Forum Topic

Cargo Bike King Ronnie

Great to see two Chiswick Councillors representing Gunnersbury and Homefields Wards celebrating the unanimous passing of their motion to promote cargo bikes in the Borough, including reallocating road space and car parking spaces to amenity for cargo bikes and championing design of future cycle lanes to accommodate them. I am sure they will be warmly congratulated when we start to see new cargo bike parking spaces popping up in Chiswick.  How far the local Conservatives have come from all those weekends protesting against a cycle lane outside M&S. 

Paul Campbell ● 535d19 Comments

Indefensible really, the design is attrocious.

N V Brooks ● 534d

I’m sure we’ll hear some defence from Paul, Michael, Guy Lambert, Katherine Dunne. They have all the answers /data

Maggie Dodge ● 534d

The design of the section eastbound from Alexandra Road Brentford is, in a word, attrocious. I cannot belive that so much disruption has been caused to produce an unnecessarilly wide pavement and a cycle lane that is simply not fit for purpose. It's not wide enough to be mechanically swept meaning that it will soon fill with leaves and detritus and the 'apology' for a cycle lane is barely wide enough for two cycles to pass ans certainly not if used by a cargo bike.  Cyclists using this have my sympathy. Whoever designed this should seriously consider a change of career.

N V Brooks ● 534d

A plastic locker sounds like a good idea.

Janice Evans ● 534d

Copied from Facebook. One of many complaints, not a good word from most  locals“Why did the council decide to put a separate cycle lane along London Road infront of Waterman's Park when by simply widening the cycle lane within the park by 50cms, both lanes could have been included like the section from Kew Bridge to Waterman's?”

Maggie Dodge ● 534d

The great thing about cargo bikes is that you’ll need about 10 of them to replace one traditional van at a substationally greater cost. You’ll also have to employ 10 times more people, which can’t be bad, and might get some lazy disabled people out of the house. And if they’re e-bikes they can power their way along cycle tracks, scattering children and families on their way. The other great advantage is that cargo bike drivers and their loads can rely on getting wet rather than being stuck in an unhealthy warm and dry van. Bring them on, I say!

Peter Evans ● 535d

The one scattering pedestrians outside the Premier Inn in Brentford last night had a large plastic locker on the front.

N V Brooks ● 535d

Is there a way to keep things dry on a cargo bike.

Janice Evans ● 535d

Agree Bernard but as Adrian said parents might not like the idea things arevery different now.

Janice Evans ● 535d

Simple economics means this will remain a relatively small sector in the delivery network as various posters have already stated. But at least it gives another opportunity to point out how the virtue signalling from keyboards in private estates never ceases to amaze.

Mark Talbot ● 535d

This has been discussed for ages/years. I think one of the Hounslow Councillors came to Chiswick, to The Italians, I think to promote cargo bike deliveries, In the days of the closure of Acton Lane, just round the corner. He knew nothing about the road closure or where Acton Lane was.😂 Let’s see if it gets off the ground this time round

Maggie Dodge ● 535d

Cargo bikes who will be adequate for local traders delivering locally but they will never replace the abundance of white vans from the likes of Amazon, DPD, every and Parcelnet. V's collect and deliver from local distribution depots. My nearest depot is a DPD one some 5.7 kilometers away. No courier assuming they can take 10 parcels per cargo bike as opposed to well over 150 on a white van is going to ride 57 kilometers per day shuttling back and forth from the delivery area to the distribution depot.

N V Brooks ● 535d

The picture is of Babboe cargo bike which has a maximum load capacity of 100 kg.There are small vans out there which can carry more than 1000kg of cargo and even some e-vans at reasonable prices (but range can be an issue).  It is therefore not unreasonable to assume that a van would be able to carry 5x-6x the load of a fully loaded cargo bike.For small businesses it is a simple question of economics and load capacity/size of goods being delivered. If goods being delivered to a single address exceed 100 kg or are too big for the bike cargo bay then obviously a cargo bike is impractical - but I would guess that would be a minority of local businesses.The bigger issue is staffing.  If they can deliver by bike and do not need to take on more staff because of the lower load capacity then the bike is clearly the better option.  On the other hand if they need to hire more people if they deliver by bike then in most cases it is probably uneconomic to use a cargo bike - the cost of the extra staff would swamp the cost savings (a cargo bike being a lot cheaper to buy and operate) within a couple of years. As long as local businesses are given a free choice as to how they deliver their goods, I have no problem with the Council encouraging the use of cargo bikes.On a slightly different but related issue, it would not be a surprise to me if in the next few years local takeaway deliveries are done almost exclusively on e-bikes

Justin Stephenson ● 535d

JaniceDoing that sort of job is how young people become street wise, plus learn they have to do a bit of graft to earn some pocket  money, instead of relying on the bank of Mum and Dad.

Bernard Allen ● 535d

Brilliant.  I've most recently seen a window cleaner with one.

Philippa Bond ● 535d

Cracking idea for local deliveries. The kid earning holiday money on the Standard Wallpaper Company bike delivering paint and sundries to the good people of Chiswick, half a century ago, was me. The cargoes are not a panacea for all ills and, at least when I was riding one, riding on the pavement (like the guy scattering pedestrians in Brentford last night at 18:30) would have seen me looking for another Saturday and holiday job.

N V Brooks ● 535d

Children would probably be targeted to take whatever they were deliveringthese days.

Janice Evans ● 535d

I agree with you Adrian, I used to ride a trade bike for Catos, delivery paraffin to  Chiswick residents. A 5 gallon drum on the front to fill the 1 gallon cans left on the door step.Then back to fill up the 5 gallon drum and out again. Kept me busy for 4 hours on a Saturday and earn’t enough money for the week

Bernard Allen ● 535d

Good news but what I would like to see is teenagers encouraged to take on "Saturday Jobs" (A title from the past to describe young people out to earn a few bob).Back in the day it was a common site to see lads (mostly) on their 'Open All Hours' bikes delivering goods from local shops to homes.A local off licence took me on to pedal booze to the good folk of Hammersmith for which I was only too glad to do and earn a few quid.Trouble is today parents have been conditioned to imagine danger lurks around ever corner and would be horrified at the thought.

Adrian Irving ● 535d