International Cargo Bike Festival goes mainstream
Comments Off on International Cargo Bike Festival goes mainstreamSource: Nieuwsfiets / Fietsberaad
Photo credit: ICBF / Tom Parr
The International Cargo Bike Festival (ICBF) takes place on 25-26 October at the Jaarbeurs Expozaal Beatrixgebouw event venue in Utrecht, and sees a focus shift from purely B2B, with family-friendly activities alongside panel discussions and the chance to check out cargo bikes from a wide variety of exhibitors
The ICBF was founded in 2012 with the intention of demonstrating that cargo bikes are suitable for transporting children and can also be effective in ‘last mile’ city logistics as an alternative to traditional vans. Organisers Jos Sluijsman and Tom Parr stated, “Our goal is to inspire the world to stop using cars and vans and start using cargo bikes instead. That’s why we’ve declared the 2020s the decade of the cargo bike. Why? We believe that the cargo bike will become mainstream in this decade. The potential impact is huge, so join us and let’s make it happen together.”
The event brings together manufacturers, designers, engineers, logistics partners and other users to exchange ideas through a program of panel discussions. The annual festival started out in 2012 as ‘BakfietsTreffen’ in Nijmegen, and has become increasingly international over the years. It took place outside the Netherlands for one year in 2018; the next year, when the festival took place in Groningen, there were representatives from 40 countries. Last year in Amsterdam, participants from India and African countries were present for the first time.
Panel discussions and keynote speeches
On Friday 25 October, Karen Vancluysen from POLIS Network will deliver a keynote discussion on the evolution of urban mobility networks.
On the topic of diversity, a panel including Nüwiel founder and CEO Natalia Tomiyama, Angela van der Kloof from Mobycon and others will share experiences from underrepresented groups in the cargo bike industry, and explore how to facilitate their contributions and remove barriers to participation.
Two separate panels will examine the role of cargo bikes in inner cities’ zero-emission zones. This hot topic for both entrepreneurs and policymakers will be discussed by speakers from, among others, the municipality of Utrecht, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and ARUP. Additionally, Dr. Tom Assman from the Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, will present his research on autonomous cargo bikes.
On Saturday 26 October discussions begin with a panel led by Cycling Industries Europe exploring and reflecting on the results of the European survey on bicycle logistics service providers. This will feature representatives from the French, Belgian and German national bicycle logistics federations.
An afternoon session welcomes speakers from Mali, Nigeria and South Africa to look at developments in African cargo bike and bike logistics, while community organizer Cathy Tuttle offers insights into Portland’s ‘Weird, Wild and Wonderful’ cargo bike culture.
All panel session and speeches will shared on the ICBF YouTube channel after the event.
Several side events take place alongside ICBF, a LEVA-EU parallel session on Friday 25 October at 12:00, which aims to guide participants through the complexities of LEV standardisation.