Report

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

Publication Date: 2025

Summary:

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:

pilot test the effectiveness of a V2C technology to enable the digitization of the existing Seattle CVLZ permit system and
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.

Authors: Urban Freight LabDr. Giacomo Dalla ChiaraThomas MaxnerArsalan EsmailiGabor WehrmuellerKelly RulaDr. Anne Goodchild

Recommended Citation:
Dalla Chiara, G., Maxner, T., Esmaili, A., Wehrmueller, G., Rula, K., Goodchild, A. (2025). Seattle Smart: Digitizing the Last Mile of Urban Goods to Improve Curb Access and Utilization. Urban Freight Lab, University of Washington. https://doi.org/10.6069/TZAS-KG37

Report

The State of Zero-Emissions Delivery in the U.S.

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URL: https://doi.org/10.6069/F6G2-XV83

Publication Date: 2025

Summary:

We have seen major changes in the last few years as cities and companies in the United States transition to more environmentally sustainable urban delivery. But progress still remains piecemeal and slow. In both policy and practice on city streets, Europe and parts of Asia are far ahead of the U.S. in advancing electrification, shifting away from traditional trucks to smaller forms like e-bikes, and managing city space to induce or support zero emission delivery (ZED).

This paper captures the state of policy and practice of zero emission delivery in the U.S. as of January 2025. It offers a baseline for future work and surfaces levers U.S. cities can consider using to advance ZED. In this report, researchers from the Urban Freight Lab at the University of Washington created a policy and practice framework based on their expertise, review and synthesis of academic literature, current technology and private sector achievements. Via the framework, the research team identifies a three-legged stool of approaches needed to achieve or advance zero emission delivery in the United States.

These three vital areas for progress on ZED are:

Electrification
Mode Shift and Behavior Change, and
Real Estate and Space Management

For some, these three key building blocks and the myriad elements discussed in this report may not have been linked as levers to catalyze ZED.

The report is divided into three sections, one for each of the key areas above. Each area has an overview of the current state of practice and associated trends, followed by both public sector-led and private-sector-led examples of the approach under discussion. All examples focus on real-world implementation (both domestic and international), showcasing ZED and/or providing a realistic pathway to advance ZED. And all examples focus a lens squarely on cities.

In the process of compiling this summary of the state of practice of ZED, the research team synthesized key takeaways for cities to consider in Electrification, Mode Shift and Behavior Change, and Real Estate and Space Management.

Authors: Urban Freight Lab

Recommended Citation:
Rula, K, Schnaiberg, L, Maxner, T, Shafiei Nia, H, Goodchild, A. (2025) The State of Zero Emission Delivery in the United States. Urban Freight Lab, University of Washington. https://doi.org/10.6069/F6G2-XV83.

Report

Boston Delivers: Cargo Bike Pilot Evaluation

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URL: https://doi.org/10.6069/536T-FC45

Publication Date: 2025

Summary:

Boston Delivers was an 18-month pilot project (running September 2023 through February 2025) led by the Boston Transportation Department in partnership with Net Zero Logistics and funded by MassCEC through the ACT4All program. The project tested the use of electric cargo bikes for neighborhood deliveries, aiming to reduce congestion, improve air quality, and support local businesses by replacing car and van trips with more sustainable, right-sized vehicles. The Urban Freight Lab served as a research partner on the pilot, helping to design the evaluation framework, develop performance metrics, and analyze outcomes related to safety, emissions, and economic feasibility — ensuring the project produced actionable insights for Boston and other cities looking to implement cleaner and more efficient last-mile delivery options.

Executive Summary

Boston Delivers is a pilot project that promoted sustainable methods of making neighborhood deliveries for local businesses in Allston, Brighton, and the surrounding area. Instead of motor vehicles, packages were delivered by electric cargo bikes. The Boston Transportation Department (BTD) partnered with Net Zero Logistics (Net Zero) to carry out this delivery service. Net Zero Logistics provided electric cargo bikes, made deliveries, and coordinated delivery logistics. The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) funded the pilot through their Accelerating Clean Transportation for All (ACT4All) Program. The pilot intended to test the policy implications of using right-sized delivery vehicles in urban environments, generate societal co-benefits from an efficient and sustainable mode for goods movement, and share learnings with a broad audience.

