A Global Platform for P2P Cargo Bike-Sharing

We’ve talked about biking to work and how it helps the environment yet there’s still some difficulty in having biking become the main transport getting people from point A to point B. What if there was a way to share bikes, specifically, cargo bikes which offer storage space making an excellent car replacement.

Enter a global platform for P2P cargo bike-sharing, helping replace driving with biking.

Sharing is Chic

Much like the RideKick we covered, cargo bikes are the ideal car replacement because they can carry your kids, potted plants and all sorts of other big, chunky items you couldn’t fit into your flimsy wire bike basket. Velogistics is a new program arising in Germany committed to sharing cargo bikes. Peer-to-peer services are generally on the rise, offering car-sharing through Relay Rides, bike-sharing through various local programs, and sharing home improvement tools and appliances through Zilok. What’s special about Zilok is that it’s designed to support renting and sharing of just about anything. There’s even a community task sharing program called TaskRabbit.

How Bike-Sharing Works

Sharing cargo bikes reduces public reliance on cars and buses even more. The video below shows how delighted everyone is to ride a cargo bike. You can even have a cargo in both the front and back of your bike. Small business owners also use these cargo bikes to sell everything from crepes to cocktails.

The Premise Behind Velogistics

Velogistics has the plan figured out with a straight-forward mapping system. People who want to rent or share their cargo bikes post photos and short descriptions of their bikes on the Velogistics website. Bikes can be shared for free or rented at a set price. The location of the bikes is easily found using pins on the Google Maps system. The Velogistics team also has members that scout out broken and abandoned bikes, and refurbishes them to be used as cargo bikes. Additionally, they are building an open-source wiki dedicated to care and maintenance of cargo bikes.

[CC Image by vikapproved via Flickr]

So what do you think? Do you think a bike program like this will take off?