The brilliant new bikes that could help with Covid-19 pandemic

Electric cargo bikes provide a means of sustainable transport operating within the compact confines of city centres - often congested spaces, and there has already been a recent boost in e-cargo bike use as a response to the global Covid-19 outbreak.

The Healthy Active Cities team, led by Dr Graeme Sherriff, Dr Nick Davies and Dr Luke Blazejewski of the university have been investigating the potential uptake of cargo bikes across different business sectors in the city-region after receiving EPSRC DecarboN8 funding.

The bikes take up much less road space than vans or conventional vehicles and can travel through city centres unhindered using dedicated cycling infrastructure. They are easier to park and cheaper to repair. Replacing vans with e-cargo bikes will also reduce CO2 emissions and contribute to cleaner air for all.

As cities respond to pressures of development, the reduction of carbon emissions in non-commuting transport continues to pose many logistical challenges. It is essential to understand mobility technologies and practices as well as their societal readiness.

To investigate further, focus groups will be carried out and the results will provide new knowledge that is valuable to both academic study and urban practitioners, planners and decision makers with a remit to reduce carbon-intensive travel and boost healthy active transport.

The focus groups will be carried out across the higher and further education and services sectors as well as local authorities, small and medium size enterprises and large delivery-focused corporations.

The findings from this seedcorn funding will help build a platform to carry out further research on the positive systematic change afforded by increasing e-cargo bike use in Manchester.

Find out more about the work of Healthy Active Cities.