Some time back I came up with the idea for a Cargo Bike Club™ along the lines of a City Car Club (read all about it here). Since that time it has been sitting on the back burner and a number of people have been in touch to ask what, if anything, I am doing about it. So I thought it was about time for an update. This post is based on an exchanges of e-mails I have had with interested parties.
Cargo bikes cost about £2K – £4K each and have a high resale value, so security is a bit of an issue. Therefore, having hire stations and security are the key things which are really holding me back. Funding may be less of a problem once I have a clearly laid out business plan ready. There are a range of grants and an increasing number of social enterprise funding models popping up (along the lines of kickstarter.com) which could make it possible to get off the ground.
Most cycle hire schemes use docking stations, where there is no lock on the bike, and you are expected to travel from docking station to docking station, think London, Paris, etc. This model is fine for big city wide schemes, but would be no use for something like the Cargo Bike Club™. Ideally there would be a locking system attached to the bike, which is track-able when the bike is away from its home location. So I have been looking for a suitable locking system, something like the SoBi model. SoBi started out by developing a locking system which would attach to any bike, so that people could start up their own social bike hire schemes. This sounded just the thing I need, sadly they have moved their business model to selling only whole bike systems and won’t just sell me the locking system. Deutsche Bahn have a similar locking system, with their Call a Bike scheme, but I haven’t found out yet if it is possible to buy the locking system (although I have found out how to hack the software to get unlimited free usage).
I did think of trying to get the supermarkets interested, but an earlier attempt to persuade them to provide free bike trailer hire got nowhere. Waitrose has offered this at some stores down south, but showed no interest in Edinburgh, despite a number of customers asking for it. So I thought that having residential hubs might work better, this also makes the bikes available for a wider range of uses, other than just shopping, i.e., the school run, moving flat, etc.
These residential hubs would need parking space, and I am rather hoping the proposed on-street cycle storage scheme which the City of Edinburgh Council is talking of trialling this year will provide a precedent for this. I have also thought of trying to get the Universities interested in hosting hubs near student housing.
Also, given that Edinburgh isn’t exactly flat, I also wondered about getting electric assist for the cargo bikes. There are a number of options available, so it is perfectly possible, and some users would consider it highly desirable. However, there are the obvious downsides of extra cost and the problem of battery charging. So that one requires some more thinking. Having spoken to Neil from Pronto Pedal Power about his Bullitt (my preferred choice of cargo bike, although Dutch models will also be considered), he says the gearing is low enough to manage to get about Edinburgh without electric assist, but then he rides for a living.
One way of dealing with the security issue and electric assist at the same time might be to employ a modified Copenhagen Wheel. I did try contacting MIT about this, they said they would put me on their mailing list for information and updates, and that was the last I heard from them. Well, that is design students for you, just make it look pretty and ignore real world applications.
If all else fails, we could just form a consortium, buy a couple of bikes, cut some keys and set up a Google calendar…
Tuesday, 19th, January 2021 at 23:45
Did you get anywhere with this idea? We have a group interested in setting up similar in Ely, Cambirdgeshire but don’t know where to start. If I still lived in Edinburgh I’d be keen to help. Have you thought about contacting the Forge? Could maybe build a few cargo bikes of your own?
Cheers,
Jethro
Wednesday, 20th, January 2021 at 9:46
Since I first wrote that post a lot has changed, especially on the mainland of Europe.
The range of cargo bike available has increased dramatically, especially e-cargo bikes which are a real game changer in place which aren’t flat.
Also, the technology for bike sharing is also in place in a way that it was back then. There are also an increasing number of city where there is some form of cargo bike sharing schemes (particularly in German-speaking cities). Many of these are using the open-source Commons Cargobike Sharing system, this is probably the easiest way to go about setting up a community-based scheme.
The biggest stumbling block is finding the funding to get started, the reason that so many German-speaking cities have schemes is that there seems to be more accessible funding there.
As for progress in Edinburgh, the Edinburgh Festival of Cycling has an Urban Arrow cargo bike available for hire. However, it hasn’t been able to expand beyond just the one bike as there isn’t enough demand to make expansion viable without further investment.
Thursday, 16th, February 2012 at 16:40
Most people who ride my Bullitt or even the Long-John don’t have a problem adapting. It seems to only take a couple of turns and they’re off.
Sydney has a good scheme called the bike library
http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/environment/TheWatershed/BikeLibrary.asp
It’s a mixed fleet of cargo bikes so you can rent the one that suits your ability or usage.
Having owned a broad spectrum of cargo bikes the most important factor is the overall weight of the bike. I can use the Bullitt as my daily commuting bike quite happily as its half the weight of any of my other cargo bikes. It makes a huge difference on even the smallest hill.
Friday, 27th, January 2012 at 20:16
Because of learning curve of learning to steer Bullits and other wide-basket frontloader styles, I would suggest that you consider the long-tail design of cargo bikes – Yuba Mundo, Trek Transport etc.
Friday, 27th, January 2012 at 21:05
The long john style bikes are very popular in Europe and the long-tail design of cargo bikes seem to more of a North American thing. I suspect there is no perfect solution, but it maybe possible to get a mix of bike to see which works best.
Thursday, 26th, January 2012 at 9:53
What a fantastic idea! I neither own nor ride a cargo bike, but so many people in Cambridge have discovered cargo bikes are a very practical alternative to a car (I’ve seen a few around that look as though they’d carry more than the average hatchback, too).
A club would surely be the best way to go about persuading supermarkets and the like to pay more than lip-service to doing their bit towards helping customers travel to and from stores in a clean, sustainable manner, and could offer courses in basic maintenance to members.
I really think you should go ahead with this!