Building the Cycling City

by Melissa Bruntlett

  Sluijsmans is now a household name in the cargo-bike world, spending his time not only as the official organizer of the annual festival, but also a consulting member of the LEVVLogic Project (Light Electric Freight Vehicles) with the University of Applied Science of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Arnhem-Nijmegen. He also acts as an advisor to both private companies and municipalities on how they can make things better for cycling. With LEVV, they strategically invest in areas that will create new possibilities for “green” logistics in city centers, and with his wealth of knowledge and experience, Sluijsmans sees a direct link to how cargo bikes are at the heart of such enterprises. The International Cargo Bike Festival has actually been able to provide the launching pad for many new innovations when it comes to reintroducing the freight bikes from the nineteenth century back to the forefront of today’s transportation solutions.

  “At the Cargo Bike Festival, we see a lot of parties that came two or three years ago with a dream of building a cargo bike, and now they are actually making the bikes and building a company around them,” he recalls, noting that, not long ago, names like Yuba, Babboe, and Urban Arrow would be completely unknown except to diehard enthusiasts. But that’s changing year by year. Sluijsmans is also continually amazed at the number of new companies that come to the festival from unexpected places—but with new ideas about how cargo bikes can change the game in both personal and professional transportation. “That’s the interesting thing about sustainability now: there are more and more examples of companies making these decisions for economic reasons, not just to make the world better,” he says. “That’s bikenomics.”

  Taking a Great Idea and Making It Better

  Like Sluijsmans, Urban Arrow founder Jorrit Kreek is another in a long line of individuals who probably never envisioned themselves leading a cargo-bike renaissance. A student of economics at the University of Groningen, he simply wanted to put his education to use, so, shortly after graduating, he moved to Amsterdam and launched an import company with his friends. One of those products was the Kronan bike: a Swedish-designed machine used by the Swiss army, first introduced to the Netherlands in 1999. “That’s when I discovered that the bike is the best product you can sell, because it doesn’t harm anybody,” he explains. “It’s so positive, it can replace a car and you can do almost anything on a bike.” Kreek also quickly discovered that while the bicycle was a wonderful tool for transporting goods, it was wholly dependent on having the right accessories, something that became all too apparent when their best-selling add-on was the front transport rack.

  Kreek continued importing the Kronan for six years, during which time he started a family. Like many, he invested in a cargo bike to transport his kids around town, opting for the common BakfietsNL model. But he found it clunky and awkward, and progressively difficult as his children grew in size and weight. “My entrepreneurial feeling was we should improve this, because more people could benefit if you made it more comfortable,” Kreek states matter-of-factly. In 2009, after ending his venture with Kronan, he worked with designers to develop a cargo bike that fit three criteria: it had to be lightweight, comfortable, and—most importantly—electric-assisted. Made with an alloy frame, and a box composed of EPP foam rather than the traditional, heavy wood, the first prototype launched in 2010 was well received, beginning the story of Urban Arrow, and Kreek’s entrance into the global cargo-bike market.

  Competition between cargo-bike manufacturers is fierce, due in large part to a relatively small market. For most households, a cargo bike comes in handy until the children are grown and riding on their own two wheels. Also, the hauling capability, while attractive, is not necessarily suited to Dutch cycling culture, where practically every regular bike is fitted with front and rear racks, useful for carrying the daily grocery run or mid-sized purchases. Not to mention that the Dutch are renowned for finding inventive ways to carry nearly everything on two wheels—be it children, peers, luggage, and even the odd ironing board, to name just a few things.

  In order for Kreek to set Urban Arrow apart from the rest of the field, he had to be innovative, and making his bikes lightweight and electric was not going to be enough. The solution: a modular design that adapts to the user’s needs. “The modular design was meant to allow people to swap the front frame,” explains Kreek. “Once the kids are big enough to bike themselves, they can swap to a more compact cargo bike.”

