Episode 08 - Cargo Bikes - Top 10 Design Elements in Copenhagen's Bicycle Culture

Episode 08. Cargo Bike Capital of the World.

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Top 10 Bicycle-Friendly Design Elements in Copenhagen

Chapter 08: Cargo bikes

Cargo bikes - more than two wheels

So doing these series we saw many elements why Copenhagen so bicycle friendly.

There is one thing that probably impressed me most.

Its about the use of cargo bikes made by Copenhageners.

So which are the elements that make easier to drive this kind of bikes?

Yeah.

Without a doubt,

one of the very unique aspects of life in Copenhagen and the bicycle culture here is the cargo bikes.

There are about 40 thousand cargo bikes in greater Copenhagen, not just the municipality.

It is a lot of amazing statistics about cargo bikes: 6% of Copenhageners have a cargo bike,

24% of all the families with 2 or more children have a cargo bike

and 17% of the people who have cargo bike use it as a replacement for a car.

All the many of the other people will use as a second car.

Cyclelogistics - moving Europe forward

Cities around the world are looking at cargo bike solutions for replacing short trips by car, also for logistics in the city.

One of the sure signs, that cargo bikes are been taken seriously, is a project,

that Copenhagenize design company is involved in.

It is called "Cycle logistics".

It's a European project, funded by the EU,

and it's basically promoting the use of cargo bikes in 9 different European cities.

On three different levels.

First of all, family transport, how to use a cargo bike to solve your daily transport needs,

going shopping, what not, taking kids to the kindergarten as well.

The second level is small goods delivery.

Lots of shops in the city center can deliver their goods on cargo bikes,

be with pedal power of or with an electrical motor.

And the third level is the one probably most interesting and the most challenging

and that is replacing larger logistics with cargo bikes.

You can have maybe a lot of boxes on this bike but there are lots of kinds of cargo bikes,

that are much larger, in use right now in Paris, in Dublin, in lots of other cities around the world.

And getting the large logistics companies to stop at a depo outside city centre

and do the last mile transport by bike.

Cargo bikes - gender equal transport

I saw many women actually riding in bikes in Copenhagen

and it is also interesting because usually it is not so common everywhere.

So I would like to know: Are cycling, in particularly cargo bikes, gender equal?

Today in Copenhagen more than 50% of the cyclists are actually women and the same goes for the Netherlands.

But in a lot of, most of, or every other country in the World this numbers are much more heavily male-dominated.

So when we think about cycling promotion across all kinds of people

it is important to have an inclusive network of cycletracks across the entire city.

So making bicycle lanes wide enough across the entire city network

and having plenty of amenities adjusted with traffical signals,

that makes it more user-friendly for everybody, not just women.

It's just more inclusive for everyone.

There have been a number of studies that show women's trip behavior is different for men's

and when planning cities, it's important to think of those gender differences and take them into account

when planing for a street network.

And so with cargo bikes you can accomplish a variable task at once.

You can pick up children and you can go grocery shopping, you can take friends, dogs and almost anything.

And so both men and women do those tasks.

If bicycles are a logical, rational transport form for cities, then, you know, cargo bikes are in the same category.

And then some, because you have so many things you can do on a cargo bike.

It is so many ways that a city can benefit from cargo bike use.

So this is not a sort of a bike geek or bike love, thinking at all at just riding bikes,

cargo bikes are a logical addition to, really, any city in the world.

Whether it has two wheels or three wheels, this is the future of your mobility.

... I'm thinking about the benefits for health ...

... This is also very important, taking away more space from cars ...

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