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Urban Freight Lab

Research Topic: Surface Transportation

Surface transport is the movement of people or goods across the surface, including road, rail, water, and pipeline, and excluding air.

Open Mobility Foundation: SMART Grant Curb Collaborative

The Open Mobility Foundation’s SMART Curb Collaborative is a group of cities united in tackling challenges in curb management, reducing congestion, enhancing livability, and improving safety and equity on city streets. Each of these public agencies is a recipient of USDOT’s Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) grant program, which provides funding to build data and technology capacity across the US.

In close coordination with the Open Mobility Foundation (OMF) Collaborative Program Manager, the UFL will support the nine cities of the SMART Grant collaborative as a component of joint services provided through enhanced membership with the OMF. The UFL will lead research initiatives within the Collaborative, contribute academic content and presentations to the group, and work closely with Cityfi and the OMF Collaborative team to support joint deliverables. The UFL will focus on three main thematic areas of inquiry to inform comparative learnings and insights across the Collaborative. The three themes are: curb infrastructure, curb policy, and curb demand.

Objectives

The Urban Freight Lab will:

  • Lead comparative analysis of the Collaborative across various indices (infrastructure, policy, and demand) and connect to questions around the digitization of curbspace
  • Support Cityfi and the OMF Program Manager by contributing expert academic and industry expertise to the Collaborative
  • Support the development of joint deliverables such as case studies.

Task 1. Project Management/Coordination with Collaborative and Support Team

Task 2. Organize and create a comparative rubric of Collaborative projects
The UFL, in collaboration with CityFi and OMF, will help to capture and document an overview of projects, catalog of research objectives and learnings, metrics and data to be collected by cities, and goals of projects. This will help to inform further comparative studies and learnings across the Collaborative.

Task 3. Curb Infrastructure
The UFL will document and compare the supply of curb infrastructure being studied by the nine Collaborative cities and gather publicly available data sources to be used for comparative analysis. The UFL will incorporate information collected in Task 2 such as information about the study area, curb inventory, and if data allows compare curb allocation between study areas.

Task 4. Curb Policy
The UFL will document and compare curb policies among cities. Once documented, researchers will create a typology of curb-related regulations, strategies and technologies adopted in the past and proposed in the SMART Cohort. Researchers will incorporate data collected from cities in Task 2 and undertake additional research and policy scan as needed.

Task 5. Curb Demand
The UFL team will use data collected in Task 2 to assess if any of the Cohort cities are capturing curb-use data. For cities where this data is available, the UFL team will estimate curb use for selected study areas within the cohort of cities and perform a comparative analysis. The accuracy of the analysis will depend on the availability of data provided by the selected cities.

Balancing Freight and Goods Delivery Needs in Designing Complete Streets

The Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act (IIJA) introduced provisions that are important for both freight movement and implementation of Complete Streets policies. Per the IIJA, Complete Streets standards and policies “ensure the safe and adequate accommodation of all users of transportation systems, including pedestrians, bicyclists, public transportation users, children, individuals who are aging, individuals with disabilities, motorists, and freight vehicles” (Pub. L. 117-58, Section 11206(a). Complete Streets can be considered synonymous with active transportation, which refers to human-powered activities such as walking, biking, or rolling. However, freight is explicitly referenced in the Federal Highway Administration’s Complete Streets description; state departments of transportation (DOTs) are required to allocate resources for activities related to Complete Streets, and freight must be considered concurrently.

With the rise of e-commerce and smaller delivery vehicles, curbside goods delivery, bicycle and pedestrian needs, advancing technologies, and other factors, research is needed to identify knowledge gaps and explore how to integrate the needs of freight movement with the active transportation approaches of Complete Streets to create more efficient, comprehensive, resilient, and cohesive networks.

Objective

The objective of this research is to develop a guide to incorporate design and operational considerations for freight into Complete Streets strategies across land use topologies.