  Unlike the more-traditional bakfiets, the Urban Arrow has a frame that is manufactured completely separate from the box portion, of which there are several design options to suit a variety of uses. Kreek acknowledges that while the goal is to be a successful company financially, this electric-assisted, modular system is about providing viable transportation alternatives to the private automobile. “Everybody is aware that we have to change our way of transport in cities, and that is something we want to be part of at Urban Arrow—to be a game changer in urban mobility,” he explains.

  Since its launch, Urban Arrow has grown exponentially, with dealers throughout Europe and even as far away as Australia and New Zealand, but Kreek specifies the US market as the one they plan to put effort into growing in the coming years. The trouble is that it’s still a relatively small market compared to Europe; Kreek is well aware that in North America cycling is regarded as more of a leisure activity than a daily routine, making a cargo bike unnecessary for many households. Interestingly, however, Kreek sees potential not in large cities like New York City or Los Angeles, but rather smaller, less densely populated areas.

  Figure 6-2: The Urban Arrow’s lightweight, electric-assisted, modular system adapts to the user’s needs. In this case, it’s the family minivan. (Credit: Urban Arrow)

  With North American cities still playing catch-up on the quality and connectivity of their fledging bike networks, the average citizen will likely be much less comfortable cycling next to their kids on the busy streets of a major urban center. As a result, Kreek anticipates the Urban Arrow filling a gap in smaller, more-suburban areas where road conditions for the daily school run can be calmer and more comfortable. He is optimistic that the American market will develop in time: “In the end it will happen in the United States as well that our cargo bikes are everywhere,” Kreek predicts confidently. “In Amsterdam, it was just 15 years ago that you would be an exception to be riding your kids around in a cargo bike. It will take some time, but it will grow.”

  Back home in the Netherlands, Urban Arrow is quickly building a reputation as the “Rolls Royce of cargo bikes,” spreading the cargo-bike culture across the country, and not just as a family bike. Knowing the historic roots of the bakfiets, Kreek saw the potential for Urban Arrow’s modular systems to change the way freight is being moved through crowded urban streets. “The average delivery vehicle, whether car, van, or truck, takes up space, pollutes, and is inefficient in terms of energy, time, and cost,” he explains. “Cargo bikes provide an option to replace those trips with a compact, adaptable solution that is not adding to the congestion on the streets.” The interchangeability of Urban Arrow’s design meant that, without changing the main frame of the bike, they could provide cargo options for all types of deliveries.

  As Kreek soon realized, that would include one of the largest retail chains in the Netherlands. “We were aware Albert Heijn [the largest Dutch supermarket chain] were thinking about having an alternative for their delivery vans, to make it more green and electric, so we reached out to them and proposed they take a look at what we can offer,” Kreek recalls. “They looked at our existing product line and told us they needed to be able to carry 40 crates of groceries on the bike, which our current model couldn’t accommodate.”

  Understanding the incredible potential this opportunity had, Kreek strategized with one of his designers, and two weeks later he presented a three-wheeled model, its front portion resembling more car than bike. As required, it could carry 40 crates. Their biggest challenge was the fact that bike technology presently maxed out at a hauling capacity of 1
50 kilograms (330 pounds), but a 40-crate shipment could weigh up to 400 kilos (880 pounds). “It was a good idea to look over the fence and say, ‘Hey, maybe we should use some car technology in our bike,’” Kreek recalls. The innovative thinking has paid off, with Albert Heijn testing out their new fleet of delivery bikes on the streets of Amsterdam and looking to expand to other markets in the near future.

  This new, greatly expanded model has also brought Urban Arrow to the attention of other large organizations, including maintenance providers for multinationals like Coca-Cola, many of whom typically don’t need to carry more than their toolbox from service to service. They also worked with the Dutch motoring association ANWB to adapt a model that provides roadside assistance to cars, as well as one for PostNL—the national postal service—who have committed to deliver emission-free in 25 cities by 2025.

