Catering for cargo and dealing with disabilities

Two cycle parking developments in Waltham Forest look set to encourage active travel and make streets more liveable and inclusive, writes Falco’s Jeremy Green

Interest in cargo bikes rocketed during lockdown, but while you can hire a standard cycle for personal use, you can’t do the same for a cargo bike. And there is also a marked discrepancy between the availability of Blue Badge disabled parking bays in car parks and secure disabled cycle parking. The London borough Waltham Forest is well known for its forward-thinking programmes and is currently in the early stages of developing support for those who use adaptive and cargo bikes.

Public Cargo Bike Rental

Cargo bikes (and e-cargo bikes) are one of the largest growing sectors in Europe. Though mainly for commercial or personal use, some councils are looking to bring this opportunity into the public sphere. Standard bike hire schemes have challenges of their own, but cargo bike hire brings a totally different set of challenges.

The popularity of cargo bikes soared during lockdown

18 Cycle parking

Falco’s new hangars can accommodate virtually all non-standard bike profiles

Jane Sherry, Waltham Forest’s behaviour change project manager, along with the council’s cycling officer Daniel Gosbee and project manager Simon Capper, have been on the cargo bike trail for some time, and their tie-up with zero emission delivery operator Zedify is proving a real success. The obvious missing link in the Waltham Forest service was enabling the public to hire and ride their own cargo bikes, but the key problem was the lack of public storage facilities.

Cargo bike hangars

Falco has been tracking the rise of cargo bikes for some time and wanted to develop a ‘one size fits all’ facility which accommodates virtually all nonstandard bike profiles, with multiple locking options.

A key driver for Waltham Forest was also our ‘FalcoSmart’ app-based locking system. This not only enables the cargo bike store to be opened using a smart phone app, but also means the cargo bike is can be secured using a smart padlock with the same app.

Additionally, both stores are capable of hosting ecargo bikes, providing either a dedicated charging point or a secure battery charging store where the potentially unstable Lithium batteries can be deposited in a secure fire-proof charging locker. The FalcoPod-Cargo also achieved Sold Secure Gold status.

Disabled bike hangar

Residents in Waltham Forest have asked the council to address the lack of disabled cycle parking by installing secure facilities to lock adaptive bikes. Simon Capper, the council’s project manager in the Enjoy team, is now seeking to find a solution in partnership with Falco. “This is a unique project we’re doing here and, whilst challenging, it’s great to be breaking new ground in the cycling world,” he says.

“We have a problem: both the idea that disabled people can’t cycle and the existence of barriers that mean they don’t. In order to address this, a comprehensive and diverse range of highly visible measures are required. With this project we are trying to find a solution to one of those barriers and play a key role as part of a wider strategy in catering for and promoting inclusive cycling.”

He adds: “Through the development of disabled accessible bike hangars and eventual inclusion of policy to underpin it, we hope to address a disparity

in the way society provides for and views disabled cyclists compared with disabled drivers.”

Key to the project was building a team from as many relevant disciplines as possible. The first port of call was a discussion with Isabelle Clement, director of the charity Wheels for Wellbeing. “Nonstandard cycles are routinely heavier, wider, longer, and more costly than standard bicycles plus many have bespoke features,” says Clement. “Cycles are often a crucial mobility aid for a disabled rider but very difficult to replace if stolen. The development and provision of accessible and secure cycle storage solutions is a key component of making cycling a realistic option for disabled people.”

Falco Disabled Bike Hangar

The FalcoCargobox was the ideal starting point and, to develop the initial concept paper, we looked at a wide number of issues disabled people face - such as: approaching the hangar; manoeuvring; opening the door; securing the bike; removing bags - to try and capture the problems these have on as many different disabilities as possible. Based on this concept, the team at LBWF are planning fieldwork with Wheels for Wellbeing, social enterprise BikeWorks, supplier of special needs tricycles Tomcat and others to ensure the prototype addresses as many disabilities as possible.

As with the Cargo bike project, by using technology such as the FalcoSmart app, we are able to ensure that only disabled people registered with the scheme are able to use the facilities. n

Jeremy Green is a managing director at Falco

Falco is working with Waltham Forest to develop secure parking for disabled cyclists