that doesn't look very safe - anything hit in the front is going to have the front rider become intimately acquainted with the handlebars. . .

WOW how utterly stupid.. lol.. Just put the kid on the handlebar.. Part of being a kid is having accidents..

Hey, this looks great! Is it big enough for the rider on the back seat to fire a bow and arrow comfortably?

Making a shorter tandem bike is a good idea there is a such thing as taking the idea too far. As a case in point this is a demonstration of that.

This is a toy for tooling around suburban streets, exactly like in the video. It's worthless for any kind of distance. The riding position is a mess and with the small wheels and lack of suspension, this will be painful to ride on anything but the smoothest road surfaces.

There is a certain proportion to be maintained between the seat position and the pedals for a comfortable ride. The front seat rider can seen seating in a pretty awkward backbreaking position.

A passenger larger than a child wont be able to pedal too well. The person at the back needs to cycle with the legs open. It is no safer than carrying a passenger in front. The many pedals provide lots of opportunities to hit the front riders legs, in the event of a fall. The handle bars provide lots of dangerous areas for a childs head, or someone's ribs. All in the child in the front has no where to hop off if the brakes fail.
IMHO this is something that needs to be banned as non thinking parents will actually buy this and let their children happily ride on to serious harm. A bike like this could do very well in the third world, which is a very frightening thing.

Hmmm, a legitimate "safety" concern -- getting extra weight off the steering, especially the moving around kind -- but not quite fully thought out it seems: 2 riders = a longer bike. Sort of goes without saying.

Dear Ben, there is nothing inherently unsafe with riding double. Or please show me some statistics.

Looks similar to the 'weeride', but with pedals. I ride down staircases on my Kona with my 2 year old son strapped into his weeride seat on the crossbar :)