In developing the research approach, considerations should include:

  • For the purpose of defining scope parameters, freight movement is related to surface transportation and includes trucks, cargo bikes, autonomous delivery robots, rail, and drones, as applicable;
  • Local, state, and federal transportation needs and economic development funding mechanisms;
  • Innovative solutions that prioritize the use of existing rights-of-way;
  • Applicable local, state, and federal codes and regulations;
  • Advanced technologies including autonomous delivery (e.g., autonomous trucks, drones, and personal delivery devices); and
  • Equitable outcomes for varying types of communities, businesses, and freight operators.
  • Accomplishment of the project objective will require at least the following tasks.

Tasks

PHASE I

Task 1. Analyze, describe, and critique pertinent domestic and international research on the bases of applicability, conclusiveness of findings, and usefulness for the integration of freight in Complete Streets processes. Include completed research and research currently underway.

Task 2. Identify effective and successful practices for integrating freight in Complete Streets processes. This information may include performance data, metrics, research findings, and other information assembled from technical literature and from a survey of practitioners.

Task 3. Prepare a detailed outline of the proposed guide intended to aid in incorporating the design and operational considerations of freight with Complete Streets.

Task 4. Prepare an interim report that documents the work completed in Tasks 1 through 3. Include a detailed work plan for the work anticipated in Phase II. Following a review of the interim report by the NCHRP, the research team will be required to make a presentation to the project panel.

PHASE II

Task 5. Building on the findings of Phase I, use partnership engagement to identify and summarize common challenges and conflicts related to policy, equity, funding, planning, design, prioritization and reporting, personnel, and the use and interpretation of Complete Streets policies as they relate to freight transportation. Interested parties shall include local municipalities, metropolitan planning organizations, DOTs, and freight providers and generators.

Task 6. Develop case studies that represent a broad range of land use topologies using the findings from Tasks 1 through 5. The case studies should highlight challenges and opportunities.

Task 7. Prepare Interim Report 2 summarizing the findings from Tasks 1 through 6.

PHASE III

Task 8. Develop a freight and Complete Streets integration tool kit that includes a checklist, visual library, and primers on the following areas: equity, policy, design, funding mechanisms, community engagement strategies, partnership opportunities, operations, and maintenance.

Task 9. Prepare a guide that describes how practitioners may consider all modes of surface transportation while balancing the needs of transportation systems users with the demands of freight.

Task 10. Prepare final deliverables, which shall include, at a minimum: (1) a final research report documenting the entire research effort, findings, and lessons learned; (2) a guide to integrating freight and Complete Streets; (3) a freight and Complete Streets integration tool kit; (4) prioritized recommendations for future research; (5) a PowerPoint presentation describing the background, objectives, research approach, findings, and conclusions; (6) a stand-alone technical memorandum titled “Implementation of Research Findings and Products”; and (7) a presentation, as possible, of findings to two American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) councils or committees concerned with the integration of freight and Complete Streets.

Paper

Intersections and Non-Intersections: A Protocol for Identifying Pedestrian Crash Risk Locations in GIS

 
Download PDF  (1.35 MB)
URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16193565
Publication: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume: 16 (19)
Pages: 3565
Publication Date: 2019
Summary:

Intersection and non-intersection locations are commonly used as spatial units of analysis for modeling pedestrian crashes. While both location types have been previously studied, comparing results is difficult given the different data and methods used to identify crash-risk locations. In this study, a systematic and replicable protocol was developed in GIS (Geographic Information System) to create a consistent spatial unit of analysis for use in pedestrian crash modeling. Four publicly accessible datasets were used to identify unique intersection and non-intersection locations: Roadway intersection points, roadway lanes, legal speed limits, and pedestrian crash records. Two algorithms were developed and tested using five search radii (ranging from 20 to 100 m) to assess the protocol reliability. The algorithms, which were designed to identify crash-risk locations at intersection and non-intersection areas detected 87.2% of the pedestrian crash locations (r: 20 m). Agreement rates between algorithm results and the crash data were 94.1% for intersection and 98.0% for non-intersection locations, respectively. The buffer size of 20 m generally showed the highest performance in the analyses. The present protocol offered an efficient and reliable method to create spatial analysis units for pedestrian crash modeling. It provided researchers a cost-effective method to identify unique intersection and non-intersection locations. Additional search radii should be tested in future studies to refine the capture of crash-risk locations.

