Research Projects
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- "Final 50 Feet"
Developed by the Urban Freight Lab, the "final 50 feet" concept is the last link in the supply chain for urban deliveries, which includes searching for parking, moving items from the truck and navigating a route across traffic, sidewalks, bike lanes and building security to the recipient. UFL estimates that 25-50 percent of the transportation supply chain costs are driven by that last phase of the delivery.
Start Date: September 2017
Funding: City of Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium (PacTrans)
Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Anne Goodchild
Summary:
The UFL engaged multiple partners and funding sources to successfully pilot test a common carrier locker system (open to all retail and multiple delivery firms) in the 62-floor Seattle Municipal Tower skyscraper. The study tested the ability of these new mini-distribution centers to create delivery density and reduce the time delivery people have to spend in urban towers to complete the work. The Lab collected “before” and “after” data to evaluate the pilot's premise: that when delivery trucks can pull into a load/unload space that's close to a mini-distribution node with delivery density (lots of deliveries in one place), everyone benefits. UFL members UPS and the U.S. Postal Service participated in this pilot, so any package they delivered to the building went into the locker system. The pilot was open to the first 100 Municipal Tower tenants who signed up to use the lockers from March to April 2018.
The UFL engaged multiple partners and funding sources to successfully pilot test a common carrier locker system (open to all retail and multiple delivery firms) in the 62-floor Seattle Municipal Tower skyscraper. The study tested the ability of these new mini-distribution centers to create delivery density and reduce the time delivery people have to spend in urban towers to complete the work. The Lab collected “before” and “after” data to evaluate the pilot's premise: that when delivery trucks can pull into a load/unload space that's close to a mini-distribution node with delivery density (lots of deliveries in one place), everyone benefits. UFL members UPS and the U.S. Postal Service participated in this pilot, so any package they delivered to the building went into the locker system. The pilot was open to the first 100 Municipal Tower tenants who signed up to use the lockers from March to April 2018.
Start Date: August 2017
Funding: Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium (PacTrans), City of Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), Supply Chain Transportation & Logistics Center
Project Budget: $80,000
Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Anne Goodchild
Summary:
The purpose of the research project was to test two promising strategies to reduce the number of failed first delivery attempts in urban buildings: (1) A common carrier smart locker system; and (2) grouped-tenant-floor-drop-off-points for medium sized parcels if the locker is too small or full. The pilot was held in the 62-story Seattle Municipal Tower skyscraper in Downtown Seattle and was open to the first 100 tenants who signed up to participate.
The purpose of the research project was to test two promising strategies to reduce the number of failed first delivery attempts in urban buildings: (1) A common carrier smart locker system; and (2) grouped-tenant-floor-drop-off-points for medium sized parcels if the locker is too small or full. The pilot was held in the 62-story Seattle Municipal Tower skyscraper in Downtown Seattle and was open to the first 100 tenants who signed up to participate.
Start Date: January 2017
Funding: City of Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium (PacTrans)
Project Budget: $240,000
Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Anne Goodchild
Summary:
Part of the Final 50 Feet Research Program, this project contains: a curb occupancy study, a survey of First and Capitol Hill Loading Bays, a pilot test at Seattle Municipal Tower, and the development of a toolkit. Taken together with the Urban Freight Lab's earlier private infrastructure inventory (Seattle Center City Alley Infrastructure Inventory and Occupancy Study 2018) in Downtown Seattle, Uptown, and South Lake Union, this project finalizes the creation of a comprehensive Center City inventory of private loading/unloading infrastructure. The study also provides the city with on-the-ground data on the current use and operational capacity of the curb for commercial vehicles, documenting vehicle parking behavior in a three-by-three city block grid around each of five prototype Center City buildings: a hotel, a high-rise office building, an historical building, a retail center, and a residential tower. Researchers also tested a new urban goods delivery system strategy: Common Carrier Locker Systems. Tools used by the Urban Freight Lab are publicly available in an Urban Goods Delivery Toolkit, a one-stop-shop for planners to replicate this work in other cities.
Part of the Final 50 Feet Research Program, this project contains: a curb occupancy study, a survey of First and Capitol Hill Loading Bays, a pilot test at Seattle Municipal Tower, and the development of a toolkit. Taken together with the Urban Freight Lab's earlier private infrastructure inventory (Seattle Center City Alley Infrastructure Inventory and Occupancy Study 2018) in Downtown Seattle, Uptown, and South Lake Union, this project finalizes the creation of a comprehensive Center City inventory of private loading/unloading infrastructure. The study also provides the city with on-the-ground data on the current use and operational capacity of the curb for commercial vehicles, documenting vehicle parking behavior in a three-by-three city block grid around each of five prototype Center City buildings: a hotel, a high-rise office building, an historical building, a retail center, and a residential tower. Researchers also tested a new urban goods delivery system strategy: Common Carrier Locker Systems. Tools used by the Urban Freight Lab are publicly available in an Urban Goods Delivery Toolkit, a one-stop-shop for planners to replicate this work in other cities.