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Urban Freight Lab

Research Topic: Urban Goods Delivery and Land Use

Urban goods delivery and land use planning is a specialized aspect of urban planning that focuses on the efficient and sustainable management of land and infrastructure to support the delivery of goods in urban areas.

Freight and Transit Lane Study (Task Order 7)

The City of Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) engaged the Urban Freight Lab to conduct research on the impacts of a Freight and Transit-Only (FAT) Lane in place in January 2019. The research findings will be used to understand the FAT Lane’s performance towards achieving city goals and to guide the development of future FAT Lane projects.

The Seattle Freight Master Plan includes a FAT Lane strategy to reach the city’s economic goals:

  • (2) Economy – Provide a freight network that supports a thriving and diverse economy for Seattle and the region.
  • (2.4) Maintain and improve truck freight mobility and access between and within the city’s MICs and to the regional highway system
  • (2.4.2) Explore and test the use of truck-only lanes to improve freight mobility on city streets with high truck volumes

SDOT’s key research interests in this project are to:

  1. Document whether the FAT Lane’s benefits to truck drivers were strong enough to attract heavy freight vehicles from using other downtown streets. This will be measured by comparing truck volume on the Lane during implementation to volume after it was closed.
  2. Determine whether passenger cars followed the posted FAT Lane restrictions. This will be measured by documenting the number of cars violating the rule.
  3. Document transit use during the implementation period.

Background:

The Alaskan Way Viaduct, a major freight thoroughfare in Seattle, was closed on January 11, 2019 significantly reducing capacity in the already congested road network in Greater Downtown Seattle. To improve freight and transit access to commercial and industrial areas in the city, the City of Seattle Department of Transportation, in partnership with the WSDOT, temporarily installed two blocks of a Freight and Transit Lane on Alaskan Way.

The FAT Lane was in the curb lane only, on southbound Alaskan Way (at street level, not on the Viaduct). The 2-block segment is north of Little H on Alaskan Way, which provides access to Colorado and Alaskan Way. The FAT Lane supported Port of Seattle operations.

Research Tasks:

The following tasks will be completed by the Urban Freight Lab:

Task 1 – Research Scan

Subtasks:

  1. Conduct a short research scan of published reports that provide data-based evidence of the results of FAT Lane projects.
  2. Write a 2-3 page summary of the results of other FAT Lane projects

Task 2 – Analysis of video data

Subtasks:

  1. SDOT will provide video of the FAT Lane segment taken when the Lane was open and after it closed, to the UFL. The UFL will categorize and count vehicles in the lane as follows:
    • Transit/bus
    • Passenger/car
    • Truck/freight:
      1. Drayage with container
      2. Drayage without container
      3. All other trucks/freight vehicles. This category includes: delivery vans/trucks, construction and waste vehicles, and if readily apparent service commercial vehicles.
    • Other vehicles, e.g. those lacking differentiating features to categorize.
  2. UFL will analyze the count data and include key findings in the final report. The analysis will include:
    1. A comparison of truck volume on the Lane during implementation to the volume after it was closed. This may include time of day, day of week, or other factors.
    2. The number of passenger cars in the Lane during implementation. e.g. the number of violators.
    3. The UFL researchers will also explore whether comparing data collected in the Greater Downtown Cordon study to data collected in this study yields valid findings.
Paper

Bringing Alleys to Light: An Urban Freight Infrastructure Viewpoint

 
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URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2020.102847
Publication: Cities
Volume: 105
Publication Date: 2020
Summary:

There is growing pressure in cities to unlock the potential of every public infrastructure element as density and demand for urban resources increase. Despite their historical role as providing access to land uses for freight and servicing, alleys have not been studied as a resource in modern freight access planning.

The authors developed a replicable data collection method to build and maintain an alley inventory and operations study focused on commercial vehicles. A Seattle Case study showed that 40% of the urban center city blocks have an alley. 90% of those alleys are wide enough to accommodate only a single lane for commercial vehicles. 437 parking operations were recorded in seven alleys during business hours and found that all alleys were vacant 50% of the time.

This confirms that, in its alleys, Seattle has a valuable resource as both space for freight load/unload; and direct access to parking facilities and business entrances for commercial, private, and emergency response vehicles.

However, alley design features and the prevalence of parking facilities accessed through the alley may restrict the freight load/unload space in the alley. Future efforts should investigate how to better manage these infrastructures.

Authors: Dr. Anne GoodchildJosé Luis Machado LeónGabriela Girón-Valderrama
Recommended Citation:
Machado-León, Girón-Valderrama, G. del C., & Goodchild, A. (2020). Bringing Alleys to Light: An Urban Freight Infrastructure Viewpoint. Cities, 105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2020.102847 
Paper

Evaluating the Impacts of Density on Urban Goods Movement Externalities

URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/17549175.2017.1310745
Publication: Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability
Volume: 10:04
Pages: 13-Jan
Publication Date: 2017
Summary:

Research has established a potential to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by replacing passenger travel for shopping with delivery service, and a few studies have indicated CO2 emissions can also be reduced. However, that research has mostly focused on urban locations and has not addressed criteria pollutants. This study examines the impacts of replacing passenger travel for shopping with delivery service over a broader set of externalities (VMT, CO2, NOx, and PM10) in both urban and rural communities. Three different goods movement strategies are considered in three different municipalities in King County, Washington, which vary in size, density, and distance from the metropolitan core. The research finds that delivery services can reduce VMT over passenger vehicle travel for shopping, however, the potential to reduce CO2, NOx, and PM10 emissions varies by municipality. Significant trade-offs are observed between VMT and emissions – especially between VMT and criteria pollutants.

Authors: Dr. Anne Goodchild, Erica Wygonik
Recommended Citation:
Wygonik, Erica, and Anne Goodchild. Evaluating the Impacts of Density on Urban Goods Movement Externalities. Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability 10, no. 4 (2017): 487-499. 
Thesis: Array