Cargobikes and breaking news with BBC News' Anna Holligan
đ and you could win a (tiny) bakfiets in our first contest!
Hello everyone,
Welcome to Issue #3 of Cargobike Culture!
This week I got to speak to the BBCâs Netherlands correspondent and famous cargobiker Anna Holligan! You might have seen Anna delivering her âDutch News from the cyclepathâ segments on Twitter. We talked about that, how the cargobike has become a key journalism tool and of course, what her daughter thinks about it all.
Two Exciting Announcements!
The first piece of news is that Cargobike Culture is going weekly! Get ready for more cargobikes in your life. Expect a newsletter in your inbox every Friday morning.
The second bit of news is that Iâm turning on optional paid subscriptions.
Weâre 3 issues in and Iâm really grateful for the 100 of you (!) who have subscribed. Thank you, it really means a lot to me. And Iâm glad so many of you are loving reading it. So much so apparently, that a few of you generous people have already pledged to become paid subscribers!
Cargobike Culture will always be free, its a passion project for me and I love writing it. And this isnât an expensive endeavour. But there are some costs. Like train tickets to Amsterdam and The Hague to visit the dog walking company, and family doctor who do their work via cargobike (those stories are coming up in February/March). If youâd like to throw a little cash towards that, Iâm very grateful. But equally, just by subscribing and reading youâre supporting the newsletter and that's enough.
But if you DO decide to subscribe, youâll have the chance to win your own (very small) cargobike! Details belowâŚ
Follow up
This week I saw our local Cargoroo getting a service. Itâs cool and all, but I wish it was being serviced by a bike mechanic with their own cargobike. Though in fairness, there is an entire bike repair shop in the back of that enormous van. If youâre going to have a big stinky diesel truck, at least itâs keeping bicycles on the road.
Meet a Cargobiker - Anna Holligan and her daughter Zena
This story contains some embedded Twitter videos which donât work in some email apps. You might find it easier to read the story on cargobikeculture.com.
What do most parents do between dropping their kids at school, and heading to work? Whatever your answer, I bet Anna Holliganâs morning is different.
After leaving her daughter Zena at school, Anna hops back on her cargobike and affixes her iPhone to a long selfie stick mounted to the handlebars. Then she presses record, and whilst cycling to the office, delivers a 5 minute Netherlands news update to the camera. All from memory. Take a look below.
Since 2011 Anna has been The Hague Correspondent for BBC News. Whilst sheâs well know for her âDutch news from the cyclepathâ segments, sheâs covered every major news story to come out of the Netherlands including the MH17 criminal trial, secret Chinese police stations and the dutch farmers protests. And her cargobike has delivered her to (almost) every story.
But as well as being a world class outside broadcast unit, Annaâs bike is the main transport for her, her six year old daughter Zena, their incredibly fluffy cat Mitten and dog Monty.
And it was after dinner on a Friday evening when I caught up with them both over Zoom to chat about cargobikes. By that point of the week with my own 4 year old, I was exhausted and would have understood if Anna wanted to reschedule. But with a tenacity you might expect from a journalist, she found me a slot after a briefing on the war in Ukraine and before Zenaâs bedtime.
Bikeless in Birmingham
From growing up in Edinburgh, to arriving in The Hague in 2011, cycling was never more than a hobby for Anna. As a child, family mountain biking trips in the Penland Hills were one thing, but cycling down Princes Street, one of Edinburghâs main arteries wasnât on the cards. Cycling was absent during her time at uni in Birmingham, and then after moving to Hackney in London to start working with the BBC in 2006, the tube looked the safer option.
âThere were no bike paths when I was growing up in Edinburgh. And I think you need body armour and incredible resilience to get on a bike in Londonâ.
It wasnât until arriving in the Netherlands for her first foreign assignment that she began biking. And when I asked how her love of dutch cycling started, she struggled to pinpoint the exact moment. She explained âI went and bought the typical dutch omafiets, started riding and never stoppedâ. Cycling became her default way of getting around town.
