The objectives of this project are to develop and implement a technology solution to support research, development, and demonstration of data processing techniques, models, simulations, smart phone applications, and a visual-confirmation system to reduce parking seeking behavior, reduce parcel truck dwell time, and increase network and commercial firms’ efficiency by increasing curb occupancy rates.
Publication Features
Year Two Progress Report: Technology Integration to Gain Commercial Efficiency
Cargo E-Bike Delivery Pilot Test in Seattle
This study performed an empirical analysis to evaluate the implementation of a cargo e-bike delivery system pilot tested by the United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) in Seattle, Washington. During the pilot, a cargo e-bike with removable cargo container was used to perform last mile deliveries in downtown Seattle.
Improving Food Rescue in Seattle: What Can Be Learned from a Supply Chain View?
Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) engaged SCTL in foundational research into the logistics of food rescue in Seattle. This research forms part of SPU’s broader work to identify barriers to making food rescue operations in Seattle as effective and efficient as possible—and work toward solutions to overcome those barriers with both the private and public sector. This research includes interviews with a representative cross-section of food suppliers, food bank agencies, meal program providers and nonprofit partners.
Common MicroHub Research Project: Research Scan
This research scan revealed a lack of an established and widely accepted definition for the concept of consolidation centers or microhubs. Many recent implementations of urban freight consolidation have focused on bundling goods close to the delivery point by creating logistical platforms in the heart of urban areas. These have shared a key purpose: to avoid freight vehicles traveling into urban centers with partial loads.
Freight and Transit Lane Case Study
Research on the impacts of a freight and transit (FAT) lane implemented in January 2019 in Seattle. To improve freight mobility in the City of Seattle and realize the objectives included in the city’s Freight Master Plan (FMP), the FAT lane was
opened upon the closing of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. The objective of this study was therefore to evaluate the performance and utilization of the FAT lane. The results of the traffic volume analysis showed that transit vehicles chose the FAT lane over the general purpose lane at ratios of higher than 90 percent.
Inventory of Private Loading & Unloading Infrastructure
This report describes the work to map all private loading docks, loading bays and loading areas for commercial vehicles in Seattle’s First Hill and Capitol Hill and document their design and capacity features. Taken with the UFL’s private infrastructure inventory in Downtown Seattle, Uptown and South Lake Union, this report finalizes the creation of a comprehensive Greater Downtown inventory of private loading/unloading infrastructure.
Year One Progress Report: Technology Integration to Gain Commercial Efficiency
The objectives of this project are to develop and implement a technology solution to support research, development, and demonstration of data processing techniques, models, simulations, smart phone applications, and a visual-confirmation system to reduce parking seeking behavior, reduce parcel truck dwell time, and increase network and commercial firms’ efficiency by increasing curb occupancy rates.
Curb Allocation Change Project
Like many congested cities, Seattle is grappling with how best to manage increasing use of ride-hailing service by Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) like Uber and Lyft. According to a 2018 Seattle Times analysis, TNC ridership in the Seattle region has grown to more than five times the level it was in the beginning of 2015, providing, on average, more than 91,000 rides a day in 2018. And the newspaper reports Uber and Lyft trips are heavily concentrated in the city’s densest neighborhoods, where nearly 40,000 rides a day start in zip codes covering downtown, Belltown, Capitol Hill and South Lake Union.
Tracking Curb Use in Seattle
Vehicles of all kinds compete for parking space along the curb in Seattle’s Greater Downtown area. The Seattle Department of Transportation manages use of the curb through several types of curb designations that regulate who can park in a space and for how long. To gain an evidence-based understanding of the current use and operational capacity of the curb for commercial vehicles (CVs), SDOT commissioned the Urban Freight Lab to study and document curb parking in five selected Greater Downtown areas.
Seattle Center City Alley Infrastructure Inventory and Occupancy Study
The Supply Chain and Transportation Logistics Center conducted an alley inventory and truck load/unload occupancy study for the City of Seattle. Researchers identified locations and infrastructure characteristics of alleys within Seattle’s One Center City. The resulting database includes GIS coordinates for both ends of each alley, geometric and traffic attributes, and photos. Researchers observed activity in selected alleys to determine time vacant and occupied by trucks, vans, passenger vehicles, and cargo bikes. Researchers then developed alley management recommendations to promote safe, sustainable, and efficient goods delivery and pick-up.
Common Carrier Locker Pilot Test at Seattle Municipal Tower
This report provides compelling evidence of the effectiveness of a new urban goods delivery system strategy: common carrier locker systems that create parcel delivery density and provide secure delivery locations in public spaces. Common carrier locker systems are an innovative strategy because they may be used by any retailer, carrier and goods purchaser, and placed on public property. This contrasts to branded lockers such as those operated by Amazon, UPS and FedEx that are limited to one retailer’s or one carrier’s use. Common carrier lockers use existing smart locker technology to provide security and convenience to users.
