Having spent a number of years in the Netherlands, where working bikes are common, it appears that cargo bikes seem to be making a legitimate move into Canada. Marketed as car replacements and as a way to eliminate emissions, the longer and stronger frame design allows a cyclist to carry heavier stuff, and unusually shaped loads. I have seen a carpenter with lumber and tools, and a musician carrying a cello on these. The design does not seem completely new, rather they draw from utility bicycles of the past, when cars where less common and cycling was not just recreation.