This issue of ITE Journal has an emphasis on freight, and in particular, urban goods movement. If you look back over the past several years of articles, you’ll often see freight come up as a tangent issue alongside other topic areas—but we are long overdue for an entire issue dedicated to this important subject!
Let’s start with demand. Many things changed as we emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, including our work and travel patterns, how we view our personal health and interactions with others—and of course, our reliance upon online shopping. The U.S. Department of Commerce recently released their forecast showing a 20 percent increase in worldwide e-commerce between pre- and post-COVID-19 timeframes. Food and personal care products show the most growth, but every category has shown double digit increases.
All of these increases not only impact brick-and-mortar stores, but they have a direct impact on the movement and delivery of goods to each of us. Warehouse to warehouse and warehouse to store are no longer the only prominent patterns, as we now have huge increases in warehouse to business and warehouse to home. These changes not only affect air pollution, traffic congestion, and curbside management in metropolitan cities, but they have introduced rapidly changing impacts on road maintenance, traffic control, and overall road safety in our cities, suburban settings, and even rural environments.
I see home delivery trucks in my neighborhood multiple times a day. I’ve heard the joke that it’s the “ice cream truck for adults” given the sense of excitement it elicits in many individuals. I also enjoy the convenience this warehouse to home system provides. But this means that planners and engineers that manage the transportation network around my home and business must also be looking ahead with a much different lens than they previously have.
Electric and alternative fuel vehicles will help lessen some of the environmental impact—and enhancements in technology (like V2X described in this issue) have the potential to lessen some of the safety and reliability impacts. But so much more needs to be done, based on the assumption that changes in travel patterns for the movement of goods is probably still on an increasing trend line—we haven’t yet peaked.
To those outside of our profession, it seems easy—simply prioritize efforts to accommodate the changes in goods movement. But what if those changes are in conflict with efforts to prioritize pedestrian safety, or accommodate bicycle movements, or enhance transit ridership? This is where it once again is important for planners and engineers to work together, to engage the local community in their efforts, and to exercise good communications if seeking a compromise position for a future project.
This also means engaging other key stakeholders like the goods movement participants, law enforcement, and road maintenance when exploring changes in policies for truck route enforcement. Or working with local shippers to accommodate an increase in electric or alternative fuel vehicles, helping to enable that changeover. Or diving deeper into land use planning with the recognition that trip generation patterns are continually evolving, and further bifurcation of use-case scenarios is occurring (side note: ITE will be releasing an updated Trip Generation Manual this summer!).
I encourage everyone to contribute more to the topic of freight and goods movement—and help ensure it remains a priority in future projects!