cargo bike Concepts

Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality

by Melissa Bruntlett and Chris Bruntlett · 27 Aug 2018 · 230pp · 71,834 words

looking even further afield, embracing new ideas and technologies to continue decreasing the number of cars, vans, and trucks on their roadways. Electric-assisted bikes, cargo bikes, and cycle superhighways are being implemented and incentivized, as well as parking solutions that better connect bicycle and rail travel, all in the hopes of

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,” claims Simon. In addition to stocking a number of Dutch brands, including Babboe and Gazelle, their shop boasts a carefully curated selection of city and cargo bikes from Benno, Faraday, Linus, Breezer, Pure Cycles, Xtracycle, and Yuba. Many of these designs are North American variations on the traditional upright Dutch bike—offering

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program. They now offer grants of up to €1,500 ($1,860 USD) to companies who wish to purchase or lease a pedelec or e-cargo bike for commuting employees or daily business use. Belgium, on the other hand, is experimenting with a different incentive model, which, for the past six years

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but in fact, the popularity of these impressive hauling machines is a relatively new rediscovery of an almost lost and forgotten design. The bakfiets, or “cargo bike” as it is more commonly known in English-speaking countries, is a bicycle (or sometimes tricycle) with a large wooden box attached to the front

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of the time simply could not accommodate. Similarly, in the late sixties, as families became smaller and car ownership spiked, the need for a specialized cargo bike—and the price tag that went with it—dwindled. In the following decades, the humble bakfiets all but went extinct, becoming a nostalgic storefront decoration

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they had such great cycle infrastructure at their fingertips. That daily puzzlement eventually inspired a career change, with Sluijsmans dedicating his energy and passion towards cargo bikes. “At a certain point, I started to make a living by cycling, and one of the first things I did was start a bike

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resurrection throughout the Netherlands. Sluijsmans recalls hearing stories of gatherings at Amsterdam’s Vondelpark as early as 1996, where families would meet up with their cargo bikes and show off their ability to transport children. But their potential as freight vehicles was not really being discussed. Having used his own borrowed bakfiets

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be a fun gathering of like-minded people. “Some private companies came from around the country as well as twenty-five people with their own cargo bikes,” Sluijsman remembers. “But what was remarkable is that not all of them were from Nijmegen.” An additional but nice surprise was that, with no

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fun, so we tried to do it again the following year with a little more preparation and more people involved,” Sluijsmans notes proudly. The International Cargo Bike Festival has since continued as an annual event, growing each year to include more vendors from around the world and attracting a global audience. It

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never overlooked: “If you don’t have anything fun happening, who is going to come to a cargo-bike festival other than people who already have cargo bikes?” Sluijsmans is now a household name in the cargo-bike world, spending his time not only as the official organizer of the annual festival, but also a consulting

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. Sluijsmans is also continually amazed at the number of new companies that come to the festival from unexpected places—but with new ideas about how cargo bikes can change the game in both personal and professional transportation. “That’s the interesting thing about sustainability now: there are more and more examples

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Making It Better Like Sluijsmans, Urban Arrow founder Jorrit Kreek is another in a long line of individuals who probably never envisioned themselves leading a cargo-bike renaissance. A student of economics at the University of Groningen, he simply wanted to put his education to use, so, shortly after graduating, he moved

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the front transport rack. Kreek continued importing the Kronan for six years, during which time he started a family. Like many, he invested in a cargo bike to transport his kids around town, opting for the common BakfietsNL model. But he found it clunky and awkward, and progressively difficult as his children

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you made it more comfortable,” Kreek states matter-of-factly. In 2009, after ending his venture with Kronan, he worked with designers to develop a cargo bike that fit three criteria: it had to be lightweight, comfortable, and—most importantly—electric-assisted. Made with an alloy frame, and a box composed of

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allow people to swap the front frame,” explains Kreek. “Once the kids are big enough to bike themselves, they can swap to a more compact cargo bike.” Unlike the more-traditional bakfiets, the Urban Arrow has a frame that is manufactured completely separate from the box portion, of which there are several

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to Europe; Kreek is well aware that in North America cycling is regarded as more of a leisure activity than a daily routine, making a cargo bike unnecessary for many households. Interestingly, however, Kreek sees potential not in large cities like New York City or Los Angeles, but rather smaller, less

