Guest Blog: Legacy of the Cargo Bike Movement

In the face of an increasingly difficult funding landscape, Cargo Bike Movement made the difficult decision of winding up our operations at the end of the 2024-25 project year, entrusting The Bike Station with our vision and mission. We want to introduce our work for those who don’t know us!

In 2020, the pandemic worsened the already critical issue of food insecurity, resulting in the disruption of established food distribution networks. A group of us came together and started using cargo bikes to redistribute surplus food from supermarkets to people who needed it. This also prevented wastage and reduced CO2 emissions, addressing the intersecting issues of food insecurity and the climate and ecological crises. The food collections grew to over 50 volunteers, and since monitoring began in 2021, these food runs have redistributed 115,000 kg of food, preventing 73,000 kg of CO2 emissions.

Cargo bikes provided a simple, emissions-free transport option for pickups, and it became clear to us that they could be a powerful tool for transforming our city. We envisioned cargo bikes replacing cars for everyday trips: dropping kids off at school, last-mile business deliveries, and much, much more. A city where cargo bikes replace cars and vans is a city with safer roads, with better air quality, and with people experiencing the joy of using active transport.

This was our vision, and we recognised a gap of awareness, skill, and resource preventing people from making use of cargo bikes. Scotland’s first Cargo Bike Hub was born out of this - a shared resource space where we facilitated free loans and ran training sessions, lowering the barrier of entry for first-time cargo bike users. The impact of the loans is apparent: 96% of our service users felt that access to a cargo bike had (or would) reduce their personal car use, and 93% felt that riding a cargo bike improved their wellbeing.

We have also facilitated cargo bike adoption through community groups as long-term loans, and supported several groups to set up cargo bike libraries. This support was offered through ride leader training and providing advice on insurance, loan agreements, and booking procedures. Some bikes found homes in local community groups with Cargo Bike Movement providing mechanical servicing for the bikes. Supporting these local hubs has been an important part of moving towards a model of shared cargo bike use in Edinburgh. 

Our 2024-25 project year started off with some hurdles. We were unsuccessful in fundraising initially, which delayed the start of our project year by several months. Despite this we managed to work effectively towards our milestones and exceeded our targets for cargo bike loans, training, events, and many miles clocked on our fleet. We have seen momentum building for adoption of cargo bikes, but we recognised that relying on short-term grants presents an untenable level of risk year on year, and continuing in the same way could endanger our mission. The decision was made then to wind up Cargo Bike Movement and entrust our mission with the Bike Station, a longtime collaborator and friend that shares our vision for active travel as a tool for meaningful change.

We believe that our mission is more important than ever as our communities face a multitude of crises: climate change, biodiversity loss, health inequality, and debilitating isolation. We must continue to imagine and work toward a future in which our communities and planet thrive. This vision is one we share with the Bike Station, who promote active travel through programs like Shifting Gears and Kids Bike Life, and with shared use resource programs like the Wee Bike Library. We are thrilled that The Bike Station will be the custodians of this next chapter, and we can’t wait to see what it will mean for promoting cargo bike use in Edinburgh and beyond! 

Read more about Cargo Bike Movement's work in our 2020-2025 Impact Report.