Creative “baby seat” on a Kronan



swing seat on kronan bike 1, originally uploaded by henry in a’dam.

This is just a bright green bike child seat, right? Look again. It’s a cheap and broken swing tied to a Kronan bike with the rope normally used to hang it from a a tree. I don’t think this baby seat is approved by any official bodies.

It is a good example of the relaxed attitudes about child transport and cycling in general in the Netherlands, particularly Amsterdam. Cycling is simply not regarded as a dangerous activity and for good reason: the statistics demonstrate that it isn’t.

Nonetheless, I’ll be taking somewhat more care than this with my own kids, thank you.

swing seat on kronan bike 3
Note the use of an old mouse pad as a cushion.

swing seat on kronan bike 2
Here’s a better view of the old swing rope used to “secure” the seat to the Kronan’s (flimsy, sheet metal) rear carrier.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 20:43 and is filed under Child and family transport, Funny stuff, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

4 Responses to “Creative “baby seat” on a Kronan”

  1. HeleenH Says:
    January 14th, 2009 at 20:03

    Now that’s a scary look! I -native Dutch mom living just south of Amsterdam- can’t believe it, but the picture is clear…

  2. henry Says:
    January 14th, 2009 at 23:52

    I’ve come across some other, equally scary contraptions but just started carrying a digital camera. I’ll post more as I find them.

  3. Jessica Mitchell Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 04:02

    OMG…Is that safe enough to carry baby?…That’s just using rope….

  4. henry Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 21:45

    Jessica,
    I personally wouldn’t put my child into an old, cheap swing seat secured to a bad rear carrier with some rope rather randomly wrapped around to hold it in place… but some guy does. I even saw the same bike being ridden like that with a child in the seat and had my camera handy to snap a picture. It’s also on Flickr.

    Is it safe compared to carrying a kid in a proper child seat? Certainly not. Is it truly dangerous? Well statistics say that cycling is very safe (especially in the netherlands) so perhaps not. I still find it amazingly stingy to not be willing to shell out the small amount for even a second hand child seat.

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