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He is optimistic that the American market will develop in time: “In the end it will happen in the United States as well that our cargo bikes are everywhere,” Kreek predicts confidently. “In Amsterdam, it was just 15 years ago that you would be an exception to be riding your kids around

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in a cargo bike. It will take some time, but it will grow.” Back home in the Netherlands, Urban Arrow is quickly building a reputation as the “Rolls Royce

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of cargo bikes,” spreading the cargo-bike culture across the country, and not just as a family bike. Knowing the historic roots of the bakfiets, Kreek saw the potential for Urban

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. “The average delivery vehicle, whether car, van, or truck, takes up space, pollutes, and is inefficient in terms of energy, time, and cost,” he explains. “Cargo bikes provide an option to replace those trips with a compact, adaptable solution that is not adding to the congestion on the streets.” The interchangeability of

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to five years,” boasts Kreek, who recognizes that much of his success comes from partnering with the right individuals. “Our engineers weren’t trained in cargo bike development because that industry didn’t exist yet. We are the front-runners in that respect.” While the future looks very bright for Urban Arrow

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healthy, and more-efficient ways, but they are not without their own logistical problems—space, cost, and, even comfort, despite e-assist. Pedaling an e–cargo bike on a gloriously sunny day presents no difficulty, but once rain or snow sets in, such trips become more challenging. “On paper they are always

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and functionality captured the imagination of North American advocates for many years, like the plain Dutch bike, it remained difficult to access outside Europe. If cargo bikes were to proliferate on this side of the Atlantic, it would take an emerging cycling city to adopt and adapt them, on a retail, manufacturing

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a vibrant and innovative bike-centric destination, attracting inventive talent and creative energy from across the country. “Portland was definitely fertile ground for something like cargo bikes to happen,” notes Jonathan Maus, who has been covering the local bike scene for 12 years as publisher and editor of BikePortland, a blog dedicated

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the title “Bakfiets on Broadway.” At the time—in the early days of social media, blogs, and Google images—the idea of a front-loading cargo bike was extremely novel to his readers, and the post attracted a significant amount of traffic. “I think they’d do very well in Portland, and

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town in the future,” Maus predicted in his entry, unaware that the post itself would eventually serve as the genesis of his city’s nascent cargo-bike scene. “That post really got a lot of attention,” remembers Maus fondly. “It hit a lot of people in Portland orientated towards bicycling in

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no one is importing these things into the United States. They end up rolling open their garage door, finding a source, and bringing in these cargo bikes, and the rest is history.” Since opening up in June 2007, Clever Cycles has cleverly cornered the transport-cycling market, selling a selected range of

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Bike Shop” in America. “Clever Cycles was the pioneer for what I called Portland’s ‘Dutch Bike Invasion,’” says Maus. “It wasn’t just the cargo bikes, but all things Dutch were coming over. They established themselves with the bakfiets, and were able to start a business that’s still around and

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actually quite successful.” Once Clever Cycles had solidified their reputation as a supplier of imported cargo bikes, it wasn’t long before the domestic frame builders and manufacturers got in on the action. Longtime friends Philip Ross and Jamie Nichols emerged from

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and Nichols perfected the process, making it clear that the Portland market had matured to a point where it was ready for its own bespoke cargo-bike manufacturer. To Maus, this was a signal to the community that these freight bikes could be lighter, more responsive, and even more beautiful than

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, imperiling Portland—a group of enterprising citizens arranged a scavenger hunt in which participants pick up medical supplies, food, water, and even “injured” people by cargo bike. Local and statewide agencies have since gotten involved, witnessing firsthand how the aftermath of any natural disaster can benefit from nimble vehicles immune to the

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concerns of clogged streets, energy shortages, and flooded cars. “It is to cargo bikes what tactical urbanism is to activists, in that it gives them a real-life scenario to see how it goes, and to see what goes

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what goes right,” Maus suggests. “And with weather-related disasters on the rise, it’s super-relevant.” The natural next step in Portland’s maturing cargo-bike culture was to start shifting freight via more efficient means, beginning with the formation of B-Line Sustainable Delivery in 2010 by Maine transplants Franklin

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type of delivery service. Portland Pedal Power is another owner-run organization, founded in 2009 by Ken Wetherell, who designed and built his own custom cargo-bike enclosure. Their fleet of 14 delivery bikes brings food and products to businesses in the busy downtown core, having found a niche of catering lunch