Authors: Haena Kim, Mingyu Kang, Anne Moudon, Linda Ng Boyle,
Recommended Citation:
Kang, Mingyu, Anne Vernez Moudon, Haena Kim, and Linda Ng Boyle. 2019. Intersections and Non-Intersections: A Protocol for Identifying Pedestrian Crash Risk Locations in GIS. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16, no. 19: 3565. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16193565

Freight and Bus Lane (FAB) Data Collection and Evaluation Plan (Route 40)

The Urban Freight Lab (UFL) was approached by the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) to complete a review of proposed evaluation criteria and propose a data collection plan in preparation for the implementation of a Freight and Bus Lane (FAB) Lane in Fall 2024 for King County Metro’s Bus Route 40.

This project would effectively produce the follow-on scope of work for the UFL to complete during the actual implementation (pre/post/post phase). UFL will build on the findings from the Urban Freight Lab’s Freight and Transit Lane Case Study completed in 2019. With the completion of the Route 40 TPMC project in Fall 2024, FAB lanes will be tested as a pilot in select locations and evaluated before permanent installation.

Objectives

  • Refresh literature review on freight and transit lane studies
  • Meet with key stakeholders from SDOT and Metro to understand data collection tools and methodologies
  • Propose a technical evaluation plan for this pilot that includes data collection and metrics and communication strategies

Revenue-Related Strategies for New Mobility Options

The Urban Freight Lab (UFL) 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.

Transportation services often operate in publicly owned and publicly managed spaces, make use of public rights-of-way, and produce mobility benefits for a broad array of users. The public sector is responsible for managing and pricing those rights-of-way and delivering services in an equitable way. Recovering the public costs of management and provisioning from private transportation services and their users is essential for maintaining public benefit. And sometimes the public sector needs to help private services to thrive.

The research methodology for this project is designed to be iterative: activities and research will build on previous research and activities. We will begin with the development of a revenue framework informed by a broad review of the literature, a policy scan, and workshop sessions with transportation and other public agency representatives that regulate and collect revenue from new mobility services. The framework will include revenue-related strategies based on:

    • (a) identifiable need
    • (b) nexus to cost responsibility
    • (c) policy outcome
    • (d) other factors such as access to technology and ease of administration.

We will then take a deeper dive into each personal mobility mode and goods delivery market segment to apply the framework. We will also provide examples to illustrate the opportunities and challenges of a variety of revenue strategies. We will also conduct additional workshops with public agency representatives, industry representatives, and other transportation stakeholders. Finally, we will create a spreadsheet-based Revenue Calculator that allows interested individuals to estimate how much revenue could be generated using different assumptions and strategies. The work will culminate with the development of a Toolkit that will be submitted to NCHRP and made available for wider distribution.

Objectives

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 will assist agencies to develop, evaluate, implement, and administer revenue-related strategies for new mobility options that transport people and goods.

The research will include:

  1. New and evolving transportation options for people and goods that interact with the existing built environment and travel throughout an area
  2. Incentives and disincentives that result from revenue-related strategies
  3. Policy implications of revenue-related strategies for new mobility options including revenue potential, mobility, travel demand, safety, equity, environment, economic development, infrastructure design, operations, and maintenance
  4. Mechanisms for revenue collection and distribution for different mobility options in different scenarios
  5. The ease and difficulty of implementing and enforcing different revenue-related strategies for new mobility options
  6. Potential roles and responsibilities of governmental organizations and private entities

The Final 50 Feet of the Urban Goods Delivery System: Documenting Loading Bays, Demonstrating Parcel Lockers’ Proof of Concept & Tracking Curb Use in Seattle’s Interconnected Load/Unload Network (Task Order 2)

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.

