International Cargo Bike Festival: April 2017

Friday, April 28, 2017

The Cargo Bike Song

Every year there is an occassion at the International Cargo Bike Festival to sing the Cargo Bike Song.
In 2016 Johan Erlandsson practiced the Dutch version of the song and sang it in DE Vasim riding the Velove Armadillo together with Ron Vervuurt.
Allways a surprise who is going to sing it. Will you this year?

Chair of the Day, Ron Vervuurt, sang the song at the end of the day in 2015.

click on the photo to enlarge

The song as I know it is from 1968 from Egbert Douwe (Rob Out) and it is called in Dutch "Kom uit je bedstee mijn liefste" (Come out of the bed, my darling)

Ron Vervuurt wrote the new Dutch version and he did the translation into English as well.

However the original song is from The Brothers Four and written by Eric Andersen, "Come to my bedside, my darling"

Ron Vervuurt already sang the song at the Cargo BikeFestival 2014, but only few people were in the tent to listen then.

Looking forward to the performances of this year!

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Carvelo2go – Cargo Bike Sharing Scheme

Register of Initiatives in Pedal Powered Logistics - RIPPL #9

The RIPPL blog continues at the website RIPPL.BIKE

Carvelo2go, a project established in 2015 and supported by the Swiss “carvelo” cargo bicycle initiative, was the world’s first electric cargo bike-sharing scheme. The more than 2600 users who have already registered can hire electrically-assisted cargo bikes by the hour in a number of Swiss towns, by visiting the carvelo2go website. Currently the service is available in Basel, Bern, Vevey and St Gallen, but in June and July 2017, Zurich, Winterthur, Baden and Lucerne will also be added.

The scheme is operated by the Mobility Academy, part of the TCS (Touring Club Schweiz). Around 60 bikes are hosted by local shops, such as bakeries, pharmacies, book shops or bars. By involving local shops as hosts, where users can pick up the battery and key, carvelo2go provides easy access whilst minimising investment in infrastructure such as charging stations. Users pay in advance at the shop and return the bike, battery, and key once the trip is made.