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of our streets. There are a lot of mental roadblocks that lead to physical roadblocks.” And much like the case of e-bikes, sales of cargo bikes for personal use also stand to plateau without the proper incentives and infrastructure in place. “The type of people most likely to want to use

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are evangelistic about cargo bikes, Portland has an exciting scene of people who see electrifying them as a natural fit. And those two worlds have merged,” Maus asserts. “It’s

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really transformative what electric-powered cargo bikes can do to a city.” Reimagining the Shipping Container In addition to UPS’s rather modest entry into the world of cycle logistics in Portland

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proportions in the coming years. Much like Rotterdam embraced the shipping container as a concept that revolutionized international shipping, DHL is betting that a smaller, cargo-bike-sized container will do the same for urban freight. Acting as the primary last-mile vehicle in that visionary new model is the “Armadillo,” a

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should have one or two cars doesn’t fit into a sustainable budget.” A 2006 visit to Copenhagen opened his eyes to the world of cargo bikes, inspiring Erlandsson to return home and replace his Toyota Prius with a Nihola front-loading tricycle. As he began to research the topic of the

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velo-mobile—a weather-protected, human-powered vehicle with low wind resistance—he got the idea of combining it with the carrying capacity of a cargo bike, creating what he imagined would be a “car killer.” “You would have almost all the qualities you get from a car,” he suggests, “but

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were in the process of building Erlandsson’s third prototype northeast of Amsterdam, he decided to accept Jos Sluijsmans’s invitation to attend the International Cargo Bike Festival 100 kilometers away in Nijmegen. There he made a connection with a representative from DHL, which would further refine the design of his invention

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destination, and then several containers are picked up and stacked in a central location by a single truck. Each container is then transferred to a cargo bike, which can then run a route of up to 40 parcels, returning the empty container when the deliveries are completed. These empties are then sent

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back to the airport terminal by van, traveling anywhere from 20 to 40 kilometers away from the city center. Figure 6-4: Velove’s “Armadillo” cargo bike in action, complete with detachable container, which DHL hopes will revolutionize urban freight. (Credit: DHL Express) “The pure business argument is that you get

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high productivity in congested cities, because you’re faster on a cargo bike in a dense city center,” explains Erlandsson. With up to double the productivity—twice as many parcels delivered per hour with a bike than a

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handling larger and larger amounts of freight, especially with the seemingly boundless growth of e-commerce. “We think it’s important to understand when a cargo bike is the best option and when it’s not,” he proposes. “We’re definitely not suggesting that we’re replacing all of the trucks and

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Arnhem and Nijmegen Experience. Eindhoven, Netherlands: Foundation for the History of Technology, 2017. Boxer Cycles. “Where It All Began.” http://boxercycles.com/history-of-the-cargo-bike/, accessed October 16, 2017. Cathcart-Keays, Athlyn. “Where Is the Most Cycle-Friendly City in the World?” The Guardian (online), January 5, 2016, https://www

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.org/a-new-design-for-san-franciscos-grand-thoroughfare-is-finally-emerging-cc12e7c0cb41, accessed November 9, 2017. International Cargo Bike Festival. “Short History of the Cargo Bike.” http://www.cargobikefestival.com/news/short-history-of-the-cargo-bike/, accessed October 16, 2017. Jordan, Peter. In the City of Bikes. New York: HarperCollins, 2013. Kager, Roland, Luca

Copenhagenize: The Definitive Guide to Global Bicycle Urbanism

by Mikael Colville-Andersen · 28 Mar 2018 · 293pp · 90,714 words

Secret Cycling Language 13. A2Bism 14. The Art of Gathering Data THE TOOLBOX 15. Best-Practice Design & Infrastructure 16. Prioritizing Cycling 17. Design & Innovation 18. Cargo Bike Logistics 19. Curating Transferable Ideas 20. Communication & Advocacy Conclusion Introduction I have spent the past decade staring intently at urban cyclists in cities around the

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ceremoniously requested “The Bicycle Material.” The employee shrugged and wandered off, returning with just three archive boxes. Heading home with the family tree on a cargo bike. “That’s it?! Three boxes for over a century in one of the world’s great bicycle cities?!” She explained that the archive was categorized

