Friday, 29 March 2024
EnvironmentEV NewsNews

Clean Air Market trial has traders switch from vans to cargo bikes

The UK’s first Clean Air Market trial is set to assist the majority of trading participants in a demonstration of moving goods via cleaner mobility forms such as cargo bikes in a bid to pave the way for a more permanent shift away from polluting vehicles.

Trials are soon to get underway to transform trading at London’s Maltby Street Market. The hope is that the transition in transport will help reduce local air pollution, carbon emissions and improve accessibility. Some testing of the water has already begun, with four traders using cargo bikes for some, or all, of their daily trips in and out of the market.

99% of the market’s customers surveyed acknowledged that air pollution is an important issue affecting Londoners, with 75% confirming that they would be more likely to purchase goods from a trader using a sustainable mode of transport.

With that in mind, the majority of traders have got on board with the trial, which is to utilise a combination of electric vans and electric cargo bikes to achieve a drastic improvement in localised air quality around the shopping district.

The Clean Air Market is a grant funded community project which aims to demonstrate that a working market can viably decarbonise its complex supply chains, and create a more accessible, equitable and sustainable market experience.

The clean transport demo aims to provide a blueprint for markets up and down the UK to begin trialling and transitioning to more sustainable modes of transport and to consider how customer accessibility can be improved.

Oliver Lord, UK Head of Clean Cities Campaign said: “Dirty air in our cities and the climate crisis means we must do all we can to ditch polluting vehicles. I’m delighted market traders are playing their part and that the support is there to help them succeed. I hope lessons from this innovative project will inform action across the UK.”

The Cleaner Air Market takes place the weekend before national Clean Air Day on Thursday 16th June.

The Cleaner Air Market is being delivered by a range of clean air and sustainable transport charities, social enterprises and companies, including Fare City, Pedal Me, Mums for Lungs, Wheels for Wellbeing and Clean Cities Campaign.

Zack Polanski, Green Party London Assembly Member added: “I am so pleased to support aims to make markets more inclusive by working with management and traders to improve accessibility. Markets are the lifeblood of communities and finding ways to make them more sustainable is absolutely the right way to make sure these staples continue to benefit local people.

“Fare City are not only raising awareness of these issues, but they are also finding practical ways to reduce the market’s contribution to air pollution and reduce congestion on market days. We can all learn from initiatives like this that are designed to help communities and traders operate in a way that benefits both the people and the planet.”

 

Image credit to Richard Turner / Fare City