On the first day of the Velo-city 2019 the participants of the “City Changer Cargo Bike” session discussed the limitless potential of the cargo bikes to solve many mobility problems and their power to change our cities.

“Cargo bikes are a climate-friendly, space-saving and health increasing mobility and transport option for private and commercial users!” stated Susanne Wrighton, Project Manager at Forschungsgesellschaft Mobilität. She presented the City Changer Cargo Bike project (CCCB) that builds on the limitless potential of cargo bikes, promoting their usage among public, private, and commercial users. The project reunites 20 partners, 15 of which are cities, and uses the unique selling points of the cargo bike to raise awareness among stakeholders, taking the most successful measures that have been implemented and rolling them out across European cities.  

During her presentation she raised the issue of the cities being constantly suffocated by cars and vans and the fact that we seem to have accepted that we can no longer move around in public spaces independently, or the fact that the rules in the cities are accommodating more the cars than the population. Furthermore, there are hundreds of accidents happening every year because of the cars, many of which could be avoided by shifting more trips to cargo bikes.   

Cargo bikes are more than capable to take the load and the ways we can use them are plentiful. Their usage was proved to be ideally suited to work in combination with other transportation modes and it was also noted their natural affinity for the food sector, more and more food deliveries in European cities being made with their help.

James Thoem, from Copenhagenize Design Co., partner of the CCCB project, presented an initiative within CCCB called ‘A Mayor’s Guide to Cargo Bikes’ which concentrates on what can a city do in order to promote their use and make a city more cargo bike friendly. He presented many opportunities, ideas and case studies from across Europe, using cargo bikes in different sectors like: retail, food sector, logistics, family, community and public sector.

Finally, Richarg Armitage, the Executive Director from European Cycle Logistics Federation, talked about the Conference ‘Smarter Last Mile Deliveries by Bike’, which reunited many participants having as a main goal to put cycle logistics and cargo bikes on the map: ‘Cycle logistics and cargo bikes are not the solution, but are part of the solution to congestions and improving air quality’ stressed Mr. Armitage in his speech.

At the end of the session, several questions were raised by the audience, one of the main concerns being the problem of the parking for the cargo bikes and how to create more spaces that are also safe and secure. Niccolo Panozzo from the European Cyclists’ Federation concluded that ‘It is a matter of prioritizing the space for the cargo bikes and the city has to get involved into this process’.