Cargo Bike Food Delivery in Regional Smart Communities, with Beate Kubitz

In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast, I have a great chat with Beate Kubitz, a Transport Consultant and Future Mobility Researcher in the UK. This podcast episode is another audio from the YouTube series I've been doing catching up with previous podcast guests during the pandemic. We recorded this chat in May 2020 but I'm definitely going to get Beate back on the podcast to give us all an update down the track. In this episode, Beate tells us all about her passion for transport and the way it impacts our lives, plus her interest in the innovations happening in the Mobility space. She then tells us about the Cargo Bike Delivery Service that came about out of a desire to meet demand for deliveries in the early days of the pandemic lockdown. We talk about the challenges of regular delivery models, such as vehicle access in very narrow lanes, and how the cargo bike idea was initially a crisis response to make sure people in the local community were able to access food during lockdown but has now sparked long term possibilities in terms of future mobility behaviour change and reducing reliance on private vehicle use. We discuss the volunteer model they have set up and the way it works with the local shops, as well as the changes to how we shop long term and the new business models that will be required in the future for grocers and shops, and potentially for the cargo bike delivery service too. Beate then tells us about the data she's been keeping on the delivery service, and the impact it's made not only in reducing emissions compared to a delivery van, but also the journeys people haven't made in their car to get groceries. We finish up talking a little bit about Beate's normal business and how that's changed during COVID, but we'll definitely have to have a follow up conversation to dive into that more. As always, we hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it! Find the full show notes at: www.mysmart.community Connect with Beate on LinkedIn Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.