The new KlimaEntLaster brochure for municipalities was developed as part of the research project “HAUSRAD”, in which Cycle Competence member radverteiler participated as a provider of hardware and booking platform. The brochure is accompanied by detailed factsheets that explain how municipalities and housing developers can implement targeted activities to make the family-friendly means of transport, the cargo bike, more well-known and accessible: from subscriptions to sharing to delivery services.

Promoting the use of cargo bikes in municipalities!

Your municipality can take a variety of actions to make all these benefits tangible and usable for its citizens. The representative KlimaEntLaster survey showed that more than half of Austrians would like to ride a cargo bike! However, many lack the opportunity to try out this type of bike. This guide shows how sharing, subscriptions, delivery services, and test rides can also be implemented in your municipality.

What types of bikes are there?

The range of cargo bikes is large and continues to grow. Electric assistance makes particular sense for cargo bikes due to their load capacities of up to 200 kilograms. In most cases, the motorization follows the regulations for standard e-bikes (maximum 25 km/h assistance, maximum 250 watts), which means that e-cargo bikes are also considered regular bicycles under traffic regulations. The three most common types of cargo bikes are shown here: tricycle, Long John, and Longtail.

Cargo bike sharing

For municipalities, small towns, and housing developers, a middle-ground solution has proven effective in the KlimaEntLaster project: “hosting,” ideally in combination with smart rental boxes. This low-cost system is available around the clock. A small box is installed at the rental location of the bike, connected to a power supply, and contains the battery, charger, and key. It can be opened via smartphone through the platform radverteiler.at once the bike has been reserved online.

Reaching the public

We tested several new approaches that allow municipalities or housing developers to proactively reach out to interested people and introduce them to the emission-free alternative of the cargo bike. These include cargo bike subscriptions, test ride offers, and information packages for municipalities or housing complexes. These measures help overcome barriers such as purchase cost, lack of information, or limited test opportunities. Communication and promotion are key!

Using cargo bikes flexibly

In addition to the mentioned offers for future cargo bike riders, your municipality can also support people who cannot ride themselves: delivery services for everyday needs or shuttle services. In some cases, it can make sense to pool resources and use one bike for many different purposes.

Tips for versatile cargo bike offerings

Once your municipality has decided on some of these cargo bike measures and is ready to introduce them to the public, the most important thing is to announce it widely! Spread the word. But even at the beginning of the planning process, an informational evening works well, where the idea of cargo bike sharing or delivery services can be discussed with interested citizens and initial candidates for the role of bike providers or cooperative associations can be found. Our research results, briefly presented in the brochure, support these decisions.

The new guide is based on findings from the research project “HAUSRAD,” running from 2022 to 2025, funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency FFG, and on previous project results from the KlimaEntLaster consortium. In addition to radverteiler/quadratic GmbH, Factum, TU Wien – move, Energy Climate GmbH, and the association IGF – Die Radvokat:innen were involved in the project and text creation.

Download the brochure and factsheets here