Private Loading Bays and Docks Inventory Study

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 report finalizes the creation of a comprehensive Center City inventory of private loading/unloading infrastructure.

To the research team’s knowledge, Seattle is the first city to maintain a database with the location and features of private loading/unloading infrastructure (meaning, out of the public right of way). This matters because these facilities are privately owned and managed, cities lack information about them—information critical to urban planning. The private infrastructure has been a missing piece of the urban freight management puzzle. The work in this report helps complete that puzzle and advance efforts to make urban freight delivery more efficient in increasingly dense, constrained cities, such as Seattle.

Key Findings from Private Loading Bays and Docks Inventory

Data collectors in this study identified, examined, and collected key data on 92 private loading docks, bays and areas across 421 city blocks in the neighborhoods of Capitol Hill, First Hill, and a small segment of the International District east of I-5.  The earlier inventory in Downtown Seattle, Uptown, and South Lake Union had proportionally more than twice the density of private infrastructure of Capitol Hill and First Hill documented in this report. This finding is unsurprising. While all the inventoried neighborhoods are in the broad Center City area, they are fundamentally different neighborhoods with different built environments, land use, and density. Variable demand for private infrastructure—and the resulting supply—stems from those differences.

Researchers found that a trust relationship with the private sector is essential to reduce uncertainty in this type of work. UPS’ collaboration helped reduce uncertainty in the total inventory from 33% to less than 1%.

Curb Occupancy Study

This study gives the city 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. These buildings were intentionally chosen to deepen the city’s understanding of the Center City; they were part of UFL’s earlier SDOT-sponsored research tracking how goods move vertically within a building in the Final 50 Feet of the goods delivery system.

Significantly, this study captured the parking behavior of commercial vehicles everywhere along the curb as well as the parking activities of all vehicles (including passenger vehicles) in commercial vehicle loading zones (CVLZs.) The research team documented: (1) which types of vehicles parked in CVLZs and for how long, and; (2) how long commercial vehicles (CVs) parked in CVLZs, in metered parking, and in passenger load zones (PLZ) and other unauthorized spaces. (Passenger vehicles in this study were not treated as commercial vehicles, due to challenges in systematically identifying whether passenger vehicles were making deliveries or otherwise carrying a commercial permit.)

Key Findings from Curb Occupancy Study

  1. Commercial and passenger vehicle drivers use CVLZs and PLZs fluidly: commercial vehicles are parking in PLZs and passenger vehicles are parking in CVLZs.
  2. Most commercial vehicle (CV) demand is for short-term parking: 15 or 30 minutes.
  3. Thirty-six percent of the total CVs parked along the curb were service CVs, showing the importance of factoring their behavior and future demand into urban parking schemes.
  4. Forty-one percent of commercial vehicles parked in unauthorized locations. But a much higher percentage parked in unauthorized areas near the two retail centers (55% – 65%) when compared to the predominantly office and residential areas (27% – 30%). The research team found that curb parking behavior is associated with granular, building-level urban land use. This occurred even as other factors such as the total number, length and ratio of CVLZs versus PLZs varied widely across the five study areas.

Seattle Municipal Tower Common Carrier Locker Pilot

The UFL’s 2017 research (The Final 50 Feet Urban Goods Delivery System Research Scan and Data Collection Project) documented that of the 20 total minutes delivery drivers spent on average in the 62-story 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 would translate into a substantial reduction in truck dwell time.

This report provides compelling evidence of the effectiveness of a new urban goods delivery system strategy: common carrier lockers that create parcel delivery density and provide secure delivery locations in public spaces. Parcel lockers are widely available secure, automated, self-service storage systems that are typically owned by a single retailer or delivery firm and placed inside private property. In contrast, common carrier lockers are open to multiple retailers and delivery carriers. This pilot, which placed a common carrier locker system in the 62-floor Seattle Municipal Tower for ten days in spring 2018, was intentionally carried out in a public space.

