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Student Thesis and Dissertations

Moving Goods to Consumers: Land Use Patterns, Logistics, and Emissions

Publication Date: 2014
Summary:

Worldwide, awareness has been raised about the dangers of growing greenhouse gas emissions. In the United States, transportation is a key contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. American and European researchers have identified a potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by replacing passenger vehicle travel with delivery service. These reductions are possible because, while delivery vehicles have higher rates of greenhouse gas emissions than private light-duty vehicles, the routing of delivery vehicles to customers is far more efficient than those customers traveling independently. In addition to lowering travel-associated greenhouse gas emissions, because of their more efficient routing and tendency to occur during off-peak hours, delivery services have the potential to reduce congestion. Thus, replacing passenger vehicle travel with delivery service provides opportunity to address global concerns – greenhouse gas emissions and congestion. While addressing the impact of transportation on greenhouse gas emissions is critical, transportation also produces significant levels of criteria pollutants, which impact the health of those in the immediate area. These impacts are of particular concern in urban areas, which due to their constrained land availability increase proximity of residents to the roadway network. In the United States, heavy vehicles (those typically used for deliveries) produce a disproportionate amount of NOx and particulate matter – heavy vehicles represent roughly 9% of vehicle miles travelled but produce nearly 50% of the NOx and PM10 from transportation. Researchers have noted that urban policies designed to address local concerns including air quality impacts and noise pollution – like time and size restrictions – have a tendency to increase global impacts, by increasing the number of vehicles on the road, by increasing the total VMT required, or by increasing the amount of CO2 generated. The work presented here is designed to determine whether replacing passenger vehicle travel with delivery service can address both concerns simultaneously. In other words, can replacing passenger travel with delivery service reduce congestion and CO2 emissions as well as selected criteria pollutants? Further, does the design of the delivery service impacts the results? Lastly, how do these impacts differ in rural versus urban land use patterns? This work models the amount of VMT, CO2, NOx, and PM10 generated by personal travel and delivery vehicles in a number of different development patterns and in a number of different scenarios, including various warehouse locations. In all scenarios, VMT is reduced through the use of delivery service, and in all scenarios, NOx and PM10 are lowest when passenger vehicles are used for the last mile of travel. The goods movement scheme that results in the lowest generation of CO2, however, varies by municipality. Regression models for each goods movement scheme and models that compare sets of goods movement schemes were developed. The most influential variables in all models were measures of roadway density and proximity of a service area to the regional warehouse. These results allow for a comparison of the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions in the form of CO2 to local criteria pollutants (NOx and PM10) for each scenario. These efforts will contribute to increased integration of goods movement in urban planning, inform policies designed to mitigate the impacts of goods movement vehicles, and provide insights into achieving sustainability targets, especially as online shopping and goods delivery becomes more prevalent.

Authors: Erica Wygonik
Recommended Citation:
Wygonic, Erica. 2014, Moving Goods to Consumers: Land Use Patterns, Logistics, and Emissions, University of Washington, Doctoral Dissertation.
Thesis: Array
Technical Report

Changing Retail Business Models and the Impact on CO2 Emissions from Transport: E-commerce Deliveries in Urban and Rural Areas

 
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Publication: Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium (PacTrans)
Volume: 2013-S-UW-0023
Publication Date: 2014
Summary:

While researchers have found relationships between passenger vehicle travel and smart growth development patterns, similar relationships have not been extensively studied between urban form and goods movement trip-making patterns. In rural areas, where shopping choice is more limited, goods movement delivery has the potential to be relatively more important than in more urban areas. As such, this work examines the relationships between certain development pattern characteristics including density and distance from warehousing. This work models the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and Particle Matter (PM10) generated by personal travel and delivery vehicles in several different scenarios, including various warehouse locations. Linear models were estimated via regression modeling for each dependent variable for each goods movement strategy. Parsimonious models maintained nearly all of the explanatory power of more complex models and relied on one or two variables – a measure of road density and a measure of distance to the warehouse. Increasing road density or decreasing the distance to the warehouse reduces the impacts as measured in the dependent variables (vehicle miles traveled (VMT), CO2, NOx, and PM10). The authors find that delivery services offer relatively more CO2 reduction benefit in rural areas when compared to CO2 urban areas, and that in all cases delivery services offer significant VMT reductions. Delivery services in both urban and rural areas, however, increase NOX and PM10 emissions.

Authors: Dr. Anne Goodchild, Erica Wygonik
Recommended Citation:
Goodchild, Anne, and Erica Wygonik. Changing retail business models and the impact on CO2 emissions from transport: e-commerce deliveries in urban and rural areas. No. 2013-S-UW-0023. Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium, 2014.
Paper

Evaluation of Emissions Reduction in Urban Pickup Systems Heterogeneous Fleet Case Study

 
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Publication: Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
Volume: 2224
Pages: 8-16
Publication Date: 2011
Summary:

A case study of the University of Washington Mailing Services, which operates a heterogeneous fleet of vehicles, provides insight into the impact of operational changes on cost, service quality, and emissions. An emissions minimization problem was formulated and solutions were identified with a creation and local search algorithm based on the I1 and 2-opts heuristics.

The algorithm could be used to find many solutions that could improve existing routing on both cost and emissions metrics, reduce emissions by an average of almost 6%, and reduce costs by an average of 9%. More significant cost and emissions savings could be found with service quality reductions. For example, reducing delivery frequency to once a day could lead to emissions and cost savings of close to 35% and 3%, respectively.

Rules of thumb for vehicle assignment within heterogeneous fleets were explored to gain an understanding of simple implementations, such as assigning cleaner vehicles to routes with more customers and longer travel distances.

This case study identified significant emissions reductions that could be obtained with minimal effects on cost and service and that offered new, practical applications that could be used by fleet managers interested in reducing their carbon footprint.

Authors: Dr. Anne Goodchild, Kelly Pitera, Felipe Sandoval
Recommended Citation:
Pitera, Kelly, Felipe Sandoval, and Anne Goodchild. "Evaluation of Emissions Reduction in Urban Pickup Systems: Heterogeneous Fleet Case Study." Transportation Research Record 2224, no. 1 (2011): 8-16.