Seattle is one of the most congested cities in America, in part due to delivery trucks taking up space on crowded streets.

One solution could be for companies to make deliveries using bicycles instead. UPS announced today that . This test is expected to last a year, and the 91探花鈥檚 at the will help UPS evaluate the study鈥檚 outcomes.

“We are excited to play a role in this innovative approach in an effort to reduce traffic congestion in Seattle,” said , the director of the center and a 91探花professor of civil and environmental engineering.

UPS has pilot-tested its e-bike delivery systems all over the world, with the first test taking place in Hamburg, Germany, in 2012, and the first U.S. test in , in 2016. In those tests, UPS used an electrically assisted tricycle with a wagon over the back two wheels to hold packages.

For the Seattle pilot test, the wagons will be modular, detachable boxes that can carry up to 400 pounds and can be presorted according to neighborhood or route. This is the first time UPS will use these detachable wagons in the U.S.

UPS partnered with the to design a test route: The e-bikes will operate in Pike Place Market and the downtown Seattle area on sidewalks and in designated bike lanes.

To evaluate the pilot test, UPS will share its data with the UW’s Urban Freight Lab. The 91探花team will analyze three delivery routes that will be affected by the e-bikes to see how emissions change over the next year.

“We’re also going to measure if e-bikes will reduce the amount of time cargo vans and trucks spend in loading zones, and how pedestrians and other bicyclists are affected,” said , director of the Urban Freight Lab.

If this pilot test is successful, UPS plans to expand the e-bike delivery service to other areas of Seattle.

“I’m really proud of our collaboration with SDOT and UPS, because truly innovative solutions will only be found when we work together,” Goodchild said.

###

For more information, contact Goodchild at annegood@uw.edu, Ivanov at ivanovb@uw.edu or Kristen Petrella at kpetrella@ups.com or 404-828-4182.

See a related story in .

Seattle is one of the most congested cities in America.

Delivery trucks take up space on already crowded roads and idle in parking spots and loading bays. And if no one is available to sign for a package, the process has to start all over again.

The 91探花鈥檚 at the has been looking for solutions: Parcel lockers that aren’t owned by a specific company, such as Amazon, could alleviate the strain. These lockers would provide truck drivers with one location to drop off their packages the first time. And if these lockers are located in a public space, such as a transit station in a dense neighborhood, residents could pick up packages at their convenience.

Now SCTL has identified five viable locker locations at three different Seattle Link light rail stations for a future pilot test. The researchers described their findings in a .

“There are some genuine practical hurdles to putting a locker in a public space,” said , the director of the SCTL and a 91探花professor of civil and environmental engineering. “Most academic research would stop at ‘we’ve built a model that shows that lockers should be faster,’ but we wanted to define problems and establish a framework for measuring improvement. Otherwise, how do we know if our suggestions are better?”

In the first demonstration of a common carrier locker system in a public space in the U.S., Goodchild and the team . Their case study showed that common carrier lockers . In addition, these lockers offer users a safe, automated self-service system to retrieve their packages.

Putting common carrier lockers at transit stations seemed like the best next step. Then people could retrieve packages whenever they ride the light rail.

First the team addressed whether Seattleites would be interested in picking up parcels from Link stations.

“This could be a brilliant idea that lowers trucks’ failed first delivery rates,” said , director of the Urban Freight Lab. “But if the riders don’t find it convenient, then they’ll choose to have the trucks drive all over the place instead.”

The team then surveyed riders during morning and evening rush hours over five days at the UW, Capitol Hill and Westlake stations.

For the 91探花station, 67 percent of the 43 surveyed riders said they would use common carrier lockers installed at the station. At the other stations, about 40 percent of riders were interested.

“Tens of thousands of riders go through these stations every day,” said Ivanov. “If we see that half of the ridership is interested in this new service, that is a very strong positive response.”

Because the results were so encouraging, the researchers partnered with the , and UPS to find viable locker sites at all three stations for a potential test pilot.

Currently, there are no official plans for a test pilot due to lack of funding. But the group is confident that this idea provides a unique solution that will both reduce delivery truck traffic in Seattle and provide residents with a safe and convenient way to receive packages.

“It’s really hard to identify someone this is not good for,” said Goodchild. “It’s good for the delivery company: a locker is a more reliable receiver than you are. And that’s one less trip for you.”

###

For more information, contact Goodchild at annegood@uw.edu and Ivanov at ivanovb@uw.edu.

