Graeme Semple: “I just couldn’t face the idea of sitting in traffic any more”

A new generation of family runabouts looks set to change the face of Britain’s roads next year and no one will be worried about the running costs.

Cargo bikes and child-carrying cycles could transform the way Britons do their shopping and the school run, as retailers report sharp increases in sales of the load-carrying bicycles.

On the streets of Copenhagen it is common to see a father or mother cycling to school with two children strapped safely into a carrier on the front of a bike. In Amsterdam, it is equally common to see an old lady pedalling serenely back from the local shops with bags of groceries in a carry-box on the back of her tricycle.

In Britain, as the boom in cycling gathers