Seattle SMART: Digitizing the Last Mile of Urban Goods to Improve Curb Access and Utilization

In Spring 2023, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) was awarded a Stage-1 grant under the Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Grants Program by the US DOT. The University of Washington’s Urban Freight Lab (UFL) partnered with SDOT to develop the methodological approach and analysis for the SMART project, titled “Last-mile freight curb access: digitizing the last-mile of urban goods to improve curb access and utilization,” and determine key research discoveries that contribute to the existing body of work and support development for a SMART Stage-2 grant. This technical report describes the research study, data collected, and findings from analysis of those data.

This project tested a Vehicle-to-Curb (V2C) technology that investigated the digitization of the existing CVLZ permit and to potentially enable pricing strategies. While parking pricing policies have been successful to manage passenger vehicle demand and their parking behaviors, the response of commercial vehicles to parking pricing is not sufficiently understood, and little information is available to predict their behavioral response.

The overarching goals of this project were to:

1. pilot test the effectiveness of a V2C technology to enable the digitization of the existing Seattle CVLZ permit system and
2. to qualitatively understand the role parking pricing and permitting programs play in affecting drivers’ ability to find and utilize authorized parking within the context of north downtown Seattle.

Key insights were gained through multiple research strategies: on-the-ground parking behavior data collection, carrier interviews, and a carrier survey. These insights allowed SDOT to develop a successful Stage-2 grant submission and will inform future parking and permit policy decisions.