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cities. It’s transport, it’s a shopping cart, it’s a family adhesive, it’s an analog dating app. With the rise of the cargo bike, it’s an SUV. It’s everything you can imagine, anything you wish, and whatever you want it to be—and it’s been all

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sudden reduced mobility that is frustrating, rather than the loss of the object. I once made a mistake in Copenhagen when I left my Bullitt cargo bike parked in front of my apartment instead of in my back courtyard—and I only locked it with a wheel lock and not with a

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chain around a fixed object. Cargo bikes are expensive and the quality Danish brands maintain a high resale value, so I was asking for it. I schlepped down the stairs with my

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regarding it as a democratic tool. The same perception can be seen in cities in Central and Latin America where, bizarrely and fantastically, bikes and cargo bikes are still used for deliveries in great numbers. The Brazilian cycling NGO Transporte Ativo calculated that there are over 11,000 deliveries a day by

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bike or cargo bike in the Copacabana neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. Everything is moved by bike there. Dry-cleaning, mattresses, pet food, groceries. The hip young cultural

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. It is not designed for a mainstream bicycle city, and the architect didn’t bother researching the fact that in Copenhagen we have 40,000 cargo bikes filled with kids and goods. The basic principles of Danish design—practical, functional, elegant—were sadly forgotten in the choice of this bridge. On

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the city, Oslo Bysykkel, uses bikes with three gears. It’s perfectly easy to get up the hills on those or even on my Bullitt cargo bike. Let’s cast a glance at Japan. The third-greatest cycling nation in the world with a 15 percent modal cycling share nationally. Tokyo, too

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in Copenhagen. Cycling on a hot summer’s day in Rio de Janeiro. Vintage photo from Rio de Janeiro’s proud cycling past. Photographer: Unknown Cargo bike transport in Nanortalik, Greenland. © Theis Mortensen Hills are what gets talked about, but it’s surprising how often the wind is left out of the

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car at that age, the price is hardly prohibitive. Creative way to double on a bike. Copenhagener arriving home with the weekly shopping in a cargo bike. Now known as “quaxing.” Another factor is prosperity. The tax has been rendered quite irrelevant, what with increasing Danish wages since the 1980s. It

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required by Swedish law. The entire building is designed for cycling residents. The doors and the elevators are wider than normal in order to accommodate cargo bikes. Residents can, in principle, roll their bikes into the building, up the elevator, and right into their apartments. Even right up to the fridge

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is widened to accommodate them. The unwritten standard for cycle-track width is that you and I can cycle together, having a conversation, and a cargo bike can pass us. When the speed limit for cars hits 70 km/h (43 mph) or higher, such as highway speeds, there is only

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are arriving or departing and to free up space. One car parked outside a school takes up space that can instead accommodate many bikes and cargo bikes. The best solution is found in Japan, where it is simply illegal in many places to drop off your kid at daycare or school in

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limits the ease of use when you are embarking on the school run or doing errands. By reallocating one and half car-parking spots, four cargo bikes can be securely parked on the street. Here’s how it worked. The shell is made of fiberglass and comprises four separate cabins, each with

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room for one cargo bike. Four solar-powered “headlights” turn on in the dark hours, and a light turns on inside when one of the doors is opened. Hooks

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other gear. The countdown helps you determine whether you’ll make it or not. There is an increased focus on cargo bike parking across the board. Outside of Fields shopping center, dedicated cargo bike parking spots are outside the main entrance. Supermarket chain Lidl has also made similar parking spots outside some of their

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of Copenhagen has a version in place in some neighborhoods. The primary issue in the neighborhoods is on-street parking where people can leave their cargo bikes overnight. I took a serious look at this and designed the Copenhagenize Bar. Cyclehoop in London helped out with the prototyping. More than 90

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percent of the cargo bikes in Copenhagen have a step-through frame, so the design allows for the solid bar to secure the bike without even touching it. The weak

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also feature air pumps, either with compressed air or with good old-fashioned foot pumps as an added service. Dedicated cargo bike parking outside Fields shopping center. Concept and photo: Lasse Schelde Prototyped cargo bike parking with space for four family bikes. Public repair station in Fredericia, Denmark. Cyclist handle prototype by the author

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life-sized-city fame, started her career as the world’s youngest urbanist at the age of three and a half. She was in our cargo bike and we were heading to the hardware store on a Saturday afternoon. At a red light, she looked over and saw a motorcycle with a

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, farther along, I realized that she had been intensely observing her urban theater, looking for examples of two people transporting themselves together, be it other cargo bikes or pedestrians. She suddenly declared to me, “Daddy, cars are silly.” I asked her why. “Because I can’t see the people in them.”

