It was a mild afternoon in central London when I joined an annual procession of cargo bikes, the lone regular bicycle in a sea of two, three and even four-wheelers.
There was even a thing with a trailer, carrying the MP for Walthamstow, Stella Creasy, and her daughter. Stella, mainly a walker, had gamely tried a cargo bike and had decided against it.
After chatting to some owners of cargo bikes about their work, we set off.
There was the Dalston Egg Shop, which carries out weekly egg deliveries akin to a milk round on a long two-wheeler, and another company that uses a cargo bike to ferry clothing from high-end London shops for tailoring.
But there were also everyday services whose owners were trying to do something different: the butcher, the electrician, the logistics firms.
The organisers of this annual parade are the local business improvement district, Team London Bridge.
Recognising the negative and growing impact of diesel-van deliveries, five years ago they set about trying to change the way the area does business, in part through the medium of cargo bikes.
As well as a few short-term grants to help businesses buy van-replacement bikes, they offer a directory of cargo-bike run services to help companies deal with logistics differently.
Since the pandemic, the growth in home shopping has been generating thousands of extra van journeys in towns, cities and country lanes.
While not all of those deliveries could or should be done by cargo bike, some of them can be.
From two- to four-wheeled models, there’s a lot a cargo bike can do. Take the heavyweight of the category, the Urban Arrow Tender 2500, which carries up to 300kg.
Then consider that 39 per cent of delivery vans on London’s roads are going around three-quarters empty, carrying roughly that amount.
According to Transport for London, cargo bike numbers have increased by 63 per cent city-wide in just a year – and 73 per cent in the city centre.
Industry data shows a quadrupling of sales among a selection of retailers, family and business models, in only four months of 2020, and variations on that increase ever since.
In Waltham Forest, I regularly cycle past Ocado’s cargo bike delivery hub, where its riders deliver a range of 10,000 products from a dedicated warehouse to people’s homes within 60 minutes.
A network of cycle lanes and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods gives the bikes a competitive advantage over diesel vans, and customers get to feel good about their shopping.
Thankfully, given how poor some of their riders are at controlling their machines, Transport for London is working with the industry on training standards. It’s a start.
Those riders share the cycling infrastructure with families using cargo bikes as a second-car replacement, arguably bringing joy to the school run and cutting rush-hour traffic.
And it’s not only in the city that this is happening. In Frome, Somerset, I met three mums who’d bonded at the school gates over the decision to transport their kids by cargo bike.
I also met a dad doing the same (without electric assist, in a very hilly town, making him one of the more effective climbers in the local cycle club).
Tern’s ‘long-tail’ bikes – which can fit one or two child seats on the back – are just as likely to be bought by women as by men.
A friend living in hilly Bristol loves hers, as does her son. Some mums’ impressive mileage, I’m told, is wearing out the componentry like nobody’s business – and still saving money compared to a car.
En masse, the impact of cargo bikes could be huge. According to one estimate, replacing just 3-4 per cent of van trips with cycles could remove 100m van kilometres from the roads of London alone.
While European countries such as Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands are seeing rapid cargo-bike growth, the UK is still lagging behind.
It’s due, partly, to the up-front cost, partly to a lack of safe routes, and also lack of knowledge of cargo bikes.
Then there’s the question of where, once you’ve forked out thousands of pounds for one, you park it to prevent it from being stolen.
From reducing air pollution to tacking the school run, cycling is the perfect solution.
To make the most of the power of cargo bikes, though, they need to be a viable option.
That means families and businesses need support to buy and use them, with things such as purchase subsidies and grants, and safe cycling routes.
Then, perhaps, the sight of flotillas of variously sized cargo bikes could replace streets clogged with vans and cars. We can hope.
