Originally Posted by
linberl
This really does all depend on where you live. Cargo bikes and bakfiets haul multiple kids and their crap around here and get most places faster because traffic is a snarly slow mess. I always reach my destinations faster than someone driving from the same starting point - especially if one factors in parking. Not only are e-bikes becoming more popular, but tiny e-cars are as well because everything is so close together here, you don't need to go very far (but it takes can take hours to go 12 miles!!!). In wide open spaces with lower density, e-bikes will remain a novelty. In tight urban spaces, they will be common. We have very easily accessible dockless car share for those that sometimes need a roof and doors. If you live where it's not set up with car share and bike share and e-bike share and road infrastructure and distances are very long, it's definitely not going to fly.
I suspect the use of cargo bikes and bakfiets, and tiny e-cars "hardly flies" even in SF, if the actual percentage of the population who own or use them is considered. I can't imagine even 1% of the population in S.F. area use any of those items on a bet, let alone as a regular means of transportation. I find it unlikely that will change in the foreseeable future.
You are correct that elsewhere their use is probably unseen, if not unknown.