This video talks about Dutch bikes that are made for comfort and commuting and how finding such bikes in North America are nearly impossible to find.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aESqrP3hfi8
Personally I'd love to see a bike that has these same comfort features, but is made from a lighter material. I'm still afraid of biking in a city like Vancouver that doesn't offer protected bike lanes like NYC does, but it might help.
@emacsen I commute with a bicycle in the summer time, here in Oslo, Norway.
(But I don't use the bicycle during wintertime, because they salt the bike paths of Oslo and the salt eat the gears and brakes and all moving parts of the bike)
You can get a studded tire (you really only need the one) for winter.
I know it's nothing like the Dutch granny bike,though, but considering we have nothing but hills in BC, I think I'd always want our gears, pain as they can be!
While recumbant bikes look comfortable, they seem much scarier. You don't have the vision you do on a regular bike, you're low to the ground, so vehicles don't see you, etc.
I agree with you on the gears thing. I forgot to mention that too. No gears is easy when the landscape is mostly flat.
Heck, someone could even make an e-bike with that configuration, if it's for commuting anyway!
@emacsen One good feature of having a bike like this in #YYC is the alternative braking.
Here, bike theft is a massive problem. The majority of the time I see someone with a bike, it's almost certainly stolen. If you use a lock that someone who's trying to steal from you can't remove, they'll cut your brakes. On this bike, there are no brakes to cut.
The other change I'd probably want would be a wider all-weather tire for the snow/ice conditions that you see in many North American cities.