Let’s go back to the future with e-cargo bikes – Inside track
“I’m no eco-warrior but I really have become a convert. I enjoy cycling past motionless traffic.” So says Shane Topley, a self-employed plumber based in West London who switched a couple of years ago to using an e-cargo bike for most of his work trips
In the past two decades, the number of vans on our roads has almost doubled. While car emissions are coming down, albeit slowly, emissions from vans are going up, with a 56 per cent increase in between 1990 and 2019, alongside the air pollution and congestion they also cause.
As Green Alliance has highlighted before, a strategy of switching to alternative modes of transport, combined with technological change, is needed to cut carbon emissions. When it comes to technology, electrification is the clear solution for vans. Electric vans can replace diesel models like for like, leading to four times fewer emissions.
