Long-tail bikes

With the price of gas going up, up and up, I'm thinking about eventually getting a bike that can haul stuff. You can get trailer hitches for regular bikes, but that seems like a kludge to me and I'm all about the right tool for the right job.

The bike shown here is a Kona Ute and sells for about $900 which is a lot of money, but not when you consider that it could save you $30/week in gas. I go to the grocery store once a week, but it's less than two miles away. I usually buy two grocery bags' worth of stuff and that could easily fit on the storage rack of a long-tail. I would need to get some cargo pods or something similar, but I'm sure those aren't too hard to find.

Of course, I need to hold off on the big purchases until I make the biggest purchase of them all early next year, but I can start saving up money for something like this. Biking makes a lot of sense financially and healthwise, but unfortunately, people out here drive like they're dumb, drunk and blind. At least they'll soon be doing that in Geo Metros and not Hummers, but that transition will take some time.