By Robert Bowman, Editor-in-Chief of SupplyChainBrain
Can all of the interests that make up an urban environment come together to solve the problem of freight congestion?
Most major cities today are marked by endless squabbling among competing interests — pedestrians, autos, bikes, public transit, businesses — to the point where reaching consensus on how to solve traffic congestion seems impossible. But that’s not how Anne Goodchild sees it. She is the founder of the Urban Freight Lab, a public-private research partnership housed at the Supply Chain Transportation and Logistics Center at the University of Washington. The initiative aims to solve seemingly intractable urban freight-management problems. On this episode, Goodchild talks about the origin of the Urban Freight Lab, its ongoing work, and whether it’s realistic to believe that participants have a voice in crafting public policy on freight-delivery issues.