Common Carrier Locker Systems: Phase I
The rapid expansion of e-commerce has flooded American cities with delivery trucks, just as those cities are experiencing booming population growth. Retailers need a more efficient, reliable, and cost-effective way to deliver goods in increasingly crowded urban environments. For their part, cities like Seattle want to minimize traffic congestion, both to sustain quality of life for residents and to ensure a smooth flow of goods and services.
The Final 50 Feet of the Urban Goods Delivery System
This report includes information on the first of many research tasks planned for the partnership between SDOT and the Urban Freight Lab. This is the first assessment in any U.S. city of the privately-owned and operated elements of the Final 50 Feet of goods delivery supply chains. These include private truck freight bays and loading docks, delivery policies and operations within buildings located in Center City.
Paper
Published:
Authors: Fiete Krutein, Dr. Anne Goodchild
2022
Inhabited islands are susceptible to natural hazards, such as wildfires. To avoid disasters, preventative measures and guidelines need to be in place to strengthen community resilience. If these fail, evacuation is often the only choice. However, island evacuation is a vastly understudied problem in both research and practice, particularly for islands without permanent road connections to the mainland that require marine evacuation.
Paper
Published:
Authors: Dr. Giacomo Dalla Chiara
2022
A growing body of research looks specifically at freight vehicle parking choices for purposes of deliveries to street retail, and choice impacts on travel time/uncertainty, congestion, and emissions. However, little attention was given to large urban freight traffic generators, e.g., shopping malls and commercial buildings with offices and retail. These pose different challenges to manage freight vehicle parking demand, due to the limited parking options.
Technical Report
Published:
Authors:
2022
Amazon in 2019 pledged to become a net-zero carbon business by 2040. In the wake of that pledge, Amazon financially supported this Urban Freight Lab research examining two key questions.
- What is the current state of sustainable urban freight planning in the United States?
- What are the challenges to achieving a sustainable urban freight system in the United States and Canada?
Technical Report
Published:
Authors: Thomas Maxner, Nota Goulianou, Dr. Andisheh Ranjbari, Dr. Anne Goodchild
2022
In an effort to reduce emissions from last-mile deliveries and incentivize green vehicle adoption, The New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) is seeking to implement a Green Loading Zone (GLZ) pilot program. A Green Loading Zone is curb space designated for the sole use of “green” vehicles, which could include electric and alternative fuel vehicles as well as other zero-emission delivery modes like electric-assist cargo bikes.
Paper
Published:
Authors: Thomas Maxner, Nota Goulianou, Dr. Andisheh Ranjbari, Dr. Anne Goodchild
2022
Green Loading Zones (GLZs) are curb spaces dedicated to the use of electric or alternative fuel (“green”) delivery vehicles. Some U.S. cities have begun piloting GLZs to incentivize companies to purchase and operate more green vehicles. However, there are several questions to be answered prior to a GLZ implementation, including siting, potential users and their willingness to pay.
Paper
Published:
Authors: Thomas Maxner, Dr. Giacomo Dalla Chiara, Dr. Anne Goodchild
2022
Reducing CO2 emissions from urban freight requires the collaboration and coordination between those agents, but the motivations behind their goals, strategies for achieving those goals, and the challenges faced by each agent may differ. In this paper, we document the strategies aimed at reducing CO2 emissions considered by cities and private companies with the goal of understanding the challenges to progress faced by each.
Paper
Published:
Authors: Fiete Krutein, Dr. Anne Goodchild
2022
As awareness of the vulnerability of isolated regions to natural disasters grows, the demand for efficient evacuation plans is increasing. However, isolated areas, such as islands, often have characteristics that make conventional methods, such as evacuation by private vehicle, impractical to infeasible. Mathematical models are conventional tools for evacuation planning.
Student Theses and Dissertations
Published:
Authors: José Luis Machado León
2022
As urbanized populations and concentrations of activities increase, there is growing pressure in dense and constrained urban areas to unlock the potential of every public infrastructure element to address the increasing demand for public space. Specifically, there is a growing demand for space for parking operations related to the access to land use by people and goods.
Student Theses and Dissertations
Published:
Authors:
2021
Electric vehicles, one of the emerging modes of transportation, are at the forefront of sustainable mobility. In the past years, there has been a rapid rise in EVs, both as private and public transportation modes. Private users are influenced by multiple factors while choosing electric cars as their travel modes. Among them, policy and infrastructure are deemed to be the main influencers globally. These policies and infrastructures vary in different cities.
Technical Report
Published:
Authors: Gabriela Girón-Valderrama, Dr. Anne Goodchild
2021
Seattle now ranks as the nation’s sixth-fastest growing city and is among the nation’s densest. As the city grows, so do truck volumes—volumes tied to economic growth for Seattle and the region as a whole. But many streets are already at capacity during peak hours and bottleneck conditions are worsening.