To Hell in One of These? Sure.

Thanks to Reader C in New Zealand for sending me this remarkable essay at an equally remarkable website (which we’ll come to in a moment) about handcarts. The essay is about rediscovering the handcart: a push-chair like platform designed for carting things around in an urban environment. It goes on the footpath, not the road and has many sensible things going for it: Unlike a van or a car, my handcart doesn’t need gasoline, electricity, or batteries, making it entirely independent from energy infrastructures. Neither do I need to pay taxes and insurance. The handcart is a very democratic vehicle. It allows anyone to carry a load wherever they want, while older, less affordable cars and vans are no longer allowed to enter city centers due to the installation of Low Emission Zones. It is also, of course, slow, which is subversive. When people ask us why we don’t use it as a bike trailer, we can also answer differently: why the rush? Deciding to travel with the slowest vehicle possible…