At the end of March, held in London’s iconic Guildhall, the National Cargo Bike Summit was opened by bicycle industry lifer Phillip Darnton OBE, a trade veteran that has seen trends come and go. From his position leading the Bicycle Association in one form or another over the years there are few better placed to trust when understanding whether something is niche, emerging or mainstream. Speaking to a chamber that was fuller than some events that address all bicycle types, Phillip opened by exclaiming “Welcome to taking cargo bikes mainstream.”
Around 10,000 units that can be defined as cargo bikes sold in the UK in 2022, which is admittedly a small number, but nonetheless it was one of the few segments that retained growth and at the fastest rate of all segments. That, for anyone living in cities, or observing the quiet progress big logistics businesses are making to greening up fleets, will be no surprise. As Britain often is on urban trends, we trail mainland Europe’s larger markets, which if you’re opportunistic, means there’s still time to get involved and ride the wave up. After all, explained Phillip, Europe expects to shunt 400,000 cargo bike units this year, something that he said would “save 300,000 tonnes of CO2 versus using vans.”
In Europe there is separate legislation driving the ‘greenification’ of fleet vehicles. A European Cycling Declaration sits juxtaposed to a UK Government that has just slashed two thirds of the active travel budget and essentially kneecapped the newly formed […]
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