Highlights this quarter
Seeing is Believing: eCargo Bike Launch
On the 17 January Manchester City Council launched an exciting new scheme for a fleet of twenty-six electrically assisted cargo bikes and trailers in Manchester. Grant funding was secured from the Department of Transport and the project supported by the Energy Saving Trust. The aim of the project is to speed up the local delivery of goods and services as well as reducing carbon emissions. Commissioning of the eCargo bike scheme is scheduled to complete by the end of March.
Spread across seven organisations including the Council and five local voluntary and community / social enterprises, the scheme includes a cargo bike hire scheme run by Manchester Bikes.
The purpose of this scheme is to create a business case for the use of bikes and trailers as an alternative to vehicles in the Council fleet. With bikes in neighbourhoods, cemeteries, leisure, parks, and ground maintenance, the aim is to reduce the carbon footprint of staff business travel within the Council and to demonstrate new ways of working.
The hire scheme gives businesses and local residents the opportunity to try a cargo bike - or a range of bikes - as a short-term solution, for occasional use or as a pre purchase trial. The hire charge is £12 per day up to 14 days or for a flat rate of £180 (15-31 days). This is a not-for-profit price supported by Manchester Bikes.
One of the organisations taking part in the scheme - Chorlton Bike Deliveries - travelled ~465 miles on their Reise and Muller Packster bike between January and February this year. This is a saving of ~149 kg CO2 if the journeys were with a small petrol van. A regular trip is to collect / deliver samples to Wythenshawe Hospital under their contract with the NHS.