NJTPA Update Blog

The explosion of e-commerce since the pandemic makes it easy for consumers to order almost anything at any time but the flip side is that it’s created challenges for towns and cities overrun with delivery trucks.

The NJTPA’s Freight Initiatives Committee hosted a panel discussion during its June 17 meeting, featuring three planners in the region to provide their perspectives on truck routing and curb management.

“If you are going to guarantee delivery of something within an hour, you can’t have it on the other side of the Lincoln Tunnel to be delivered into Manhattan," said Alison Conway, associate professor of civil engineering at The City College of New York’s Grove School of Engineering “So that means we have to have distribution facilities in the heart of the city, which would have been unheard of 10 or 15 years ago,” she said. That’s led to the emergence of combined retail distribution models, where retail stores have become delivery points, as well as “dark stores,” which are retail stores that don’t provide a retail function but serve as small-scale distribution facilities fulfilling on-demand, even 15-minute deliveries, mainly via e-bike.

The City Council recently approved the first major rezoning in New York City since the early 1970s. The changes have the potential to enable some innovative distribution, Conway said, such as the allowing the development of micro distribution facilities in commercial districts zoned primarily for retail, and and flexible use of private parking garages, which have become underutilized in many cities with the shift to work from home.

The growing use of E-bikes, including E-cargo bikes, for deliveries is an area where “the industry is ahead of regulation so there’s still more work needed to figure out exactly where we define the vehicle as a bicycle and a motor vehicle,” Conway said. “We need to figure out how to set uniform regulations for these things."

Freight and Complete Streets
Kristen Scudder, Freight Program Manager for the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) , which covers nine counties in the Philadelphia region, including parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, discussed the Philadelphia Truck Network and Complete Streets Integration Guidebook. It was developed in conjunction with Philadelphia but many elements are applicable around the region and beyond.

"Freight considerations are not only about the efficiency and effectiveness of goods movement, they’re really more about the safety and quality of life of other road users and of members of our community,” Scudder said."We have clear networks for other modes on our streets” -- cars, bikes, transit – but what’s mostly lacking is a truck network. Defining a truck network can help communities better understand where trucks are moving and be used across all transportation planning efforts, she added.

Kevin Force, Supervising Planner at the Hudson County Division of Planning served as program manager for the Hudson County Truck Routes Assessment, funded through the NJTPA’s Subregional Studies Program. The assessment offered a variety of recommendations, organized around the needs of the commercial, residential, and industrial sectors to address issues like delivery trucks using local streets as cut-throughs, the need for loading zones, and trucks operating in restricted areas.

In commercial or mixed-use districts, Force said, designated curbed loading zones at peak delivery times could serve as parking at other times and different pricing levels could encourage the turnover of those spaces. In residential areas, consolidated deliveries and the use of e-cargo bikes could be encouraged. Industrial areas are about accommodating large trucks while reducing emissions and noise and the study found a need for truck parking and rest stops.

A recording of the FIC meeting can be accessed here.