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beautiful. They would work. Most importantly, they would be safer than at any point in the last 100 years. Simple, really. Lulu-Sophia in a cargo bike. Kids from Felix’s class on a site visit to the roundabout. The class’s model of their proposed changes to the intersection. CHAPTER 18

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CARGO BIKE LOGISTICS Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage—to

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move in the opposite direction. Albert Einstein A DHL trike competing in a svajerløb cargo bike race in Barcelona in 2017. Bicycles, like so many finely tuned string and wind instruments, are rewriting the score in our cities. What we

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see happening now is that bicycles are finally getting some serious accompaniment from a solid and dependable bass section. Cargo bikes. At this point, you probably know what I’m going to say. By now, you should be seeing a clear pattern in this book

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—in Russia, Australia, France, Mexico, Brazil, the United States, and so on. It was a tireless workhorse for urban transport. In a few cities, the cargo bike survived the onslaught of automobile culture. Interestingly, in Central and South America it continues to serve its purpose for deliveries from markets and shops. To

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can transport on two or three wheels. As much as I would love to spend an enormous amount of time on the history of urban cargo bikes, I think it best to focus on where we are right now. Between 2011 and 2014, Copenhagenize Design Company was a partner in the

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European Union project Cyclelogistics. The declared goal of the project was to raise awareness about the usefulness of cargo bikes in European cities on different levels: private citizens and their families; small goods delivery; and even heavy logistics. It is especially the first two categories

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that are enjoying exponential growth not only in Europe but around the world. In Greater Copenhagen, I have calculated that there are over 40,000 cargo bikes in daily use. The primary function is family transport, whether for groceries or moving kids around. As a general rule, when one partner becomes

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pregnant the other partner starts collecting cargo bike brochures. The cargo bike is a replacement for a car or at least for the family’s second car. While the design of most two-wheeled and three

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-wheeled cargo bikes is over 100 years old, the revival in Copenhagen started in the mid 1980s when a bike designer in the free town of Christiania, Lars

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the kids to use. Many of them are designed to be social and all of them are designed to help the children be active. Small cargo bikes for moving stuff but also for taking your friends for a ride. I don’t know for sure, but I have seen at least 30

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, but the citizens of Copenhagen, looking at opportunities for selling things, realized that the most efficient way to sell anything on the streets was a cargo bike. Thanks to Copenhageners’ collective ingenuity, an incredible number of rolling solutions saw the light of day. You can virtually eat and drink your way through

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the center of the city by purchasing things from cargo bikes, whether it’s coffee, crepes, soup, corn on the cob, or cold water, to name a few. You can also grab a newspaper or

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buy souvenirs. Many services roll around the city on cargo bikes, as do many plumbers and electricians. The City of Copenhagen even offers mobile municipal services where you can stop and renew your passport or social

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security card from a cargo bike. For more than 20 years, municipal organizations have offered citizens free cargo bikes to borrow in the event that they are moving apartments or need to transport things from a hardware store

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, for example. Many small companies have realized that using cargo bikes instead of motor vehicles is much easier and far less expensive. Nevertheless, there is an enormous growth potential for small-goods delivery in Copenhagen and

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every city on the planet. We are still far from the levels of cargo bike transport that we enjoyed in the 1920s and 1930s. In the Cyclelogistics project, we conducted research into this potential. It turns out that a

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delivery companies in Copenhagen in the 1930s. © Museum of Copenhagen’s Photo Archive A Copenhagen family heading to the beach on two cargo bikes. One of the many vendors using cargo bikes to sell their wares. In this case, coffee. Copenhagenize Design Company’s conceptualization of depots on the harbor to connect barges with

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last-mile delivery. They simply did the math. In their first phase, they saved €530,000 (US$622,000) by replacing vans with two-wheeled cargo bikes—big savings in a competitive market. They also improved their delivery times, which isn’t bad either when you are competing for customers. What happened

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with bikes. This market is developing so fast that it’s hard to keep track of how many cities now feature global logistics companies using cargo bikes as vehicles for transporting packages. In 2017, there were at least 50 such cities in Europe. Add to that the many smaller companies that

