In December 2022, Mayor Bruce Harrell signed Executive Order 2022-07 directing City departments to work together to prioritize and expand actions that equitably reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) within the transportation sector. One of the actions the Mayor called for is to develop at least three low-pollution neighborhoods by Q1 2028.
SDOT received a RAISE (Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity) federal planning grant to develop the implementation and funding plan to meet the Mayor’s commitment. SDOT seeks Urban Freight Lab (UFL) services to support low pollution neighborhood planning and the development of interventions related to goods and freight movements that will be integrated into the implementation and funding plan.
Task 1 – Summarize freight pollution reduction strategies and identify challenges and opportunities for freight ecosystem
Provide a summary of tools and strategies related to zero- or low-pollution delivery and finalize LPN neighborhoods for detailed analysis. Summarize known low-pollution delivery policies and strategies and identify challenges and opportunities for successful implementation in Seattle. Support SDOT and project team in determining the LPN neighborhoods for further UFL analysis.
Task 2 – Build and gather baseline data layers to inform freight activity analysis
Map study areas, gather public and relevant SDOT/City internal data, and collect establishment information. This information includes: boundaries for data collection and aggregation, public data including: curb inventory, urban form, a geo-referenced list of commercial and residential establishments in the study area, PSRC Household Travel Survey, and King County parcel and property information.
Task 3 – Generate freight activity analysis for selected neighborhoods
Freight Trip Generation (FTG) models are mathematical models that characterize the relationship between the FTG of an establishment and some characteristics of that establishment. Characteristics used as model inputs are the type of establishment (e.g., residential, industrial, or commercial), and the size of the buildings hosting the establishment (measured in acres, for commercial and industrial buildings, or in a number of residential units, for residential buildings). The number of deliveries per establishment is used to quantify its FTG. UFL will utilize an FTG framework but also incorporate other key characteristics to determine relevant metrics to derive estimated freight activity and fleet composition. This task includes completing freight activity analysis for at least four neighborhoods and summarizing the results.
Task 4 – Create a “freight” typology of neighborhoods and explore scenarios
Utilizing the findings from Tasks 2 and 3 above- attempt to organize selected neighborhoods into a typology framework with examples of potential implementations. Create examples of potential LPN implementations (with potential for routing and delivery simulation) that can help SDOT to compare impacts and behaviors under different scenarios or conditions (eg. street closures, green loading zones, etc). Organize tools, policies and strategies from Task 1 with neighborhood typologies to help match strategies to neighborhood freight flow and fleet.
Task 5 – Overall recommendations for SDOT regarding freight and LPN
Synthesize overall insights and make a set of recommendations for the City of Seattle to consider regarding LPN neighborhoods with respect to freight ecosystem impacts