EXCELLENT WOMEN

Pedal-powered deliveries for safer streets

While she was on maternity leave with her second daughter, Helena Downey started to think about traffic.

The neighbourhood where she lived had recently been designated a Low Traffic Zone, which made the area quieter and safer.

As more people turned to deliveries during lockdown, rather than going out to shop, she began to think about ways to keep the streets where we live from filling up with traffic.

Inspired by images she had seen of couriers and tradesman on cargo bikes in the Netherlands, France and Denmark, she began to research businesses that used bikes here in the UK.

It took some effort, and it inspired her to share her findings in a directory called Brought By Bike.

“We want to be a source of information for people who, like me, care about the safety and environment of their streets and want to make a difference, however small,” she says.

Bookshops, bakers, window cleaners, plumbers and even beer deliveries can be found on the list which is constantly growing. It’s a celebration both of local enterprise and of people who choose a quieter, and more sustainable, way to travel.

Search the list yourself to find local deliveries at broughtbybike.com.