley is actually pretty visible and though it's not as tall as a person on a bike, there's a person on a bike right in front of it. I can't really imagine any situations where a driver would see a Bakfiets and not a bike pulling a trailer.