The city outlined four core goals as follows:

Support Local Businesses,
Reduce Urban Congestion,
Improve Street Safety, and
Reduce Pollution

Furthermore, the city created five learning objectives for the pilot program, as follows:

Identify the policies, programs, and regulations that need to change to allow for e-cargo bike delivery in the City of Boston;
Test infrastructure changes needed to accommodate e-cargo bike delivery, including but not limited to e-cargo bike delivery zones, staging and sorting areas, parcel lockers, and other last-mile logistical needs;
Measure the benefits of e-cargo bike delivery, including its impact on
environmental, safety, and economic metrics;
Understand the costs and feasibility of e-cargo bike delivery for different types of
businesses;
Share findings on e-cargo bike delivery and communicate to delivery service providers that the City of Boston is ready for e-cargo bikes to be used on a larger scale.

The 18-month pilot began in September 2023 and concluded in February 2025. The Boston team successfully recruited a logistics partner (Net Zero), onboarded and launched a new delivery service, and completed thousands of deliveries on behalf of underserved populations during the pilot period. Net Zero and BTD worked with four different clients who utilized the service:

a private “meals on wheels” service provider (City Fresh Foods),
a local restaurant (OliToki),
a local non-profit (Allston Brighton Health Collaborative), and
a catering service that fulfilled group food orders for corporate offices.

Between September 2023 and January 2025, 18,375 deliveries were made (approximately 20,000 units) with an estimated total of 5,881 cargo bicycle miles traveled and an estimated savings of 2,352.5 – 3,193.5 of kg CO2e (carbon emissions) avoided. By replacing larger vehicle trips, these outcomes directly contributed to the City’s goals of reducing neighborhood congestion and the chances for serious crashes, improving air quality through less tailpipe pollution, and showcasing new delivery methods that could benefit local businesses.

The pilot demonstrated that e-bike deliveries could be a feasible alternative to cars for specific delivery scenarios. Critically, Boston created a strong pilot framework that referenced big picture agency goals but focused on measurable pilot learning objectives. This approach allowed for a flexible and adaptive approach during pilot design and implementation, which made the pilot all the more successful. With an adaptive approach, the city was able to uncover important key learnings for future pilots.

While the critical elements of the pilot were achieved (launching a cargo bike operator, performing thousands of deliveries, and focusing on an underserved neighborhood), key learnings for future sustainable delivery programs from the pilot included:

Flexibility in pilot design and implementation is critical during the execution of any pilot program and especially when working in close partnership with multiple organizations and companies.
There is a need to coordinate and potentially partner with anchor clients or partners with significant volume ahead of launching a sustainable delivery program.
For pilots or programs that require space for staging, identifying location(s) for these activities, and ensuring they can be launched expediently and permitted in a timely manner, is critical for success.
When choosing a pilot geography, the use cases for e-bikes for last mile delivery should be evaluated in terms of existing neighborhood density, ease or lack thereof in making deliveries by large van or truck, and whether the neighborhood already has significant numbers of bike deliveries and a robust cycling culture.
Organizers should understand the economics of programs that involve multiple non-governmental and private sector organizations, including the significant start up (capital) costs required, and the importance of achieving economies of scale in delivery volume to ensure long-term financial health of a program.
Broader citywide goals and policies around safety, congestion relief, and decarbonization can help center urban delivery goals in broader contexts (potentially allowing for additional funding, programmatic support, communication, better unit economics, etc.).

Overall, the goal of this pilot evaluation is to reflect on the City of Boston’s pilot experience and provide transparency about these learnings to a wide audience. We hope that the information below will provide real value for future City of Boston initiatives, delivery service providers and vendors, and cities nationwide as they continue to focus on ways to unlock greater efficiency in urban deliveries and realize a wide array of societal benefits.

