Carrying Change: what we've learned about cargo bikes this year
Cargo bikes are essential to our work at The Bike Station. On a Wednesday, you might see volunteer Dave cruising through Edinburgh, delivering anything from spare parts to entire bikes between our two branches. As anyone who has driven through central Edinburgh knows, being able to move by bicycle is a much quicker, and more pleasant, way of moving things around!
In Perth, you might also spot Jenny or Dagmara on our beloved cargo bike and equally-adored trailer. We use our Carla Cargo trailer to transport children's bikes to schools for our Kids Bike Life programme. Some of the kids at these schools don't have their own bike, or don't have a safe way of bringing it to school for activities- our cargo bike trailer allows us to provide bikes for those kids who don't have theirs on the day, meaning everyone can take part.
The Bike Station is just one of several organisations in Edinburgh who love cargo bikes, and think that others would love them too! In the last few months we have been digging for information on where cargo bikes are available in Edinburgh, and how to make cargo bikes available and accessible to more people in our city. Below are some highlights of what we learned- you can also download the full reports at the bottom of this page.
Getting over the money hurdle: cargo bike loan schemes in the Lothians
With funding from Spokes Lothian, we started out by mapping the cargo bike loan schemes in Edinburgh and the Lothians. Cargo bikes are wonderful machines, but they are not cheap - the smallest models are often more than £1000, and with larger load-carrying capacity comes a larger bill.
At The Bike Station, we want to see a Scotland where cycling, including cargo cycling, is the norm- and that means removing barriers to it. That's why we offer free cargo bike loans through our Wee Bike Library. We have a stock of cargo bikes in Edinburgh and Perth which are free to borrow for up to 28 days - bikes can be reserved on our Wee Bike library page.
The Bike Station is not alone in doing this either! We learned that there are seventeen cargo bike loan schemes in the Lothians- fifteen of these are free to use and fourteen are open to the public. You can see our full directory of cargo bike loan schemes in our report: Cargo Bike Schemes: A Regional Snapshot.
Carrying change: insights from cargo bikers
Our first report identified a need for more coordination between the many cargo bike lenders in the Lothians. A few months later, the Lothians Cargo Bike Network is up and running, and we are a proud member, of course! The LCBN is an informal collective of cargo bike lending organisations across Edinburgh and the Lothians, established to strengthen collaboration and better understand and increase the impact of cargo bikes in the region.
At the recent LCBN Cargo Bike Carnival, the network launched a second report- this time looking in-depth at the experiences of cargo bike borrowers in the Lothians. The results showed that cargo bike borrowers were overwhelmingly happy with their experience- and that it had far more benefits than just reducing car use.
In a survey of 53 people who borrowed from 5 different lending schemes, 85% said they would "very likely" borrow again. Nearly half (46%) said they used a cargo bike for journeys which would usually be made by car. Nearly 80% of survey respondents said their mental health had improved and over 60% said their physical health had improved after borrowing a cargo bike.
There is not enough space here to fit in all of the interesting insights from the LCBN report, including individual stories and lessons from other European cities. You'll just have to read the report to find out more- or why not learn about cargo bikes by trying one for yourself?