Key Findings from Seattle Municipal Tower Common Carrier Locker Pilot

The common carrier locker both reduced total delivery time by 78% when compared to traditional floor-to-floor, door-to-door delivery method and cut the number of failed first parcel deliveries to zero.

Report

Understanding and Mitigating Freight-Related Impacts from the West Seattle Bridge Closure

 
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Publication Date: 2022
Summary:

West Seattle (WS) is a part of the city of Seattle, Washington, but is located on a peninsula west of the Duwamish River. The West Seattle High-Rise Bridge serves as the primary connector between West Seattle and the rest of the city, carrying some 84,000 vehicles on average each day. On March 23, 2020, that high bridge was suddenly closed to all vehicle traffic for safety reasons due to greater-than-expected structural deterioration. The high bridge is now being repaired with a reopening planned for 2022. With the closure, vehicles have needed to take alternative routes to and from the peninsula, including the 1st Avenue South Bridge and the South Park Bridge, located some 2.1 and 3.4 miles south of the high bridge (see Figure 1). After the closure, the number of available vehicle traffic lanes across the river dropped from 21 to 12, with eight lanes on the 1st Avenue South Bridge and four on the South Park Bridge [2]. Before the closure, drivers also used the two-lane Spokane Street Low Bridge under the high bridge to access West Seattle. But after the closure, low bridge use was initially (as of March 2021) restricted from 5:00 am to 9:00 pm to authorized vehicles only, including emergency vehicles, public transit, and 10,000+ pound gross weight freight vehicles.

The unexpected high bridge closure disrupted passenger and freight mobility to and from WS, increasing travel times and creating bottlenecks on the remaining bridges. This has had negative impacts on the peninsula’s economy, as well as its livability. Concerns also persist regarding the environmental and health impacts of traffic detours into Duwamish Valley neighborhoods that are already disproportionately impacted by air pollution and asthma [4]. As traffic demand increases with the gradual recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the negative impacts could worsen. Notably, the timing of the high bridge closure coincided with the start of the pandemic and the resulting economic shutdowns and slowdowns that continue as of this writing. As such, it is difficult at times in this report to entirely disentangle the broader effects of the pandemic from the more specific effects of the bridge closure. This challenge surfaces especially in our interviews with study area businesses and with carriers performing deliveries and pick-ups in the study area: They report definite impacts, but it is not always clear how much of the impact stems from the bridge closure alone versus the bridge closure on top of the pandemic’s myriad ripple effects. That said, this study seeks to:

  • Document the impacts of the high bridge closure on freight flow, businesses, and carriers.
  • Understand current freight movements and quantify freight demand.
  • Identify mitigation strategies for freight flow to/from WS, both during the bridge closure and beyond.
Authors: Dr. Anne GoodchildDr. Giacomo Dalla ChiaraNota GoulianouŞeyma Güneş
Recommended Citation:
Urban Freight Lab (2022). Understanding and Mitigating Freight-Related Impacts from the West Seattle Bridge Closure.
Student Thesis and Dissertations

Using Technology to Revolutionize Public Transportation

 
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URL: http://hdl.handle.net/1773/16613
Publication Date: 2011
Summary:

Public transportation could be an important component of a solution to providing mobility while reducing traffic congestion and the environmental impact of transportation. However, from a customer perspective, a mobility choice is only a choice if it is fast, comfortable and reliable. This research looks at the reliability of public transportation and the use of easy-to-access information to combat the inherent unreliability and other barriers to increased use that exist in the system. The first section investigates the characteristics of transit service that are associated with on-time performance. The second and third sections discuss results of a survey and wait time assessment of OneBusAway, a real-time next bus countdown information source. The results of the survey indicate that OneBusAway users have an increased satisfaction with public transportation, as well as a perception of a decreased waiting time, increased number of transit trips per week, increased feelings of safety, and an increased distance walked compared with before they used OneBusAway. The follow-up study finds that for riders without real-time information, perceived wait time is greater than measured wait time. However, riders using real-time information do not perceive their wait time to be longer than their measured wait time. In addition, mobile real-time information reduces not only the perceived wait time, but also the actual wait time experienced by customers. The final three sections discuss other potential transit information tools that overcome the barriers to increased public transportation use. The Explore tool, an Attractions Search Tool, is described. Explore makes use of an underlying trip planner to search online databases of local restaurants, shopping, parks and other amenities based on transit availability from the user’s origin. In the fifth and sixth sections, the Value Sensitive Design process is used to brainstorm and assess additional transit tools from the user and the bus driver perspective. As a whole, this work gives credence to the notion that the power of improved access to information can help overcome the barriers to increased transit use.

