Research Projects

Summary:
The Urban Freight Lab (UFL) at the University of Washington is partnering with ECONorthwest and Cityfi to develop a research product for the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) on the topic of revenue strategies for new mobility options. The team will analyze the public sector’s potential role in using revenue-related strategies to encourage or discourage new mobility options in personal mobility and goods delivery. The objective of this research is to develop a toolkit for transportation agencies that addresses how revenue-related strategies (e.g., taxes, fees, and subsidies) support policy objectives and shape the deployment of new mobility options. The toolkit can assist agencies to develop, evaluate, implement, and administer revenue-related strategies for new mobility options that transport people and goods.

Summary:
Through synthesis of existing literature and interviews conducted with private and public stakeholders, this project aims to provide an overview of the barriers to achieving sustainable urban freight. The research will highlight key strategies that can enable sustainable last mile delivery in the urban environment and, importantly, outline the specific roadblocks to carrying out those strategies. This will help companies and public entities form sustainability plans and understand where collaboration between the two sectors in needed.

Summary:
To better understand the current use of truck parking facilities and safety issues caused by the lack of parking capacity in high-demand locations, researchers reviewed existing research and reports that describe the lack of parking in the PacTrans region. The researchers then identified and provided a qualitative analysis of future trends that will affect this problem. Finally, the research team developed and executed a survey of truck drivers at two long-haul trucking parking facilities. The research team focused on two high-volume multi-state truck corridors, the Interstate 5 and 90 corridors, that are of interest to the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and neighboring state DOTs. This study presents the data collection method, the overall survey results, and an analysis of the findings.

Summary:
The Urban Freight Lab conducted an alley inventory and truck load/unload occupancy study for the City of Seattle. Researchers collected data identifying the locations and infrastructure characteristics of alleys within Seattle's One Center City planning area, which includes the downtown, uptown, South Lake Union, Capitol Hill, and First Hill urban centers. The resulting alley database includes GIS coordinates for both ends of each alley, geometric and traffic attributes, and photos.

Summary:
A catastrophic earthquake could disrupt marine transportation across coastal British Columbia, severely affecting supply chains to coastal communities and emergency response capabilities. This project seeks to better understand such risks and develop effective resilience strategies for different types of coastal communities. It inquires into how disaster events would likely affect ports, marine transportation routes, and the associated movement of people and resources in the emergency response phase, and what strategies would be effective to alleviate potential consequences.

Summary:
This project aims to improve understanding of how coastal marine transportation systems would be disrupted in natural hazard events, how such disruption would impact coastal communities, and what strategies could effectively address this risk. Focusing on the movement of people and goods in the emergency response phase of a disaster, the study will develop new tools, information, and risk assessments to support preparedness planning by local and provincial governments and the transportation sector. The research will deliver: (1) workshops for engaging government and transport sector stakeholders; (2) a framework for assessing coastal community resilience to shipping disruption; (3) a simulation tool based on this framework; and (4) specific findings and recommendations for two case studies – a detailed analysis of catastrophic earthquake risk in British Columbia and exploratory analysis of hurricane risk in Atlantic Canada.

Summary:
The UFL received $1.5 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to help goods delivery drivers find parking with minimal circling around, time wasted, and increased congestion. With a coalition of public and private sector partners, researchers will integrate sensor technologies, develop data platforms to process large data streams, and publish a prototype app to let delivery drivers know when a parking space is open – and when it’s predicted to be open so they can plan to arrive when another truck is leaving. The UFL will also pilot test common carrier locker systems in public and private load/unload spaces near transit stops. This is a timely project as cities are looking for new strategies to accommodate the rapid growth of e-commerce.

Summary:
The Urban Freight Lab's first study provides the first assessment in any U.S. city of the privately-owned and operated elements of the Final 50 Feet of goods delivery supply chains, the final segment that includes private truck freight bays and loading docks, and delivery policies and operations within buildings, where drivers must locate both parking and the recipient. 

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.

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. 

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.

Summary:
The Urban Freight Lab primarily focused on optimizing UW Department of Laboratory Medicine's 12 routes per day, moving lab specimens and conducting departmental business. The work will optimize the minimize both the expected lead time (from the time the specimens are ready for pick up to the time they are delivered to the lab for testing) and the extent to which couriers work outside of their maximum shift durations.

Summary:
The City of Seattle granted a permit to United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) in fall 2018 to pilot test a new e-bike parcel delivery system in the Pioneer Square/Belltown area for one year. The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) commissioned the Urban Freight Lab (UFL) to quantify and document the public impacts of this multimodal delivery system change in the final 50 feet of supply chains, to provide data and evidence for development of future urban freight policies. The UFL will conduct analyses into the several research questions.

Summary:
The Urban Freight in 2030 project will explore emerging urban freight trends, their impacts on local and global sustainable development, and propose Urban Freight Lab’s future course of action. We'll use the expertise of the Urban Freight Lab members and partners, supported by up-to-date research and subject specialists, to create a shared vision of the future of urban delivery in 2030, and produce vision documents to be shared publicly, outlining and detailing the Urban Freight Lab’s vision of the future of urban freight. 

Summary:
The project addresses the critical but often overlooked aspects of delivery drivers’ walking and parking behaviors in urban logistics. With 80% of a delivery driver’s time spent outside the vehicle during the last leg of delivery, comprehending these dynamics becomes pivotal for sustainable urban delivery routes. For the first time, the University of Washington’s Urban Freight Lab and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden) will work together to address this challenge, with the support of two established logistics companies...