Authors: Kelly RulaYu-Chen ChuDr. Giacomo Dalla ChiaraDr. Anne GoodchildArsalan Esmaili, Ben Rosenblatt, Harper Mills (Boston Transportation Department), Matthew Warfield (Boston Transportation Department)

Recommended Citation:
Rula, K., Rosenblatt, B., Mills, H., Chu, Y, Dalla Chiara, G., Warfield, M., Goodchild, A. (2025). Boston Delivers Cargo Bike Pilot Evaluation. Urban Freight Lab, University of Washington. https://doi.org/10.6069/536T-FC45.

Report

Evaluation of Sound Transit Train Stations and Transit-Oriented Development Areas for Common Carrier Locker Systems (Executive Summary)

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Publication Date: 2018

Summary:

The rapid expansion of ecommerce has flooded American cities with delivery trucks, just as those cities are experiencing booming population growth. Retailers need a more efficient, reliable, and cost-effective way to deliver goods in increasingly crowded urban environments. For their part, cities like Seattle want to minimize traffic congestion, both sustain quality of life for residents and ensure a smooth flow of goods and services.

Common carrier parcel lockers hold tremendous potential for streamlining the urban goods delivery system and addressing these challenges. This research study explores the viability of providing public right of way for common carrier lockers at or near transit stations in Seattle, a ground-breaking step toward improving freight delivery in the city’s fast-growing urban core.

Authors: Urban Freight Lab

Recommended Citation:
Supply Chain Transportation & Logistics Center. (2018) Evaluation of Sound Transit Train Stations and Transit Oriented Development Areas for Common Carrier Locker Systems (Executive Summary)

Report

The Final 50 Feet of the Urban Goods Delivery System (Final Report)

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Publication Date: 2018

Summary:

Urban Freight Lab’s foundational report is the first assessment in any American city of the privately-owned and operated elements of the Final 50 Feet of goods delivery supply chains (the end of the supply chain, where delivery drivers must locate both parking and end customers). These include curb parking spaces, private truck freight bays and loading docks, street design, traffic control, and delivery policies and operations within buildings.

Goods delivery is an essential but little-noticed activity in urban areas. For the last 40 years, deliveries have been mostly performed by a private sector shipping industry that operates within general city traffic conditions. However, in recent years e-commerce has created a rapid increase in deliveries, which implies an explosion of activity in the future.

Meeting current and future demand is creating unprecedented challenges for shippers to meet both increased volumes and increasing customer expectations for efficient and timely delivery. Anecdotal evidence suggests that increasing demand is overwhelming goods delivery infrastructure and operations. Delivery vehicles parked in travel lanes, unloading taking place on crowded sidewalks, and commercial truck noise during late night and early morning hours are familiar stories in urban areas.

These conditions are noticeable throughout the City of Seattle as our population and employment rapidly increase. However, goods delivery issues are particularly problematic in Seattle’s high-density areas of Downtown, Belltown, South Lake Union, Pioneer Square, First Hill, Capitol Hill and Queen Anne, described as Seattle’s “Center City”. Urban goods transportation makes our economy and quality of life possible.

As the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) responds to the many travel challenges of a complex urban environment, we recognize that goods delivery needs to be better understood and supported to retain the vitality and livability of our busiest neighborhoods.

U.S. cities do not have much information about the urban goods delivery system. While public agencies have data on city streets, public transportation and designated curbside parking, the “final 50 feet” in goods delivery also utilizes private vehicles, private loading facilities, and privately-owned and operated buildings outside the traditional realm of urban planning.

Bridging the information gap between the public and private sectors requires a new way of thinking about urban systems. Specifically, it requires trusted data sharing between public and private partners, and a data-driven approach to asking and answering the right questions, to successfully meet modern urban goods delivery needs.

