Functional bikes. Not Porn not Anti

That's the beauty of being Car free... if you really need a car/van for something there's rental places and it won't break the bank. Not sure why it's annoying? Being car free and renting once or twice isn't like being veggie and eating bacon butties every now and then is it?

Tried the veggie thing a couple of times, but roast chicken always tempted me back to the dark side.

I wouldn't mind hiring a van to move stuff to the other side of the country annoying, but both my partner and I are students and we move house quite often (rent a house/flat from september-june then a bedsit from june-september, changing houses every year). The stuff we have to move isn't particularly large (mostly boxes of books, clothes and kitchen stuff) but it is quite heavy. Taxis and men-with-ven are just as expensive as hiring a van for a couple of hours. Also it'd be useful for shopping and picking stuff up from out-of-town depots - about once a month I have to take a taxi to a depot/workshop/powdercoater in a countryside business park and it's usually a £20 round trip (so if I spend even £50 on making a good trailer it'll save money within three months).

Also it's a self-sufficiency thing. I'm all for pragmatism but I think I'd rather know that even if I had no money/all the petrol has run out/lose my drivers licence, I'd still be able to move stuff around. Plus it helps raise awareness of utility cycling in the UK (which is pretty good in York actually, there are a few cargo bike couriers around)