WHERE ARE WE NOW, AND WHERE TO WE NEED TO GET TO?

An eCargo bike support scheme, funded by Department for Transport (DfT) and administered by the Energy Saving Trust (EST), saw 14 local authorities secure funding from the £1.2 million eCargo Bike Grant Fund in 2021/22 and 18 local authorities secure £1.4 million from the 2019/20 eCargo Bike Grant Fund.

 

The fund helped local businesses to buy eCargo bikes, and funded eCargo bikes for use within local authority fleets.

 

See the list of the local authority recipients from both eCargo Bike Grant Funds and the project summaries here: https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/eCargo-Bike-LA-Project-Directory.pdf

 

 

Several businesses joined forces with local authorities to boost the cargo bike offers available. The EST called the project a ‘phenomenal success’ that helped to turbo-charge the uptake of cargo bikes in the UK.

 

In 2022, Norfolk, Oxford and Bristol were each awarded £500,000 to trial zero emission transport solutions, including the use of cargo bikes.

 

In awarding the Zero Emission Transport City (ZETC) fund: DfT said: ‘We announced in Gear Change that we would work with a small or medium-sized city to create a zero emission transport system, with extensive cycle lanes, an all-electric (or zero emission) bus fleet, and a ban on nearly all petrol and diesel vehicles in the city centre, with deliveries made to consolidation hubs and the last mile being done by cargo bike or electric van.’

 

Now we need to go further – and faster. Cargo bike riders need to a complete ecosystem to support them: price incentives, increased funding, infrastructure improvements, better services including repair, maintenance and insurance, rider training and robust policy on cargo bike operations and standards.

 

The National Cargo Bike Summit 2023 will showcase the cargo bike pioneers who are driving the sector forward across the UK, and highlight best practice from Europe.