The Urban Freight Lab (UFL) provides a standing forum to solve a range of short-term as well as long-term strategic urban goods problem solving, that provides evidence of effectiveness before strategies are widely implemented in the City.

Authors: Urban Freight Lab

Recommended Citation:
Supply Chain Transportation & Logistics Center. (2018) The Final 50 Feet of the Urban Goods Delivery System.

Report

The Final 50 Feet of the Urban Goods Delivery System: Common Carrier Locker Pilot Test at the Seattle Municipal Tower

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Publication Date: 2018

Summary:

This report provides compelling evidence of the effectiveness of a new urban goods delivery system strategy: Common Carrier Locker Systems that create parcel delivery density and provide secure delivery locations in public spaces.

Common carrier locker systems are an innovative strategy because they may be used by any retailer, carrier, and goods purchaser, and placed on public property. This contrasts with branded lockers such as those operated by Amazon, UPS, and FedEx that are limited to one retailer’s or one carrier’s use. Common carrier lockers use existing smart locker technology to provide security and convenience to users.

The Common Carrier Locker System Pilot Test in the Seattle Municipal Tower was uniquely designed for multiple retailers’ and delivery firms’ use in a public space. In spring 2018, a common carrier locker system was placed in the 62-floor Seattle Municipal Tower for ten days as part of a joint research project of the Urban Freight Lab (UFL) at the University of Washington’s Supply Chain Transportation & Logistics Center and the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), with additional funding from the Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium (PacTrans).

This report demonstrates common carrier lockers’ potential to reach both public and private goals by reducing dwell time (the time a truck is parked in a load/unload space in the city) and the number of failed first delivery attempts to dense urban areas. This research provides evidence that delivering multiple packages to a single location such as a locker, rather than delivering packages one-by-one to individual tenants in an urban tower increases the productivity of public and private truck load/unload spaces.

The concept for this empirical pilot test draws on prior UFL-conducted research on the Final 50 Feet of the urban goods delivery system. The Final 50 Feet is the term for the last segment of the supply chain. It begins when a truck parks in a load/unload space, continues as drivers maneuver goods along sidewalks and into urban towers to make the final delivery, and ends where the customer takes receipt of the goods.

The UFL’s 2017 research documented that of the 20 total minutes delivery drivers spent on average in the Seattle Municipal Tower, 12.2 of those minutes were spent going floor-to-floor in freight elevators and door-to-door to tenants on multiple floors. The UFL recognized that cutting those two steps from the delivery process could slash delivery time in the Tower by more than half—which translates into a substantial reduction in truck dwell time.

Authors: Haena KimDr. Ed McCormackDr. Anne GoodchildBarbara Ivanov

Recommended Citation:
Urban Freight Lab (2018). The Final 50 Feet of the Urban Goods Delivery System: Common Carrier Locker Pilot Test at the Seattle Municipal Tower.

Report

Travel Costs Associated with Flood Closures of State Highways near Centralia/Chehalis, Washington

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URL: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/research/reports/fullreports/832.1.pdf

Publication: The State of Washington Department of Transportation

Publication Date: 2014

Summary:

This report discusses the travel costs associated with the closure of roads in the greater Centralia/Chehalis, Washington region due to 100-year flood conditions starting on the Chehalis River. The costs were computed for roadway closures on I-5, US 12, and SR 6, and are based on estimated road closure durations supplied by WSDOT. The computed costs are only those directly related to travel that would otherwise have occurred on the roads affected by the flooding closures. The computed costs do not include the economic losses associated with delayed delivery of goods or services, losses in economic activity attributable to travelers being unable to reach their intended destinations, or economic losses associated with the loss of goods because they could not be delivered. The reported costs do include the added costs of time and vehicle mileage associated with available detour routes. Costs were also estimated for each trip that will be abandoned. That is, this study estimated the number of trips that will not be made as a result of road closures. The researchers also conducted a sensitivity analysis of the findings for the I-5 cost computation. Sensitivity tests were conducted for the value of time, the speeds and level of congestion assumed to occur on the routes used for detours, the values associated with trips that are not made via the expected detours, the percentage of personal trips made for work/business purposes versus those being made for personal reasons, the fraction of cars and trucks willing to detour, the effects of flood closure during the weekend or the summer, and growth in traffic volumes on I-5.