  “We are at the tip of the iceberg, with lots of changes coming in the next three to five years,” boasts Kreek, who recognizes that much of his success comes from partnering with the right individuals. “Our engineers weren’t trained in cargo bike development because that industry didn’t exist yet. We are the front-runners in that respect.” While the future looks very bright for Urban Arrow, Kreek is aware there is still work to be done. Their bikes are helping families and businesses move through cities in green, healthy, and more-efficient ways, but they are not without their own logistical problems—space, cost, and, even comfort, despite e-assist. Pedaling an e–cargo bike on a gloriously sunny day presents no difficulty, but once rain or snow sets in, such trips become more challenging. “On paper they are always very nice, but in practice there have to be some hurdles to overcome to make it smooth,” he admits.

  “Even so, it’s great to be a part of that change to more green transportation,” he’s quick to add. Whether through the growth of the North American market share, or their expansion into urban delivery solutions, Urban Arrow is expanding the possibilities in urban mobility. Their modular design means that they are in a position to adapt as the needs of their markets change—be they personal or business needs. Kreek’s entrepreneurial spirit has allowed him to recognize opportunity when it is presented, while maintaining his idealism regarding the societal benefits that come from bicycles. He has certainly seen the value of bikenomics, and he’s reaping the rewards. “Smarter mobility is good for families,” he asserts, “but also for business.”

  Bakfiets on Broadway

  While the bakfiets’s elegance, versatility, and functionality captured the imagination of North American advocates for many years, like the plain Dutch bike, it remained difficult to access outside Europe. If cargo bikes were to proliferate on this side of the Atlantic, it would take an emerging cycling city to adopt and adapt them, on a retail, manufacturing, and cultural level. Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the first North American settings to wholeheartedly embrace their potential was America’s self-proclaimed “Bicycle Capital,” the Pacific Northwest city of Portland, Oregon.

  Compared to the rest of the continent, Portland is the poster child for postwar smart growth—the product of a freeway revolt, an urban-growth boundary (the first of its kind in the United States), strategic light-rail investments, and a 300-mile network of traffic-calmed neighborhood bikeways and painted lanes. The latter has resulted in the highest bicycle mode share—about 6 percent—of any large American city (over 300,000 residents). Most notably, with an image shaped by the hit mockumentary television series Portlandia, the Rose City has successfully branded itself as a vibrant and innovative bike-centric destination, attracting inventive talent and creative energy from across the country.

  “Portland was definitely fertile ground for something like cargo bikes to happen,” notes Jonathan Maus, who has been covering the local bike scene for 12 years as publisher and editor of BikePortland, a blog dedicated to all things bicycle. “When you have such a crazy reputation, and a brain trust of people who come here because of bicycling, you create fertile ground in the same way that Silicon Valley attracts a certain type of person. Portland was really known for its bicycling, so it was just a matter of time.”

  In the summer of 2006—the early days of his website—Maus was walking along Broadway in northeast Portland when he stumbled across a woman pedaling an authentic bakfiets imported from the Netherlands. The woman, who had recently transferred from Nike’s Amsterdam offices to their world headquarters in nearby Beaverton, posed for a photograph that Maus immediately posted on BikePortland.org under the title “Bakfiets on Broadway.” At the time—in the early days of social media, blogs, and Google images—the idea of a front-loading cargo bike was extremely novel to his readers, and the post attracted a significant amount of traffic. “I think they’d do very well in Portland, and I have a hunch we’ll be seeing more of these around town in the future,” Maus predicted in his entry, unaware that the post itself would eventually serve as the genesis of his city’s nascent cargo-bike scene.

  “That post really got a lot of attention,” remembers Maus fondly. “It hit a lot of people in Portland orientated towards bicycling in an exciting way—the tinkerers and creative types.” Four of those readers were friends and married couples Dean and Rachel Mullin, and Todd and Martina Fahrner, who immediately identified a gap in the local retail market. “A light bulb went off in their heads,” suggests Maus. “They started clicking around the Internet and realized that no one is importing these things into the United States. They end up rolling open their garage door, finding a source, and bringing in these cargo bikes, and the rest is history.”

