Despite the growth of the Internet and advances in technologies, physical location matters as much as ever.
This article appears in the The Fall, 2002 issue of ACCESS, the official magazine of the University of California Transportation Center. "As better communications bring faster, more reliable, and more efficienthandling and movement of goods, competition requires freight companies to befast, flexible, precise, and cost-sensitive. New practices like just-in-time productionand, more recently, demand-side inventory management and customerorders placed on the web are contributing to a new business model in whichstorage plays a lesser role and mobile inventories are the norm.Yet the industry does not float out there somewhere in cyberspace. As in theold days, it remains rooted in local and regional geographies, but in new ways.One of the reasons the online retailer Webvan failed was that it did not payenough attention to the fact that even virtual commerce is accompanied byanddepends onphysical distribution in material time and space. The integratedmanagement of materials supply, manufacturing, distribution, and consumptionknown as "supply-chain management"also has important spatial implications,including enlarged geographic range and concentration of logisticsfunctions at strategic locations." Editor's note: The link below is to a 1.4 MB PDF document.
Thanks to ACCESS Editor
FULL STORY: Location Matters

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Maui's Vacation Rental Debate Turns Ugly
Verbal attacks, misinformation campaigns and fistfights plague a high-stakes debate to convert thousands of vacation rentals into long-term housing.

San Francisco Suspends Traffic Calming Amidst Record Deaths
Citing “a challenging fiscal landscape,” the city will cease the program on the heels of 42 traffic deaths, including 24 pedestrians.

Defunct Pittsburgh Power Plant to Become Residential Tower
A decommissioned steam heat plant will be redeveloped into almost 100 affordable housing units.

Trump Prompts Restructuring of Transportation Research Board in “Unprecedented Overreach”
The TRB has eliminated more than half of its committees including those focused on climate, equity, and cities.

Amtrak Rolls Out New Orleans to Alabama “Mardi Gras” Train
The new service will operate morning and evening departures between Mobile and New Orleans.
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.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
JM Goldson LLC
Custer County Colorado
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Jefferson Parish Government
Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Claremont