Hello everyone and welcome to Issue #31 of Cargobike Culture!
We got back from our trip to Inverness last week with a lot of happy memories, and a boat load of Covid. Hence the lack of a newsletter last week. But better late than never, here’s the cargobike things I saw!
The first was a visit to Velocity, a cafe/bike workshop/active travel hub in the city centre. It’s a lovely cafe, with great food and a tidy little workshop.
The staff and volunteers organise events to encourage people to get out on their bikes, like the wonderfully named Bairns on bikes. This social ride is for parents and carers with children to spend time together on their bike, and explore the areas around Inverness.
We also visited the workshop where my daughter discovered a spanner as big as her. I asked Duncan the mechanic what the story was and apparently it was ordered by mistake, but ended up being surprisingly useful.
I took the opportunity to quiz Duncan on what the cargobike scene in Inverness is like. It turns out, there aren’t many at the moment. The awesome Omnium parked outside belonged to him, but it was almost the only cargobike I saw.
But just because I didn’t see them, doesn’t mean their not there.
In my pre-trip research I found quite a few stories about schemes to promote cargobikes to local businesses. Sustrans, a big UK cycling campaign group has organised a national scheme to promote cargobikes in Scotland, but apparently that was put on hold due to funding constraints.
There was also a 2021 scheme from Hi-Trans, the regional transport agency which provided e-cargobikes to a few businesses and organisations. But when I went looking for if they’re being used today still, I couldn’t find anything.
And I had read, and Duncan reminded me, that the local council were using a few cargobikes to move equipment around the city. I had emailed the press team to see if could get an interview, but it didn’t work out.
Where I did see another cargobike in Inverness though was underneath this street magician who was using it as both a place to safely store his equipment between shows, and as a pretty good stage.
I’m hoping to catchup with Matt from Velocity soon to learn more about the cargobike situation in Inverness. He’s the project manager for the active travel side of things, and unfortunately he was on leave the week I was in town.
I’ll report back if was get a chance to talk as I think the cargobike story in Inverness could be interesting. It’s a small, densely packed city, which (in my experience), has way too many cars in it. Stay tuned!.
Spooky cargobikes
Tis’ the season of Halloween costumes and a segment of them I didn’t know was missing from my life; CARGOBIKE FANCY DRESS!
First up is this amazing Urban Arrow / steam train from Madeleine in Toronto via Twitter
And yes it’s got a light, and yes its got steam, and YES it’s got a WHISTLE. Check out the video.
Next up from Laura in Massachusetts is another train, this time of the Amtrak variety.
And finally this spooky Bakfiets.nl from Oliver Lord in London.
I really need up to my game next year.
New toys!
Friend of the newsletter and Playmobile aficionado(?) Brighton Shark Bike spotted this new bike out for sale.
It looks good! My household isn’t in the Playmobile eco-system, but I’m willing to give it a go! I’ve ordered one for (my daughters….) Christmas!
And finally some rubbish news from Portland where the city has been tearing up a popular bike path for ….. reasons?
I think the only glimmer of hope in the whole story was how many people rushed down to protest this much needed bit of infrastructure from being erased.
It makes me feel very fortunate that most of this battle has been fought and won in Utrecht. Sending support to my Portland bike buddies!