Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Beating the jams
Tackling the school-run on the city’s congested roads is a hassle no parent wants or needs. But an easier life – and a greener Canterbury – could lie with an alternative form of transport taking other university cities by storm. Joe Walker reports
Bumper-to-bumper, thousands of cars crawl around the city’s ringroad each morning on the daily slog to work or school.
But a small group of parents have happened upon an innovative way of beating the queues and doing their bit to tackle air pollution in Canterbury.
And it’s a simple one, the box bike, which has a celebrated history as the vehicle of choice for butchers and bakers on deliveries.
But in a modern-day twist children have become the cargo, sitting in a large container between the handlebars and the front wheel
The bikes are hugely popular in the cycle-mad Netherlands, where they originate, and a huge uptake has recently been seen in university cities like Cambridge and Manchester.
In Canterbury, however, sightings are a little more rare, but University of Kent law lecturer Gavin Sullivan hopes not for long.
The 43-year-old, who lives in the south of the city, uses a box bike to take his children, Nova, five, and two-year-old Aelle, to Blean before riding to work.
“It’s really fun for the kids and a great and environmentally- friendly way to get to school,” he said.
“They’re quick, they’re cheap, they’re easy, they’re healthy and they keep people fit.
“Generally, I don’t need a car. Most of the trips I’m doing, weekin, week-out, to the supermarket, to the school, to my work – all of that can be done on one of these box bikes.
“I put my shopping in there, I put my kids in there – there’s a cover if it’s raining. It’s very easy to get around, all year round.
“I gave my kids a choice – do you want me to get a car, or do you want to keep riding on a box bike and they said hands down, we’ll have the box bike anytime.”
Gavin doesn’t own a car, choosing to rely on his two-wheeled bike, which is assisted by an electric motor.
He says if more people opted to hop on a bike it would help tackle the congestion which is gridlocking the city and worsening already dangerous air pollution levels.
“For anyone who travels across town in the morning on the school run, as I do, it’s patently obvious that the roads come to a standstill,” he said.
“We have to think about what steps can be taken to encourage people to get out of their cars and to take a low-carbon approach to transport. The problem as I see it, though, is that the local council has actually done very little to encourage people to get on a bike and they don’t appear to have any real clear solutions to the traffic problems Canterbury is facing.”
Kristin Fredricksson, 45, started using a box bike in January after five failed attempts to pass her driving test.
The theatre-maker was keen to take her four-year-old daughter Pansy from their home in Puckle Lane to the Steiner Kindergarten in Petham.
“It was actually for that specific journey I got it,” she said. “And it only takes about 35 minutes.
“Lots of school-runs are three miles and under and the amount of cars at school gates is really disgusting. Canterbury has huge traffic problems anyway, so to me it really makes sense to use one of these bikes.
“They’re so useful. We dump all of the swimming stuff in it, we do a big shop with it. Sometimes I