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a company called Vanapedal has been operating a micro–distribution center in the heart of Barcelona where trucks drop off packages in the morning and cargo bikes deliver them in the neighborhoods. In 2017, I spoke at the European Cyclelogistics conference in Vienna and was amazed to see so many new faces

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and companies present. Cargo bike logistics is an exciting area to watch develop. In so many ways, it’s a no-brainer, what with urbanization and the growing number of

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past congested highways and streets. As ever, in so many aspects of urban life we simply need to go back to the future, not least cargo bikes for transport. There is a great deal of focus, especially in Europe, on projects that investigate using alternative forms of transport for goods delivery. Such

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projects often combine smaller vehicles, including cargo bikes, with distribution centers, ships, and barges. The resourcefulness of the logistics industry is helping to accelerate our efforts. The harbor in Copenhagen was decommercialized 20

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The plans I have seen do not place it near the water, which is regrettable. I developed an idea for combining barges, preferably electric, with cargo bikes for last-mile delivery. Let’s face it—trucking companies don’t find it cost-efficient to drive in cities, which is the last thing

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barges sailing quietly up and down the harbor or rivers and dropping off packages at specially designed depots on the waterfront. Designed, of course, for cargo bikes to roll gracefully in, gather packages, and then head out for last-mile delivery. As ever, in so many aspects of urban life we simply

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insurance up to a certain amount that includes the bikes you use in your daily life. If you have a fancy sports bike or a cargo bike, you will usually have to buy a supplement. If you buy a new bike in Denmark, it must be equipped with a wheel lock.

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host of the global television series about urbanism, The Life-Sized City. His writings include the popular blog Copenhagenize and the books Cycle Chic and Cargo Bike Nation. Island Press | Board of Directors Pamela B. Murphy (Chair) Terry Gamble Boyer (Vice-Chair) Author Deborah Wiley (Secretary) Chair Wiley Foundation, Inc. Tony Everett

Ghost Road: Beyond the Driverless Car

by Anthony M. Townsend · 15 Jun 2020 · 362pp · 97,288 words

the comfort of riding a train. Figure 3-3. Rovers and software trains. (a) AV wheelchairs provide indoor and outdoor mobility for nonambulatory people. (b) Cargo bikes become electrified, and automated, providing low-emission, safe, and quiet mobility for human-assisted deliveries. (c) Scooters employ limited automation to deadhead between rides and

Straphanger

by Taras Grescoe · 8 Sep 2011 · 428pp · 134,832 words

, a mud guard over the chain, and a rat-trap above the rear fender. They are cheap enough to be practically disposable; the exceptions are cargo bikes, which have become something of a status symbol. These sturdy tricycles, with two small, swiveling front wheels and deep round cargo bays that call to

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vendors pedal. They have become the SUVs of Copenhagen; Lindholm said a quarter of all Copenhagen families with two or more kids now own a cargo bike, and a new Nihola, one of the most coveted brands, can cost $4,000. Even Denmark’s crown prince Frederik is regularly photographed ferrying his

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youngest son around in a Nihola bike. “You can easily carry three children in a cargo bike, and a week’s worth of groceries,” said Lindholm, as we pulled to the curb in the back-streets of Vesterbro, a working-class district

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a Studebaker spun out of cotton candy, was divided into flaps that could be lowered and locked to provide secure overnight parking for four cargo bikes. “We love that cargo bikes have exploded in popularity, but they are difficult to park at regular bike racks. This way, we take away street parking from cars

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neatly laid out on cloth-covered tables, I poked my head into Christiania Bikes. In 1984, a blacksmith named Lars Engstrom built a front-loading cargo bike for his wife, Annie, to ferry their kids around Christiania. His design was adopted by the Danish post office and would later inspire the Nihola

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cargo bike. I saw examples of the commune’s ingenious mode of transportation, often emblazoned with the distinctive three-dotted Christiania flag, outside day care centers and

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tables. Outside one of the houses on Eckersbergsgade, I met Niels, who was bringing his four-year-old son Julius back from kindergarten in a cargo bike. He invited me inside his house for a quick tour. “Our house was built in 1883,” said Niels, as we walked through airy, sunlit rooms

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up to the Savoy on his trademark white Bullitt. He explained it was a modern version of the Long John, the long-framed two-wheel cargo bike Danish deliverymen once used to carry bricks and 200-pound sacks of cement. Normally, Colville-Andersen perches his son Felix and his daughter Lulu-Sophia

