In the Media

New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez announced today that the city received a $5.6 million federal grant from the United States Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program. This funding will be used to create an Urban Freight Mobility Collaborative (UFC), an innovation hub designed to revolutionize urban freight movement and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions — the first of its kind in the United States. The NYC DOT...

Leveraging a $2 million grant, the Urban Freight Lab is extending its urban logistics from Seattle, optimizing goods delivery and enhancing sustainability.

The Urban Freight Lab is breaking new ground and extending its impact beyond Seattle.

Faculty work with partners across industry, government, and community sectors.

By Kristin Schwab It’s a rainy evening in New York City, as in flash flood warning kind of rain. But it’s nothing Michael Singh hasn’t seen. “Yes, rain, snow, high winds, all of it,” said Singh, who’s been a bike messenger for seven years and started with Amazon a few months ago. He begins his shift in a warehouse where he loads boxes onto an e-bike trailer the size of a bathtub. “This is a little light today. I’m guessing...

In some urban areas, the majority of drivers' time is spent outside of vehicles, including searching for the right apartment, says Anne Goodchild, founding director of the Urban Freight Lab, which does research on urban freight and logistics issues at the University of Washington.

Giacomo Dalla Chiara, lead researcher at the Urban Freight Lab, says that about 28% of drivers' time during delivery is used searching for spots. In a project sponsored by the Energy Department, the lab deployed curb sensors in a Seattle neighborhood, transmitting real-time information about available parking spaces. Combining machine learning and sensor information, the system can predict when the spaces will be available—and direct drivers toward spots that are opening up while drivers are in transit.

Partnerships like the Urban Freight Lab are working collaboratively to fast-track last-mile solutions previously impossible due to mechanical and design constraints, revolutionizing the form factor of the bicycle and adapting vehicles to streets unfit for cars.

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and the University of Washington’s Urban Freight Lab helped us celebrate the Pedaling Relief Project during a news conference at the University District Food Bank in October.

A recent Urban Freight Lab study found neighborhoods within two miles of Amazon's last-mile facilities experience double the traffic from delivery vehicles and trucks than other parts of the Seattle metro area. Author Travis Fried suggests these facilities should serve a more dynamic role beyond just storage spaces for goods — incorporating amenities like tennis courts, rooftop urban farms, or even data centers, transforming them into part of the urban landscape.

In a first-of-its-kind research project, Urban Freight Lab researchers studied the impact of pollution from delivering packages. They focused on Amazon 'last-mile' delivery stations in the Seattle metro area, the last stops before a package hits your doorstep, and found that people who live within 2 miles of these hubs are exposed to more delivery-related air pollution than people in outlying areas.

A new Urban Freight Lab white paper explores the transformative potential of electric cargo (e-cargo) bikes in revolutionizing urban freight systems across the U.S. and provides actionable recommendations, aiming to accelerate the development of local bike infrastructure, an essential factor for the widespread adoption of e-cargo bikes.

Urban Freight Lab study found that people who live within 2 miles of an Amazon last-mile delivery station are exposed to more delivery-related air pollution despite ordering fewer packages.

Seattle-area neighborhoods closer to Amazon delivery stations are subject to double the amount of truck traffic, according to this Urban Freight Lab study.

The Urban Freight Lab has recently published “Biking the Goods: How North American Cities Can Prepare for and Promote Large-Scale Adoption of E-Cargo Bikes,” which could be a helpful document for many of the key stakeholders in both the public and private sector.