A few laters later and Zena (or Z to her mum and friends) came along. She started with Z sat on a front mounted seat, and eventually a rear mounted one. This was working out fine until Z turned 4 and school started. âZâs school is 5km from our house, and it was taking 45 minutes each way. I couldnât afford to spend an hour and a half cycling to school and back every dayâ.
So after a trip to a bicycle shop, Anna and Zena took home a brand new Urban Arrow Family. It was a lot of money upfront, and Anna originally had her eye on a cheaper Babboe model, but after a test ride, she quickly settled on the Urban Arrow, telling me that âit felt like riding a normal bikeâ.
âHaving a cargobike has completed changed our work life model.â
It didnât take long for the new cargobike to become the families main transport solution. The school run turned from quite a gruelling 45 minute ride for Anna, to a fun 15 minute daily adventure, full of chatting and dog spotting. And after the mad rush to get a 6 year old out of the door for school which most parents will be familiar with, the bike ride also gives Anna a chance to ârelax and breath'.
It was obvious from talking to Zena that she loves the cargobike as much as her mum. As well as the school run, Z said she loves to go to the beach or the woods to visit âher favourite treeâ. Like most kids Iâve spoken to, she also likes that she gets to chat to her mum. And similarly to my own daughter, she enjoys that she âdoesnât have to do anythingâ and can sit back and enjoy the ride.
Giving up the family car
One of things which makes Annaâs job different to most of ours, is that we donât get asked to drop everything and get across the country ASAP to cover a breaking news story. And whilst Anna is in The Hague, the political capital city of the Netherlands where a lot of the news stories come from, she still has to travel on short notice. And that's one of the reasons getting rid of their car was a difficult decision.
The pair had a Mini Cabriolet (Zenaâs choice) but Anna hated driving it. Theyâd only use it a couple of times a month and for family trips back to Scotland twice a year. And when they did use it, Anna hated that she couldnât interact with Z in the same way as the cargobike. âWhen I drove I couldnât talk to Z in the same way, I had to concentrate on driving so muchâ.
Then Anna discovered car sharing. There are a few companies offering app based access to cars across the Netherlands. And in a big city like The Hague, youâre never far from a car if you need one. So Anna no longer owns a car, and uses shared vehicles if she has to get somewhere out of the city.
Cargobikes and journalism
Around the city though, the cargobike has proved itself an invaluable tool for journalism. Time and time again, itâs allowed Anna to get to the centre of the action quickly and unobtrusively.
For instance, in the 2022 farmers protests which took over the country, Anna could ride right up to the tractors parked in the centre of the city and start broadcasting. With no worries about parking the car. Or when a story broke about secret Chinese police stations operating in the city, Anna could just park her bike on the pavement outside and shoot her piece to camera. Whereas a parked car and tripod might look more obtrusive, and garner unwanted attention, Anna fits right in with the street scene.
Itâs been so successful in fact, that Anna and her colleague Kate Vandy have been working on a new initiative called the Bike Bureau. The aim being to get more journalists to consider cargobikes as a tool they could use, and to teach them how to do it (you can follow the project on Twitter).
Work, life and cargobikes
It would be easy to see how a cargobike is great journalism tool full stop. But of course for Anna, it's so much more. As a working mum, Anna's never hidden Zena away from her job. One of her earliest appearances was strapped to her mum's chest at around 6 months old and sheâs not been far away since.
And key to that, as you might guess by now, is the cargobike. As well as getting Anna to the story, it gives Zena a safe place to call her own when her mum has to work. Z is often just out of frame, hanging out in her cosy cargobike compartment which Anna outfits with a blanket, hot water bottle and fairy lights in the winter. She says âit works great as a play pen when Iâm doing a broadcastâ.
Well thatâs the theory, it didnât always work out. One of these occasions went viral in 2021 whilst Anna was attempting to deliver a piece to camera about the Eurovision song content. Have a watch below.
Annaâs now such a bike convert that the first thing that crosses her mind when she considers moving somewhere else, is the cycling infrastructure. And not just for her, but for Zena too. 75% of school aged children cycle to school in the Netherlands. The level of freedom it affords Dutch youngsters is also a big deal for Anna.
