BYCS Perspectives: Editorial - The cargo bike is already serving as a change-maker
18 MAY 2023
3 MINUTE READ
PERSPECTIVES: FIRST & LAST MILE, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH BYCS
BY TOM PARR, CO-ORGANISER OF THE INTERNATIONAL CARGO BIKE FESTIVAL
Perspectives: First & Last Mile, is a series of articles we’re collaborating on in partnership with cycling NGO BYCS. In it, we explore how sustainable last-mile delivery solutions can positively impact our urban environments and revolutionise logistics.
“away from the spotlights, and often in humble, unglamorous ways, the cargo bike is already serving as a change-maker”
The cargo bike has officially become a major player in the world of transportation. What was once thought of as a niche industry just a few years ago is now breaking free from those confines at an astonishing pace. In the cycling hubs of the Netherlands and Denmark, where cargo bikes have been a common sight for decades, numbers have seen dramatic rises. However, what’s new in recent years is an explosion of cargo bikes in places like Germany, France and the UK, as well as parts of the US and Canada.
These areas, which are of course all relatively affluent by global standards, are all experiencing nothing less than a cargo bike boom. The surge in popularity of cargo bikes has generated significant attention and news coverage; and for good reason. Cargo bikes provide a multitude of well-documented benefits for both personal mobility and businesses alike, most of which centre around reducing the number of larger, less efficient, more polluting vehicles from our roads and streets.
Resilience
But to focus on these aspects of the cargo bike alone is to do it a disservice. There is another side to the story; a side which often gets missed among the cut and thrust of the cargo bike boom. It’s a story about resilience. About how, away from the spotlights, and often in humble, unglamorous ways, the cargo bike is already serving as a change-maker.
As we grapple with the transition away from traditional forms of mobility, there is much to be learned from the resilience demonstrated by these groups and communities and how – often in adverse conditions – they use their cargo bikes.
But to focus on these aspects of the cargo bike alone is to do it a disservice. There is another side to the story; a side which often gets missed among the cut and thrust of the cargo bike boom. It’s a story about resilience. About how, away from the spotlights, and often in humble, unglamorous ways, the cargo bike is already serving as a change-maker.
As we grapple with the transition away from traditional forms of mobility, there is much to be learned from the resilience demonstrated by these groups and communities and how – often in adverse conditions – they use their cargo bikes.
Bicycle-based disaster relief
One definition of resilience refers to coping with – and bouncing back from – catastrophe. That definition seems particularly relevant to initiatives like volunteer-run Disaster Relief Trials (DRT). Originating in the Pacific Northwest of the US, DRT provides a platform for people to practice using their cargo bikes and trailers in disaster scenarios. In the Pacific Northwest’s case this is actually inevitable; when you live close to – or on top of – a fault line, as inhabitants of Oregon do, large earthquakes are a question of when, not if.
DRT is a four-day drill in the form of a race with an emphasis on teamwork. The event, which has been running since 2012, simulates various tasks such as supplying food, water and medicine – or even extracting casualties. In the process, obstacles which would stop a car dead in its tracks are surmounted – often by simply lifting the cargo bike over.
cargo bikes can help us to create and support more stable, sustainable communities that are better prepared to withstand environmental, social and economic challenges
When communications are down and roads blocked, it makes a lot of sense to set up decentralised, community-led capabilities that do not rely on automobiles. DRT events have been held in multiple US cities, and a DRT event was recently held in earthquake-prone Japan.
But bicycle-based disaster resilience isn’t all theoretical. NGO BisiDestek recently put it into practice when they responded to February’s earthquake in southern Turkey; dispatching teams of people with bikes and trailers to deliver essential supplies in Hatay, Antakya and Defne. Bisidestek and DRT are now in contact and are actively sharing knowledge and experiences. It doesn’t take much imagination to think of many more places in which bicycle-based disaster response networks could make an impact.
Ukraine
A rather more slow-burning, yet no less catastrophic, example of a disaster is the war in Ukraine. Since the Russian full-scale invasion, examples of ingenuity and self-reliance among Ukrainians have abounded. One group displaying such qualities is CargoCult. Co-founder and Bicycle Mayor of Kyiv Oleksii Khvorostenko has also set up cycling base, workshop and hangout LifeCycle with a small, savvy group of like-minded entrepreneurs.
Even before war broke out, the group had recognised the commercial potential the cargo bike had to offer. The CargoCult of early 2022 was a fledgling startup which having recovered from the hardships of the pandemic, had just operated through its first extremely busy festive period delivering packages by cargo bike for businesses in Kyiv.
Of course, that all changed in February 2022. In the face of fuel shortages and infrastructure breakdown, CargoCult’s fleet of three cargo bikes have proven to be an ideal solution to deliver humanitarian supplies to the needy across the Ukrainian capital. CargoCult swiftly switched focus, morphing into a volunteer-staffed organisation doing just that.
OK, boomers...
I could carry on naming examples of cargo bike resilience lessons for the mobility transition. This series of BYCS Perspectives in collaboration with the ICBF articles alone – alongside Oleksii of CargoCult – has featured Camilo Urbano’s efforts to bridge gaps in both gender and information in order to promote cycle-logistics in Colombia with DESPACIO, the inroads Valerie Labi’s MANA Mobility has made by designing context-appropriate cargo bikes in Ghana, and Pedal Me’s socially conscious approach to operating in London.
A common thread? The cargo bike is flexible. With creativity, agility and perseverance it can often be used tackle the challenges you see before you. So, what can cargo bike boomers learn from those who have already transitioned – often in adverse conditions – to the cargo bike?
The cargo bike is flexible. With creativity, agility and perseverance it can often be used tackle the challenges you see before you.
We need to think carefully about where the energy and enthusiasm we’re seeing in the cargo bike boom could and should be directed. Yes, cargo bikes should be used to make cities more liveable, reduce our environmental impact and improve public health. Cargo bikes should absolutely be used to take cars and vans off the road. I’m on board; those are all, frankly, no-brainers. Let’s carry on doing that.
But let’s also keep in mind that in transitioning to the cargo bike, we are not replacing like-for-like. And that gives us a chance to adjust our behaviour. Cargo bikes can help us to live within our means. Cargo bikes can help us to reduce our footprint. Cargo bikes can help us to move towards self-sufficiency. And in doing so cargo bikes can help us to create and support more stable, sustainable communities that are better prepared to withstand environmental, social and economic challenges.
The cargo bike is no silver bullet, but neither can its potential role in all of this be overstated. And for us, that is equally as exciting as the cargo bike boom.
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Freight and delivery have and always will be an important necessity for functional city centres. With this comes challenges including congestion and delivery efficiency, fuel cost and pollution, precarious employment for gig-economy workers, and inappropriate mixed use of urban spaces that doesn’t work for delivery companies and puts more vulnerable road-users at risk. However new initiatives making use of zero and low emissions last mile delivery are rising at speed, with many companies implementing varieties of cargobikes and trikes, and monetising this logistics approach in new evolutions of this industry.
Perspectives: First & Last Mile, is a series of articles we’re collaborating on in partnership with cycling NGO BYCS. In it, we explore how sustainable last-mile delivery solutions can positively impact our urban environments and revolutionise logistics.
