Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Cargo Bike Ben @cargobikeben.bsky.social · 3h

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.

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Cargo Bike Ben @cargobikeben.bsky.social · 4h

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.

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Reposted by Cargo Bike Ben

Oxford Clarion @oxfordclarion.bsky.social · 1d

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.

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Cargo Bike Ben @cargobikeben.bsky.social · 20h

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

Cargo Bike Ben @cargobikeben.bsky.social · 1d

Yup. That's the key. Build it wide enough for emergency vehicles and you'll always have a lane that enables rapid progress.

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Cargo Bike Ben @cargobikeben.bsky.social · 1d

Cycle Superhighway Helps Ambulance Avoid The Traffic

YouTube video by 4ChordsNoNet

youtu.be

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Reposted by Cargo Bike Ben

Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social · 1d

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?

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Reposted by Cargo Bike Ben

Momentum Magazine @momentummag.bsky.social · 1d

Here’s Why Governments Should Start Paying People to Bike to Work
momentummag.com/is-it-time-g...

Here's Why Governments Should Start Paying People to Bike to Work

In North America, where cars reign supreme, a new idea could gain ground like it is in some areas of Europe — paying people to bike to work

momentummag.com

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Cargo Bike Ben @cargobikeben.bsky.social · 1d

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.

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Reposted by Cargo Bike Ben

American Fietser @americanfietser.bsky.social · 1d

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.

World Bike Forward @urbanupgradeglobal.bsky.social · 1d

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.

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Reposted by Cargo Bike Ben

Brian Caulfield @briancaulfield.bsky.social · 2d

📣 New research just published. Thank you @seai-ie.bsky.social for supporting the work

To increase e-cargo bike uptake, we must focus on:

1. Network Planning & Safety
2. Maintenance & Surface Quality
3. Design & Exclusion

activetravelstudies.org/article/id/1...

Situating the E-Cargo Bike in an Emerging Cycling Network: A Qualitative Study

In many low-cycling contexts, cycling is routinely marginalised in transport planning practice while, in everyday traffic interactions, cyclists are frequently disregarded as legitimate road users. E-...

activetravelstudies.org

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Cargo Bike Ben @cargobikeben.bsky.social · 2d

#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.

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Cargo Bike Ben @cargobikeben.bsky.social · 2d

a man in a suit and scarf is standing in a desert

ALT: a man in a suit and scarf is standing in a desert

media.tenor.com

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Cargo Bike Ben @cargobikeben.bsky.social · 2d

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.

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Cargo Bike Ben @cargobikeben.bsky.social · 2d

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.

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Cargo Bike Ben @cargobikeben.bsky.social · 2d

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.

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Cargo Bike Ben @cargobikeben.bsky.social · 2d

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.

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Cargo Bike Ben @cargobikeben.bsky.social · 2d

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.

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Reposted by Cargo Bike Ben

Dutch Cycling Embassy @dutchcycling.nl · 3d

Cargo Cycling’s Doer model is redefining the role of cargo bikes in urban logistics.

With a 450kg capacity, four-wheel stability, and a cabin-style design, the Doer is winning over drivers and businesses alike.

Read the story on Zag Daily: buff.ly/Lo8aiVO

#DCEnetwork

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Reposted by Cargo Bike Ben

Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 4d

Actual experts who know what they’re talking about know that smart bike-lanes for people on e-bikes or any other bikes aren’t “subsidized.” They have excellent returns-on-investment, support economic development, save public money, etc.

Bad news about car lanes though. HEAVILY subsidized.

Facts.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 5d

VARNEY: You canceled almost $8b of energy projects, most of them in blue states. Are you punishing the blue states?

CHRIS WRIGHT: We are punishing the wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars ... do you want to subsidize E-bike lanes lanes in Portlandia?

(That's not a no!)

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Reposted by Cargo Bike Ben

Sam Bird 🏔️🍁🇨🇦 @sambir.bsky.social · 3d

The thing you notice in Yellowknife is that residents, whom, unlike most Canadians, have serious winters, predominantly drive normal CARS year-round. Capable & suitable.
In summer, they demonstrate that it's perfectly normal & practical to strap a 17' canoe to the roof a 14' car.

David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 6d

You might think that the mayor of Yellowknife, the capital of Canada's vast Northwest Territories, would be a fan of giant pickups.

Nope. He's disgusted by car bloat.

www.linkedin.com/posts/benjam...

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Cargo Bike Ben @cargobikeben.bsky.social · 4d

Even better. Two separate criminal offences.

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Cargo Bike Ben @cargobikeben.bsky.social · 4d

Best to report it through the online police portal too, to get a record and have it logged in their system.

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Cargo Bike Ben @cargobikeben.bsky.social · 4d

Given these flags could easily fall and obstruct the vision of a driver or person on a bike, it’s easy to argue that the conditions for an offence under this section have been met.

Unfortunately, it’s a max fine of £1,000 rather than something that would actually hurt the people behind this.

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Cargo Bike Ben @cargobikeben.bsky.social · 4d

(a) hangs or places any thing whatsoever on or over a highway, or
(b) so places any thing whatsoever in a highway as to be a danger to users of the highway,

he is guilty of an offence and liable to a fine.

—

Critically, contravening S178 is a criminal offence; not a civil one.

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