In the Media

Fiete Krutein, a former University of Washington researcher who co-authored a paper on evacuating isolated islands, said one of the most important steps local governments can take to ensure everyone gets off an island when a hurricane hits is to have an evacuation plan in place.

The City of Boston and the Boston Transportation Department have launched an e-cargo bike delivery pilot program aimed at serving local residents and businesses. The program also serves as a case study for the Urban Freight Lab to inform worldwide efforts to encourage deliveries on e-cargo bikes.

Today Mayor Michelle Wu and the Boston Transportation Department (BTD) announced the launch of Boston Delivers, an e-cargo bike delivery pilot program, to serve local residents and businesses. Boston Delivers will serve as a case study for The Urban Freight Lab at The University of Washington to help inform worldwide efforts to encourage deliveries on e-cargo bikes.

Shipping products with less urgency can cut down on environmental harms from e-commerce, Anne Goodchild says. If companies don’t send out each order as quickly as possible, they can plan more efficient routes, fill delivery vans entirely, and dispatch fewer, larger vehicles.

"You can carry a lot more with a truck, but it spends about 80% of its time parked on its routes,” said Giacomo Dalla Chiara. "But the driver has to get out and walk, and once you do that, it's a mode of transport much less efficient, which the total number of packages delivered does not show."

In the age of e-commerce, the supply chain now stops at millions of front doors. And with that convenience comes a logistics nightmare. Cities worldwide are being overrun by urban freight and find their streets and buildings are not designed to manage expanding fleets of trucks and vans bringing a daily flood of parcels.

California, the birthplace and epicenter of the self-driving industry, could soon put the brakes on autonomous trucking.

The Seattle Neighborhood Delivery Hub was a multi-faceted testbed for urban delivery solutions, located in Seattle's dense Uptown neighbourhood. It brought together various delivery technologies, including route optimisation tools.During the short-term pilot, which ran for just under four months, a cargo bike was used for local last mile delivery.“One of the areas the industry needs to develop in is the tools and technologies for a diverse fleet,” explains Dr Anne Goodchild, Director of the Urban Freight Lab at the University of Washington.

Dr. Anne Goodchild, director at Urban Freight Lab at the University of Washington, says sustainability certification badges feature can be useful to online shoppers, but to remember that it’s not the be-all end-all. “Of course these certifications are imperfect,” Goodchild says, “but they provide some assistance to shoppers looking for easier access to information.”

The second federal SMART grant of $2 million was awarded to SDOT to establish a digital commercial vehicle permits pilot program through a collaboration with the University of Washington’s Urban Freight Lab (UFL) and the Open Mobility Foundation (OMF).

Learn how Amazon innovated both vehicle and infrastructure design, and are working with Rivian to get 100,000 electric delivery vehicles on the road by 2030. The Future Forward docuseries features people and businesses pioneering innovation on the front line of climate change across industries — from transportation and construction to agriculture and water — including our director, Anne Goodchild.

By Carl FranzenE-bikes aren’t just fast, fun, and eco-friendly ways to get around: These light motorized vehicles also unlock new possibilities for personal transportation, allowing riders to carry more weight, more easily, than they could with a traditional pedal bike.

The federal government awarded Seattle’s Department of Transportation (SDOT) $2 million in funds from the Strength, Mobility, and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Grant to work with the Urban Freight Lab and Open Mobility Foundation to improve curbside access.

We’ll work closely with our partners at the UW Urban Freight Lab and the Open Mobility Foundation to establish new commercial vehicle permit policies and pilot a digital permit. We aim to reduce congestion, improve access to the curb, and promote more sustainable forms of delivery. 

Parcels were delivered to the end customer via cargo bike as part of the Seattle Neighborhood Delivery Hub. The Hub ran for four months in 2021.The Hub used customised electric-assist cargo bikes that could carry propulsion-assisted electric pallets. (We’ll cover route optimisation in a future issue.)