The rise of online retail has come with a flurry of delivery trucks that don't always have good places to stop. Researchers from Amazon's hometown are on the case.
While a drone-based future for goods delivery gets a lot of hype, we're still stuck with trucks and vans (and some bikes). As Timothy A. Schuler writes, "The increase in deliveries has major implications for Complete Streets programs, which seek to accommodate the needs of pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders, and vehicular traffic within existing corridors."
In Amazon's hometown of Seattle, researchers are looking into the issue. "Recently, the City of Seattle partnered with the University of Washington (UW) and several major retailers to launch the Urban Freight Lab, a three-year research effort to better understand the rapidly changing landscape of goods delivery."
Curbside goods delivery is often a regulatory blank slate. "Unlike public transit, goods delivery has no single governing body or regulatory agency. [...] As a result, municipal governments often lack reliable data on where loading bays and loading zones are located, and whether or not they are meeting demand."
Anne Goodchild, director of UW's Supply Chain Transportation and Logistics Center, put it this way: "How much do we ask the transport to modify itself for the place? And how much do we modify the place for the transport?"
FULL STORY: Curb Clots
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The third and final installment of Planetizen's examination of the role of the planning profession in both perpetuating and solving traffic congestion.
Minneapolis Housing Plan a Success—Not for the Reason You Think
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Car Noise Is Killing Us
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Affordable Housing Proposal Faces Backlash in Salt Lake City
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Houston Bike Summit Makes In-Person Return
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Austin’s Transit CEO Moving to D.C.
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City of Malibu
EMC Planning Group Inc.
Jefferson Parish
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Harvard GSD Executive Education
City of Rohnert Park
City of Hot Springs
City of Lakeway, Texas
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Hand Drawing Master Plans
This course aims to provide an introduction into Urban Design Sketching focused on how to hand draw master plans using a mix of colored markers.
