Urban Freight Delivery

About the Session

The growth in online shopping has made it possible to bypass traditional storefronts leading to a decrease in shopping trips. However, all this increase in shopping trips has led to an increase in truck traffic in urban areas as good are delivered to residencies. These have an adverse impact on safety, congestion, and pavement lifecycle. Therefore, agencies need to understand the magnitude of this travel in their regions. In this session participants will try to understand the challenges and what data and changes to the modeling framework are needed to account for urban freight delivery.

Agenda

Hilton Portland Downtown, Atrium Ballroom

Sunday June 2, 2019 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM

  • Introduction – Krishnan Viswanathan, Cambridge Systematics, Inc.
  • Panel Comments
    • Annie Nam, Manager of Goods Movement and Transportation Finance, SCAG
    • Jeff Frkonja, Research Center Director, Oregon Metro
    • Thomas Hill, State Modeling Manager, Florida DOT
  • NCHRP 08-111: Effective Decision-Making Methods for Freight-Efficient Land Use - Catherine Lawson, Ph.D., Professor & MRP Director, Univeristy at Albany
  • Breakout Groups
  • Report Back and Next Steps

Breakout Groups

Setting the State

  • How do we define last/first-mile?
  • Why do we need last-mile delivery information?
  • What do policymakers need from modelers to answer the last mile delivery question
  • What do we know regarding existing conditions/operations? Can we expect traditional delivery patterns to continue?
  • How does ecommerce impact deliveries? What kind of deliveries are we talking about?
  • What are the land use considerations (industrial, retail, residential, business, etc.)?
  • What are the delivery demand considerations (JIT, 1-hour, 2-hour, next-day, etc.)?
  • If shopping malls continue to decline, forcing closure, are they uniquely purposed and positioned to act as urban delivery centers?
    • If so, what are the opportunities?

Data Needs

  • What data do we already have (collected or identified)?
  • What data do we need?
  • What level-of-detail of last-mile freight delivery trip data balances public-sector needs for planning and system management with private sector and general public desires for confidentiality? Can we find a “sweet spot” we can all live with?

Modeling Questions

  • What does the changing last-mile delivery landscape mean to travel demand modeling?
    • What are the questions modelers need to answer?
  • What are the limitations of travel demand models that hinder last mile freight analyses?
    • What model resolution is required to effectively evaluate last-mile analyses?
    • What can our vendors do to the base software package to help?
  • Despite the fact that we’re all trying to microsimulate individual truck trips, what level of data detail for last-mile freight delivery trips can we REALLY live with given private industry and public desires for confidentiality? Be honest!