I think single sided rear wheels on steel bicycles do not work as well as they do in motorcycles as they could not beef up the frame enough as they did on the motorcycles, to minimize the resulting twisting flex at the rear, caused by the moment forces coming from the cantilevered rear axle.
I guess on a townie bikeike this one it will not be an 8ssue but on a road race steel bike it certainly will. Monocoque carbon bikes like the famous one from Lotus are of course, an exception.