Authors: Dr. Anne Goodchild, Mark Hallenbeck, Jerome Drescher

Recommended Citation:
Hallenbeck, Mark E., Anne Goodchild, and Jerome Drescher. Travel costs associated with flood closures of state highways near Centralia/Chehalis, Washington. No. WA-RD 832.1. Washington (State). Dept. of Transportation. Research Office, 2014.

Report

Evaluation of Sound Transit Train Stations and Transit-Oriented Development Areas for Common Carrier Locker Systems (Final Report)

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Publication Date: 2018

Summary:

Authors: Urban Freight Lab

Recommended Citation:
Supply Chain Transportation & Logistics Center. (2018) Evaluation of Sound Transit Train Stations and Transit Oriented Development Areas for Common Carrier Locker Systems.

Report

The Final 50 Feet of the Urban Goods Delivery System (Executive Summary)

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Publication Date: 2018

Summary:

Two key goals have been identified early for the Final 50 Feet program:

Reducing truck time in a load/unload space in the city (“dwell time”)
Minimizing failed first package deliveries. About 8-10% of first delivery attempts in urban areas are unsuccessful, creating more return trips

Authors: Urban Freight Lab

Recommended Citation:
Supply Chain Transportation & Logistics Center. (2018) The Final 50 Feet of the Urban Goods Delivery System: Executive Summary.

Report

Analysis of Online Shopping and Shopping Travel Behaviors in West Seattle

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Publication Date: 2023

Summary:

The purpose of this research is to explore consumers’ online shopping and in-person shopping travel behaviors and the factors affecting these behaviors within the geographical context of the study area of West Seattle.

West Seattle is a peninsula located southwest of downtown Seattle, Washington State. In March 2020, the West Seattle High Bridge, the main bridge connecting the peninsula to the rest of the city, was closed to traffic due to its increased rate of structural deterioration. The closure resulted in most of the traffic being re-distributed across other bridges, forcing many travelers to re-route their trips in and out of the peninsula. At about the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic caused business-shuttering lockdowns. Both events fundamentally changed the nature of shopping and the urban logistics system of the study area.

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) engaged the Urban Freight Lab (UFL) at the University of Washington to conduct research to understand current freight movements and goods demands in West Seattle and identify challenges related to the bridge closure to inform data-driven mitigation strategies. The study took place in two phases: the first phase documented the challenges experienced by local businesses and carriers through a series of interviews and quantified the freight trip generated by land use in the case study area1 ; the second phase, described in the current report, performed an online survey to understand online shopping and in-person shopping travel behaviors for West Seattle residents.

The main objectives of the current study are twofold:

Describe online shopping and shopping travel consumer behaviors for West Seattle residents.
Understand what factors influence consumer shopping behaviors, from accessibility to local stores, to the characteristics of goods purchased, to socio-economic factors.

Methods

To address these objectives, the research team designed an online questionnaire that was advertised through a West Seattle Bridge Closure-related SDOT newsletter and other local online media outlets during the spring and summer of 2022. The questionnaire asked respondents about their socioeconomic conditions (age, income, education, etc.), where they live and their access to transportation (vehicle ownership and types of vehicles), their online shopping behavior, the impact of the West Seattle High Bridge closure on their shopping habits, and about their most recent purchase for a given category of goods among clothing items, groceries, restaurant food, and household supplies. The questionnaire was collected anonymously, and no personally identifiable information was collected. A total of 1,262 responses were collected, and after data processing, the final sample data consisted of 919 responses, corresponding approximately to 1 percent of the study area population.

Comparing the socioeconomic characteristics of the sample with those of the West Seattle study population it should be noted that individuals identifying themselves as white and female and of older age were oversampled, while individuals with lower than a college degree and with annual income less than $50,000 were under-sampled. Therefore, the sample in general is more representative of a more affluent, older population.