Trips back home
So how does it feel to leave the bike behind when Anna goes back to the UK for work, or for their trips back to Scotland to see family? âI miss it like crazy, I feel like I've lost a limbâ bemoans Anna. For the regular trips back to London to present on the BBC World Service, she now has a folding bike to take with her after getting frustrated with how long it took to walk everywhere.
Back in her home city of Edinburgh, Anna sees that a lot of progress on cycling infrastructure has been made, but still thinks thereâs a long way to go. âWhen I go back to Edinburgh, Iâm going to borrow an Urban Arrow and see what its likeâ. And when they visit Annaâs sister back in the Borders (the rural area between England and Scotland) Z says âyou need a bike with wingsâ because the cycle paths stop and start at random.
âWhat I am very concious of in Scotland is how debilitating it is to not just be able to get on your bike. Here [The Hague] I take it for granted and donât even think. We just go. In Scotland, we have to rely on people with cars and we loose so much freedomâ.
The pair do cycle when theyâre back in Scotland, but its not the same as at home in the Netherlands. Anna explained âCycling returns to being a hobby, and sadly, in the 20 years Iâve been away from Scotland I donât think [cycling] has changed that much, especially in the bordersâ.
I think whatâs so interesting about Annaâs story is that she wasnât a cyclist before she came to the Netherlands. But when she got here she found the great infrastructure, which makes cycling the default for the Dutch. In just over 10 years sheâs turned from not owning a bike, to being a very passionate advocate for cargobikes and cycling at large.
And Anna and Zenaâs story is a wonderful example of how a cargobike can transform your family life too. Their cargobike has helped them spend precious time together during what could otherwise be a stressful drive to school everyday. Not to mention Mitten and Monty who get to go for adventures too.
You can follow Anna at @annaholligan and the Bike Bureau at @BikeBureau
Cargobike of the week
This issueâs cargobike of the week is this amazing build-it-yourself bakfiets!
In the Netherlands, we have an Amazon competitor called Coolblue. Theyâre well known for doing a lot of their deliveries via cargobike and now you can have your own small version.
I picked one up myself (which was even delivered by a coolbluer on a Coolblue a cargobike) and it now sits proudly on my desk. And you can win one of your own! The contest is open to paying subscribers at any level.
Competition details are at the bottom.
Other links of interest
Balancing bakfiets
I think we all admire the ability for people to carry improbable things on their cargobike. But, I really like you need to question what youâre doing if you canât see whats in-front of you. Was the Deliveroo rider in the clip at fault? Almost certainly. But he wasnât the one who face-planted a cupboard.
A New Cargobike from Trek
The as yet unannounced (?) cargobike from Trek was spotted this week and it looks really fancy. I'm yet to see anything official from Trek yet, and it's not even listed on their website. Though this online shop will sell you one for âŹ8000 for delivery in March.
It's equipped with a Bosch Cargoline motor and huge 750w battery. I found a video about it (in Dutch) which also shows some very fancy reclining passenger seats. Quite an upgrade from the wooden plank my daughter sits on.
Trek are joining Gazelle and Cube as recent entries into the cargobike market. I expect to see more legacy brands launching their own models as the market for family bikes like this grows.
A new bike from the original bakfiets.nl
And finally, the company widely recognised an bringing the idea of the family cargobike to the masses, bakfiets.nl, have launched a new model.
Itâs a big change from their traditional, an largely unchanged from the 90s wooden box version (of which we have one ourselves).
The Shepherd is available in two versions. One with an aluminium frame and a Shimano electric motor (starting at âŹ5289). The other with a steel frame and a Bafang motor (starting at âŹ4999). I asked the parent company Azor about the weights of each bike but Iâm still waiting to hear back.
Competition Rules
The contest is open to all paying subscribers.
The subscription should be active for the month of February 2023.
Shipping is free anywhere in the world, though the winner will be liable for any import fees and taxes.
The winner will be chosen at random and 1 prize is available. The winner will be drawn from a list of paid subscribers on Wednesday February 8th 2023 at 1200 CET.
Iâll email the winner directly and it will be announced in the next newsletter.