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since I’ve been to Copenhagen, I’ve been trying to convince my wife to visit that urban utopia on the Baltic, where people ride cargo bikes instead of driving SUVs and even the elderly are fit enough to pedal. All these cities share a common trait: they have fostered an enviable

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local version of Zipcar. And going to Copenhagen has given me an idea. We’ve recently spotted a couple in our neighborhood who use a cargo bike, imported from Denmark, to shuttle their young children to and from school. For a fraction of the cost of an SUV, we could pedal our

How Cycling Can Save the World

by Peter Walker · 3 Apr 2017 · 231pp · 69,673 words

amid the traffic before having a shower at the office might seem a good idea. If your journey involves a child seat or even a cargo bike, it’s suddenly much less appealing. There is also a hypothesis that women face more risk riding in heavy traffic in cities. This is based

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at age twelve. I spent a couple of January days cycling around the city with my son, then age five: me pedaling a weighty rented cargo bike, him wrapped up in a pair of thick blankets in the front section. Progress was slow, the light was dim, and there were occasional snow

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. Along with improved bike paths and parking, the city carried out projects like installing municipal bike pumps, and giving citizens the chance to try out cargo bikes. The public health savings alone were calculated at almost $5 million, with the average person in the city forecast to live five months longer thanks

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—no one beyond a few zealots is proposing a complete ban on trucks and vans. The other answer is perhaps a bit surprising. Some modern cargo bikes, especially those with electric assistance, are plenty big enough for a fridge, and the very biggest might even stand a chance with a sofa. Neither

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sold now have electric assist. This technology is helping drive a new type of bike-based freight business. When I visited Outspoken! Delivery, a pioneering cargo bike company in the traditionally bike-friendly English city of Cambridge, they were about to take delivery of their biggest e

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-cargo bike yet, a behemoth with a cargo bay almost the size of that in a small van. They let me try out what was their biggest

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era has left roads in many places clogged with vans delivering large numbers of laughably tiny packages that could be much more simply delivered on cargo bikes. Some see this change as inevitable. “Retail is moving online and the number of deliveries being made is going through the roof,” says Sam Keam

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being made in more cycle-friendly nations in continental Europe. Vienna has a successful start-up business delivering healthy meals with a fleet of branded cargo bikes. One company in Prague promises its bikes can deliver a takeaway meal inside seven minutes of its being ordered. The Swedish city of Gothenburg, meanwhile

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, is specifically targeting cargo bike distribution as a way to make its streets more pleasant and human-friendly. It is currently testing a strange-looking contraption called the Armadillo. With

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think it’s going to be a combination of shared cars, of city cars, of public transport, bicycles, electric bicycles, of freight distribution by electric cargo bikes.” This sounded like a rapid timetable, I said—would the end of the private car really come within such a time? He was adamant: “I

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’” (video), The Guardian, October 24, 2012, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/video/2012/oct/24/visijax-cycling-jacket-video. 5 Peter Walker, “The Cargo Bike—Somewhere Inbetween the Courier and the Truck,” The Guardian, May 2, 2012, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2012/may/02

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/cargo-bike-city-courier-truck. 6 Ibid. 7 Interview with the author. 8 Pete Jordan, In The City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist (New

Bikenomics: How Bicycling Can Save the Economy (Bicycle)

by Elly Blue · 29 Nov 2014 · 221pp · 68,880 words

, though it would be easy to spend somewhat less or quite a bit more if you were inclined. On the high end, a fancy European cargo bike might set you back as much as $4,000. If your heart is set on an electric pedal assist, that could add another $2,000

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amazing traffic calming effect—nobody felt inclined to pass me too closely. Over the years, I bought a trailer—and then a cargo bike—and then a trailer for the cargo bike—and that’s when things got really out of hand. I’ve moved a full size bed and frame (with a friend

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a take-out pizza to the back of my bicycle one summer evening when a guy rushed out of the restaurant to ask about my cargo bike. He was a tourist on a week-long visit and his excitement about being in Portland was infectious. He and his wife and their young

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didn’t take long for her to grow big enough to ride gleefully on the back of Mike’s longtail cargo bike. At that point, Irene made an unexpected announcement: She wanted a cargo bike too. After discussing all the logistics, the only sticking point seemed to be storage—with two cars and Mike