In Amazon鈥檚 hometown, people turn to their computers to order everything from groceries to last-minute birthday presents to the odd toothbrush or medication forgotten from the store.

If online shopping continues to grow at its current rate, there may be twice as many trucks delivering packages in Seattle鈥檚 city center within five years, a new report projects 鈥� and double the number of trucks looking for a parking space.

In the , the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) and the 91探花鈥檚 at the have analyzed solutions for alleviating urban congestion by making truck parking spaces more productive and reducing the growth of truck traffic.

鈥淪eattle is the perfect laboratory to find better ways of managing commercial truck parking and delivering packages in urban settings,鈥� said , SCTL director and a 91探花professor of civil and environmental engineering. 鈥淏y testing data-driven solutions on our streets and in our buildings, we hope to reduce traffic in congested areas of the city as well as missed deliveries that frustrate consumers and retailers alike.鈥�

By mapping privately owned delivery infrastructure for the first time, a team of 91探花researchers and students found that 87 percent of all the buildings in downtown Seattle, Uptown (also known as lower Queen Anne) and South Lake Union have to rely on the city鈥檚 curb and alley space to receive deliveries. Only 13 percent of buildings have loading bays or docks that allow trucks to park on private property.

That鈥檚 why the report focuses on what鈥檚 known as the 鈥淔inal 50 Feet鈥� problem: the last and surprisingly complicated leg of an urban delivery that begins when a driver must find a place to park a truck or vehicle 鈥� usually on a public street or alleyway 鈥� and ends when the customer takes receipt of their package.

It鈥檚 part of a broader research initiative spearheaded the by SCTL鈥檚 , which is partnering with SDOT, Nordstrom, UPS, the U.S. Postal Service and Charlie鈥檚 Produce to re-think everything from how cities apportion curb and street space to how building owners manage the growing avalanche of packages delivered to urban towers.

鈥淪eattle is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, and SDOT is committed to meeting the urban goods delivery challenges facing most big cities in the U.S.,” said Christopher Eaves, project manager at SDOT. 鈥淲e know that issuing parking tickets to companies who are simply trying to meet the daily delivery needs of residents and businesses isn鈥檛 the right solution. So, our goal is to identify and implement scalable strategies that improve deliveries at existing buildings, as well as initiate strategic research to mine new data.鈥�

The 91探花research team found that reducing the number of failed delivery attempts as well as the amount of time a delivery truck is parked in a loading space could offer significant public and private benefits. 91探花researchers and SDOT plan to test promising improvement strategies in and on the streets around the聽 this spring.

鈥淭hese two actions alone could reduce congestion and free up curb space for cars, buses, bicycles and other people who need to use that shared public space,鈥� said Barbara Ivanov, director of the Urban Freight Lab. 鈥淭hose efficiencies have the added benefit of saving retailers and delivery services money, and getting orders into the hands of customers faster.鈥�

Cutting down on failed first delivery attempts has the potential to greatly reduce truck trips in Seattle, cut business costs and ensure that tenants in multifamily buildings can shop online and get their orders when they expect them, the report finds.

By tracking real-world deliveries in a downtown office building 鈥� the Seattle Municipal Tower 鈥� a hotel, a residential building, a historic building and the retail mall at Westlake Center, the 91探花researchers discovered delivery drivers encounter logistical barriers that consume a significant portion of their time. Clearing security in urban towers took 12 percent of the total time, and looking for tenants and riding freight elevators took 61 percent of the total time.

The report estimates that 73 percent of delivery time is spent in buildings and, as a result, the Urban Freight Lab will pilot test a smart locker system in the loading bay of the Seattle Municipal Tower. This could substantially reduce delivery time, failed first deliveries and the amount of time that delivery trucks occupy parking spaces that serve the building.

The smart locker system pilot will allow drivers from multiple delivery companies to securely leave packages in the vestibule of the 62-story Municipal Tower. Then, the locker system will notify enrolled tenants of deliveries by text or email and send a lock code, allowing them to pick up the packages at their convenience rather than having to stop working and intercept a delivery person in their office.

The Final 50 Feet project is the first time that SDOT, in partnership with the Urban Freight Lab, has analyzed both the street network and the city鈥檚 vertical space such as office, hotel, retail and residential towers as one unified goods delivery system.

###

For more information, contact Goodchild at annegood@uw.edu and Ivanov at ivanovb@uw.edu.