Cargo Bike Ben
@cargobikeben.bsky.social
1.6K followers 700 following 2K posts
Utility cycling & active travel advocate. Passionate about ending car dependency (not banning cars), reducing urban sprawl + how bikes are the easiest and most cost effective way to achieve that. Former journalist turned software developer. r/fuckcars mod
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Reposted by Cargo Bike Ben
dlknowles.bsky.social
By me this week - the happiest thing I've got to report of late, with a glorious trip over the summer to Montreal

"Forget EVs. Cycling is revolutionising transport."

www.economist.com/internationa...
Forget EVs. Cycling is revolutionising transport
Pedal power is booming, spinning up a new culture war
www.economist.com
Reposted by Cargo Bike Ben
accessiblestreets.bsky.social
Wonder what part of this, this selfish driver thought was ok?

Reported to Waltham Forest council

📍Dunedin Road, Leyton

#PavementParking #AccessibleStreets 🧑‍🦽🧑‍🦼🧑‍🦯
A white motorhome is parked on a residential driveway, but the front wheels and cab fully block the pavement
Reposted by Cargo Bike Ben
eliothiggins.bsky.social
Big presence on the beaches of Normandy in 1944 too.
premthakker.bsky.social
From Donald Trump's Roundtable on Antifa just now —
"Antifa has been around in various iterations for almost 100 years in some instances, going back to the Weimar Republic in Germany."
— special guest Jack Posobiec
Reposted by Cargo Bike Ben
nessawinters.bsky.social
I do enjoy walking at #burghley but I'm afraid their cycle parking offer is pathetic.

I've emailed previously and had no response. Tens of thousands spent recently on a new car park, but this is their idea of acceptable secure cycle parking.
#stamford
#activetravel
#cyclesnotwelcome
Reposted by Cargo Bike Ben
kwilsonhfx.bsky.social
Hot take: I like that phones got added right next to ebike batteries because

1) the technology is basically the same

2) everyone thinks plugging in your phone overnight/without tending to it is completely normal behaviour
cargobikeben.bsky.social
1. It is well research and documented.
2. It is obvious. Unless you're calling for people in cars and walking to wear helmets, don't be a helmet and suggest that people on bikes wear them. If they're exercising at high speed, sure; but for this sort of riding, it shouldn't be needed.
cargobikeben.bsky.social
Potholes are caused by overuse of cars. Until you reduce car use, potholes can't be fixed quickly enough.

As for helmets, no. You are more likely to suffer a catastrophic head injury per mile travelled in a car or on foot than you are on a bike. Helmets discourage bike use.
Reposted by Cargo Bike Ben
oxfordclarion.bsky.social
Electric cargo bikes can replace many everyday car trips for the average family and “reshape suburban family mobility”, say Oxford University researchers. 49 British households were loaned e-cargo bikes for school runs, shopping trips, family outings and other day-to-day use.
Family on an electric cargo bike
cargobikeben.bsky.social
I’m not a fan of AI music, but I do have a soft spot for really well done “what ifs”. This is definitely a different take on one of the most influential songs on my youth. 😂
Freak on a Leash (AI Soul Cover)
YouTube video by “The Professor” Nick Harrison
youtu.be
cargobikeben.bsky.social
Yup. That's the key. Build it wide enough for emergency vehicles and you'll always have a lane that enables rapid progress.
Reposted by Cargo Bike Ben
brooklynspoke.bsky.social
A sure sign of anti-bike concern trolling is an elected official who lives nowhere near the bike lane in question suddenly becoming *very* concerned about emergency response time, a thing she would never do if this were just normal bumper-to-bumper traffic on a street with no bike lane.
Post on X from Joann Ariola:

Joann Ariola NYC Council District 32
@JoannAriola32
Can somebody at 
@NYC_DOT
 please explain to me how this is even remotely acceptable? With the new parking lane, cars can't pull out of the way to let this ambulance pass. 

When every second counts in an emergency, this could literally mean death for someone in a crisis. I have heard from so many people about how this Court Street redesign was a terrible idea, and this really seals the deal. Someone could be dead because of this.

Local Law 6 of 2025 - which I introduced, and was passed - mandates that local firehouses MUST be consulted before changes like this go into effect. Did the local firehouse sign off on this?
cargobikeben.bsky.social
My boss and his wife (who also works for the company) just had a child and their National Insurance payments didn’t change.

Meanwhile, AstraZenica is throwing its toys out the pram because it doesn’t like the fact the NHS is far bigger than it and can force it to accept the price it wants to pay.
Reposted by Cargo Bike Ben
americanfietser.bsky.social
This is what creating "psychological friction" for drivers looks like. The changes in pavement height, color, and texture break a driver's autopilot mode. It sends a clear message that "You are entering a space designed for people. Slow down. Be alert."

Design details do the work that signs can't.
urbanupgradeglobal.bsky.social
Further up the same Stockholm street from the clip below is another traffic-calming device: intersections where cars may cross but the design is a sidewalk with low curb. Drivers tend to inch across, some of them likely not sure if they're really supposed to be there.
cargobikeben.bsky.social
#Merseyrail and Network Rail really need to install wheel channels at Hamilton Square so that people travelling with ebikes that weigh 30kg+ aren’t left with the choice of throwing their back out or missing a train to go to another station when the platform elevators are broken.
cargobikeben.bsky.social
A serious cost-of-living plan isn’t about tinkering with tax bands or making claims about increasing wages that are largely out of a government’s control. It’s about cutting off the pipelines that drain wages into rent, car finance and utilities. That is something the government can - and must - do.
cargobikeben.bsky.social
You can’t fix living standards while the economy rewards ownership over work. Until we rebuild housing and transport around people instead of assets, the cost-of-living crisis will never end.
cargobikeben.bsky.social
The cost-of-living crisis isn’t about pay packets keeping up with prices. It’s about structural wealth extraction. Money flows upward through rent, land value, car dependency and debt long before it reaches the real economy.
cargobikeben.bsky.social
The next policy they tackle in the same way needs to be “returning the UK to a country of one-car households”. It’s not good enough to stop at landlords. Housing and car dependency are two sides of the same coin; that coin being the core driver of the cost of living crisis.
cargobikeben.bsky.social
So it looks like the UK Green Party’s “ban landlords” media approach is working; it’s removing the right wing papers’ ability to spin their policy, and instead forcing them to defend parasitic extraction of wealth from working and middle class families, and out of the communities they live in.