Key Findings

The key findings are summarized as follows:

Online shopping is widespread for clothing items and restaurant food.

Respondents receive on average 5 deliveries per week, across all goods categories. 38.7 percent of the respondents reported performing their most recent shopping activity online, considering all goods categories. However, the frequency of online shopping varied across different goods categories. Most of the respondents that purchased groceries or household supplies reported having shopped in person (89 and 75 percent of the respondents respectively), while, in contrast, for those that purchased restaurant food and clothing items, two-thirds of respondents reported buying online in both categories. Online shopping is widespread in the clothing and restaurant food markets, but less in grocery and household supplies markets. Of the consumers that shopped online for restaurant food, 76 percent of them decided to travel to take out (also referred to as curbside pickup), and only 24 percent of them chose to have the meal delivered directly to their home.

Online shopping is more widespread among mobility-impaired individuals

Participants were asked whether they had a disability that limited physical activities such as carrying, walking, lifting, etc. Of the 918 participants, 98 (11%) responded that they did have a disability that fit this description. The share of respondents that shop online was higher among mobility-impaired individuals (30 percent online for delivery and 19 percent online for pick-up) compared to individuals that did not report any mobility impairment (23 percent online for delivery and 12 percent online for pick-up).

Driving is the predominant shopping travel mode

Of the sample of respondents, 96 percent reported having access to a motorized vehicle within their household. Driving is also the most common shopping mode of in-person travel, with 81.3 percent of respondents reporting that they drove to a store to shop. Walking is a distant second preferred shopping travel mode, with 13.1 percent of respondents reporting having walked to a store. Biking and public transit were rarely adopted as a shopping travel mode, together they were observed 5.6 percent of the time. Though included as a travel option, only 1 participant reported using a rideshare vehicle to shop.

Electrification in West Seattle

Of the respondents that have access to a motorized vehicle in their households, 9.8 percent of them reported owning an electric vehicle. Car ownership is much more widespread than bike ownership, with 51.6 percent of the respondents reporting having access to a bike. Among these, 15.5 percent of them said that at least one of their bikes is electric.

The 10-minute city

The average walking time across all types of goods purchased was 10 minutes. The average driving time, for those respondents that reported driving to a store, was also about 10 minutes, except for those who reported purchasing clothing items, which reported on average of 27-minute trip time (both using a private car or using public transit). The longest travel times are seen mostly for respondents that took public transit as a shopping travel mode.

Living in proximity to stores reduces driving and online deliveries

A higher number of stores within a 10-minute walking distance (0.5 miles) is correlated with a higher number of consumers choosing to walk to a store, compared to those that chose to drive to a store or that shopped online. This is true across all goods types, but it is more significantly seen in grocery shopping. Moreover, accessibility to commercial establishments at a walking distance has a stronger impact on reducing the likelihood of driving, and at a lesser magnitude, reduces the propensity of shopping online.

Delivery to the doorstep is the most common destination for online deliveries

For those that chose to buy online, the most common delivery destination was at the respondents’ home doorstep (84 percent of respondents reported receiving online deliveries at home). The second most frequently used delivery destination was parcel lockers (15 percent of respondents), with 12 percent of respondents making use of private lockers, while only 3 percent made use of public lockers. The remaining one percent received deliveries at other destinations (e.g. office or nearby store).

The West Seattle High Bridge closure incentivized local shopping

When asked about the impacts of the West Seattle Bridge closure on individual online and shopping travel behaviors, more respondents reported buying more locally and online, vs. traveling farther for shopping and buying in person.

Authors: Dr. Anne GoodchildDr. Giacomo Dalla ChiaraRishi VermaKelly Rula

Recommended Citation:
Goodchild, A., Dalla Chiara, G., Verma, R., Rula, K. (2023) Analysis of Online Shopping and Shopping Travel Behaviors in West Seattle, Urban Freight Lab.