Cargo Fireside Chat Recap
The popularity of electric cargo bikes has risen in recent years for its practical and climate friendly way of moving people and products. Last month at the NABSA annual conference in Montreal, we hosted a fireside chat about cargo bikeshare that featured organizations leading the charge in cargo bikeshare in North America. Elyse McCann, the Director of Business Development at EnviroCentre facilitated the conversation. The following individuals spoke about cargo bikeshare innovations in their organizations and provided insights for the future.
- Leanne Buhler, Head of Evolve E-Bike and E-Scooter Share, BCAA/Evolve
- Dorothy Fennell, Founder & CEO, CargoB
- Thomas Duhautois, Assisting Director – Transformation and Innovation, BIXI
The organizations that participated offered perspectives from 3 different models and user experiences for cargo bikeshare.
Evolve uses a bike library model where riders can reserve a bike through the Evolve app and check out a bike for a day with pick up and drop off at a local library. They offer both long-tail and cargo box models. Evolve’s program is a pilot program in partnership with the District of North Vancouver and the City of North Vancouver.
CargoB offers cargo bikes in Boston, Massachusetts. Users can check out a bike by the minute using an app or by the day by contacting CargoB directly. CargoB offers a front loading model that is available at designated stations for checkout and return.
Earlier this year, BIXI introduced a cargo trailer to their fleet. The trailer is designed to be checked out and returned to BIXI stations and can be attached to BIXI bikes or personal bikes. The trailers are available for a 4 hour checkout period and offer a secondary lock to secure the trailer during errands.
The session highlighted that the future of cargo bikeshare in North America is just before us and that as an industry, we have an opportunity to learn together how cargo bikeshare can serve communities and expand shared micromobility. Here are some takeaways from the session:
- When considering cargo bikeshare, it’s important to incorporate how a cargo option will best fit the current ecosystem of shared devices.
- Finding champions for cargo bikeshare is key to creating a vision and moving that vision forward.
- Awareness and education is an essential component of getting people on the bikes, making riders feel comfortable, and growing cargo bikeshare.
- Cargo bike life is happening now! Cargo bikeshare reduces the barrier to entry for cargo bikes, is a great solution to transport groceries, people, or other goods, and expands shared mobility options.
Thank you to our speakers for a great discussion and for sharing their insights!
If you are interested in learning more about our annual conference visit our conference page. If you are want to catch up on happenings from this year’s conference in Montreal read our recap!