Okay, so the headline was a little overdone. But I needed to get your attention somehow. And with Obama doing all sorts of fancy rail stuff, no one is paying attention to all the cool stuff happening on the utility bike scene. 

Joe Bike in Portland Oregon recently released their utility bike.  At $2699, it's a bit pricey, but is still a lot less than a car, and you can carry people and/or lots of stuff on it.  There is also a lot of buzz these days about Madsen's utility bike, which debuted at Interbike last year. Modeled after the Dutch bakfiets, but having a basket in the back, it is a bit cheaper at $1299.  The company, based in Salt Lake City, popped on the scene quite recently. Don't know what they were doing before, but I like what they're doing now.

Nice to see some U.S.-based companies getting people interested in showing people just what bikes can do!