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encourage bicycling customers. And they provide each business with two to four bicycles for staff to use for business purposes, and each district with a cargo bike that businesses can borrow to use for deliveries, promotions, or just for fun. It’s a winning combination, and a smart one. Public processes that

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after a top climate scientist was killed by a left-turning heavy truck, and the law may go through this time. Johnson didn’t mention cargo bikes in his plans for London’s freight future, but companies like B-Line are perfectly suited for a role in this new ecosystem. Bicycles and

The Mesh: Why the Future of Business Is Sharing

by Lisa Gansky · 14 Oct 2010 · 215pp · 55,212 words

type of personalization is simply to offer a range of options. For instance, I would like to see more companies offer cargo bikes, which have a longer chassis. On a cargo bike, a parent can carry a kid or two to the market with no crying—by the parent or child—and no lost

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a few miles away. In North America only a few companies, such as Specialized and Trek with Gary Fisher, make or distribute cargo bikes. In Denmark and in Amsterdam, a number of companies build cargo bikes. The cargo bike example highlights a key advantage to Mesh businesses. They often offer different tools for different jobs—a

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cargo bike for trips to the store, but a light, fast road bike for taking a ride around the park. Having access to a variety

The Windup Girl

by Paolo Bacigalupi · 15 Sep 2009 · 523pp · 144,971 words

. Near the building's entrance, a pair of men have begun handing out fliers to everyone they can reach. Another pair coast past on a cargo bike, its bin stacked with more fliers. One man jumps down and sticks a flier to a lamp post before hopping back up on the slowly

In the City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist

by Pete Jordan · 20 Aug 2012 · 407pp · 117,763 words

behind their parents in rear seats, the kind I’d seen used in the United States. Other kids rode in large wooden boxes on elongated cargo bikes, contraptions I’d never seen in America. Some infants rode in little seats between their parents and the handlebars, complete with little windshields. Babies rode

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spuds. “General Hunger” has called the roll on the IJ Ferry and his emaciated followers have reported themselves present. Wretches with ramshackle vehicles, patched up cargo bikes without tires, rented handcarts or the chassis of a baby carriage laboriously dragged along by a rope. “General Hunger” points toward the north. . . . With a

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Amsterdam. Unlike previous moves within Amsterdam, where I had moved all our belongings on Brownie, this time I transported all our stuff on a huge cargo bike borrowed from Amy Joy’s employer on a snowy February day. A few months after we had settled into our new digs, it was time

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wanted to go, just leave it for the next user.” Grootveld—who had long been intrigued by bikes (a decade earlier he’d ridden a cargo bike from Amsterdam to Paris)—said in an interview (in English) the following year that he’d conceived public-use bikes as a kid during the

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skinny and flimsy, they seemed like they could be snipped open using little more than fingernail clippers. Many bikes—even racing bikes, fixed-gear bikes, cargo bikes—were secured by nothing but a single toy-like lock. And, curiously, only the front wheels of many bikes were locked, which left the rest

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years of experience in canal dredging replied: “No, nothing peculiar is ever dredged up. Sure, a car comes up, a motorcycle comes up. Handcarts and cargo bikes come up; bed frames and regular bikes come up. But anything peculiar? Never.” BIKE FISHING HAD already become a common sight by the 1930s, as

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’ rights began. Early on the morning of February 17, 1970, two dozen bundled-up youths (many of them medical students) pedaled 25 rented three-wheeled cargo bikes—bakfietsen—through the snow on Utrechtsestraat to Dam Square. For a period, the cyclists tied up the morning car commute by riding at a deliberately

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hour, they return the bikes with pained looks on their faces from saddle soreness!” * These young men, working for a 1930s business enterprise, rode large cargo bikes to customers’ homes, where they replaced soiled cat litter with fresh litter. * The line about chess-playing cyclists comes from the 1957 edition of Eugene

Transport for Humans: Are We Nearly There Yet?

by Pete Dyson and Rory Sutherland · 15 Jan 2021 · 342pp · 72,927 words

and we must surely strive to invent and invest to make alternatives more alluring and easier to choose. Targeting investment at e-bikes and e-cargo bikes in hilly regions like North Yorkshire is one such strategy. Research from the University of Leeds used topographical and physiological models to work out how