Just because a car can go 100 miles per hour, doesn't mean it will be able to when delivering your package, particularly in inner cities. "The average speed of a van in New York City is 9 miles an hour," explains Jan VanderTuin, of Eugene's (Oregon) Center for Appropriate Transport (CAT), who argues that often bikes beat outs a van especially when accounting for the price of the van, fuel and parking.

Instead of a van, there are now courier services that offer deliveries via cargo bike, capable of transporting even a "full size washer and dryer". VanderTuin founded such a service in the U.S. called Pedaler's Express, or PedEx, back in 1992 in Oregon and it has since spread nationwide.

In this video, we met up with a PedEx cyclist as he loaded up his bike and talked to VanderTuin about the technology, user acceptance and how UPS started off as a cargo bike service.

We also have a video with more cargo bikes and other human powered machines from CAT.