  Since opening up in June 2007, Clever Cycles has cleverly cornered the transport-cycling market, selling a selected range of cargo and family bikes (including the Urban Arrow), upright city bikes, folding bikes, electric bikes, and kids’ bikes. This practicality has been good for business, and they’ve expanded their family-friendly shop to a total of 7,000 square feet. In 2012, Bicycle Retailer and Industry News named them the “Best Urban Bike Shop” in America. “Clever Cycles was the pioneer for what I called Portland’s ‘Dutch Bike Invasion,’” says Maus. “It wasn’t just the cargo bikes, but all things Dutch were coming over. They established themselves with the bakfiets, and were able to start a business that’s still around and actually quite successful.”

  Once Clever Cycles had solidified their reputation as a supplier of imported cargo bikes, it wasn’t long before the domestic frame builders and manufacturers got in on the action. Longtime friends Philip Ross and Jamie Nichols emerged from this ecosystem of garage tinkerers to form Metrofiets in 2007, selling bakfiets for both personal and commercial use that were designed and built in northeast Portland. “Their story was important on a lot more levels than Clever Cycles,” proposes Maus. “Clever were importing a foreign product, with all the associated costs that go with that. Then Metrofiets set up a shop in a residential neighborhood, and were making them just as good, if not better than, the Dutch version.” Where several other custom builders had tried and failed—citing cost and complication as insurmountable barriers—Ross and Nichols perfected the process, making it clear that the Portland market had matured to a point where it was ready for its own bespoke cargo-bike manufacturer. To Maus, this was a signal to the community that these freight bikes could be lighter, more responsive, and even more beautiful than the bakfiets—and could be made locally.

  Figure 6-3: Portland’s Metrofiets designed and built this custom delivery bike for Trailhead Coffee Roasters; it doubles as a portable café. (Credit: Jonathan Maus)

  Portland also lays claim to the nation’s first “Disaster Relief Trials,” a family-friendly event that has brought the community together every autumn since 2012. In anticipation of “the Big One”—the earthquake that will inevitably rock the Cascadia Subduction Zone, imperiling Portland—a group of enterprising citizens arranged a scavenger hunt in which participants pick up medical supplies, food, water, and even “injured” people by cargo bike. Local and statewide agencies have since gotten involved, w
itnessing firsthand how the aftermath of any natural disaster can benefit from nimble vehicles immune to the concerns of clogged streets, energy shortages, and flooded cars. “It is to cargo bikes what tactical urbanism is to activists, in that it gives them a real-life scenario to see how it goes, and to see what goes wrong and what goes right,” Maus suggests. “And with weather-related disasters on the rise, it’s super-relevant.”

  The natural next step in Portland’s maturing cargo-bike culture was to start shifting freight via more efficient means, beginning with the formation of B-Line Sustainable Delivery in 2010 by Maine transplants Franklin and Kathryn Jones. Acting as a “viable, alternative, clean-energy” distribution grid, B-Line’s fleet of custom-built, electric-assist tricycles provide a smart “last-mile” solution to businesses across the city. “Their growth and sophistication over the years has been impressive to watch,” asserts Maus, “to the point where now they’ve established themselves, both geographically and strategically, at the center of what I hope is the future of cargo transport.” B-Line cemented that position in 2015 by setting up shop in “The Redd on Salmon Street,” an 80,000-square-foot production and distribution campus housing local food enterprises, along with their growing pedal-powered logistics network.

  B-Line isn’t the only company providing this type of delivery service. Portland Pedal Power is another owner-run organization, founded in 2009 by Ken Wetherell, who designed and built his own custom cargo-bike enclosure. Their fleet of 14 delivery bikes brings food and products to businesses in the busy downtown core, having found a niche of catering lunch to the local tech industry. Maus believes both success stories speak volumes about the need to rethink how we move freight in our cities, a possibility not ignored by larger corporations like UPS, which, in late 2016, announced that Portland would be the site of their first electric-assist-trike pilot scheme.