Tag: micromobility

Back in 2018 and 2019 I posted about ebikes and the FedEx delivery robot being developed. Now in 2022 FedEx has cargo bikes in operation in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Cambridge.

This is a EAV2Cubed 4 wheeled electric cargo bike, parked off the bicycle lane on Fountainbridge in Edinburgh. A more practical vehicle for Edinburgh weather than the 3 wheeled vehicle pictured in this press release https://newsroom.fedex.com/newsroom/fedex-express-continues-journey-towards-zero-emissions-delivery-as-edinburgh-glasgow-and-cambridge-become-the-next-uk-cities-to-welcome-e-cargo-bikes/

We moved from Los Altos, California, to Edinburgh, Scotland at the end of May and are temporarily living in this end of the city.

Previous posts

Delivery – FedEx

Delivery of things

Moving things

Recently in Los Altos. Reminder that rental bikes require service and support – this one has a flat front tyre, damaged front handlebars, and a pair of spectacles poked into the cracked plastic. Emailing Ford GoBike to suggest they picked it up resulted in rather stilted customer service responses.

There’s lots of work still to do to get to the micromobility transformation in transport for suburbs. That transformation is a reasonable reaction to a poor infrastructure overburdened with vehicles much larger than they need to be for the movement of people and things they perform.

Reference – Horace Dediu https://micromobility.io/blog/2019/2/23/the-micromobility-definition

Headline on a McKinsey article https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/automotive-and-assembly/our-insights/mobilitys-second-great-inflection-point

However, it entirely misses cycling, ebikes, and scooters. Perhaps the authors all live in snowy cold cities.

” .. the will to fix our cities is getting stronger. Urban populations, historically at the vanguard for change, are already more receptive to solutions such as ridesharing and carsharing, as well as EVs. ”

When the majority of trips are short, and as delivery robots gain adoption, the number of people willing and able to use a bicycle with electric power assist increases substantially. This has significant implications for the transportation business, and especially for automotive manufacturers.