Authors: Kari E. Watkins
Recommended Citation:
Watkins, Kari E. (2011) Using Technology to Revolutionize Public Transportation. University of Washington Doctoral Dissertation.
Technical Report

Multimodal Intersections: Resolving Conflicts between Trains, Motor Vehicles, Bicyclists and Pedestrians

 
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URL: https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/35068
Publication: Oregon State Department of Transportation
Publication Date: 2017
Summary:

This research report investigates the relationship between pedestrians and bicyclists on paths parallel to railroad tracks and with a road perpendicular to the path. The possible conflicts at intersections within these design parameters are of concern to ODOT, and therefore, has been recognized as an opportunity to conduct research that improves this type of intersection. The goal of this research project is to create a Guidebook that suggests appropriate path or road treatments for crossings, while also acknowledging and complimenting the unique site conditions present at the intersection. The report contains an extensive literature review, including existing railroad treatment options, and a description of the conducted field surveys and pedestrian, bicycle, vehicle, and train counts from the video. The report could help future work, such as developing more design solutions for paths parallel to tracks and the road perpendicular to the path. A preliminary guidebook is exemplified in the conducted case studies. It is intended to be a user friendly tool for city planners and engineers to assess a crossing and identify appropriate treatment options to improve the path and road user environment, and overall safety for all users.

Authors: Anna Bovbjerg AlligoodDr. Ed McCormackDr. Anne GoodchildManali Sheth
Recommended Citation:
Goodchild, Anne V., Edward McCormack, Anna Bovbjerg, and Manali Sheth. Multimodal Intersections: Resolving Conflicts Between Trains, Motor Vehicles, Bicyclists and Pedestrians. No. FHWA-OR-18-04. Oregon. Dept. of Transportation, 2017.

Dynamically Managed Curb Space Pilot

Transportation Network Company (TNC) usage in Seattle has been increasing every quarter since 2015 when the City of Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) began collecting data. TNC trips exceeded 20 million in 2017, a 46% increase from total reported trips in 2016. This has led to concerns about congestion and pedestrian safety as cars and people take risks to connect at the curb and in the right-of-way. By providing additional curb capacity through increased passenger loading zones and directing customers via in-app messaging, the City may be able to reduce congestion and unsafe vehicle/people movements during peak traffic and late-night hours.

Other cities have attempted to study the impacts of increased usage of passenger loading zones (e.g., San Francisco, Washington D.C.), with varying success, but no standard methodology exists for cities to assess the potential for reallocated curb space and the subsequent impacts of those changes. SDOT is taking a data-driven approach to curb reallocation and traffic network impacts, modeling the work SDOT has done to quantify demand in paid parking areas and set rates accordingly. The main goals of this pilot are three-fold: increase pedestrian safety, minimize congestion impacts on the larger transportation network, and build a scalable methodology for assessment and implementation of curb allocation to accommodate this new mobility service.

The Supply Chain Transportation & Logistics Center and SDOT will work in collaboration with employers, transit operators, and TNCs to test a variety of strategies to mitigate the traffic impacts of TNC pick-ups on the greater transportation network and improve safety for passengers and drivers. Strategies include increasing the number of passenger loading zones in high-traffic pick-up areas and geofenced pick-up or black-out areas. Curb and street use data will be collected under each alternative and compared to baseline data.