SUMMARY:
The new way
of buying goods
and services,
online, has met up
with a old street
infrastructure,
struggling to adapt:
In New York City,
more than
1.5 million
packages are
delivered daily.
That's adding
to traffic gridlock,
and air pollution.
The average number
of daily deliveries
to households alone,
in New York City
tripled to more than
1.1 million shipments
from 2009 to 2017,
according to the
Rensselaer
Polytechnic
Institute Center
of Excellence
for Sustainable
Urban Freight
Systems.
Households
now receive
far more shipments
than businesses,
pushing trucks into
neighborhoods where
they had been rare.
Truck exhaust
and traffic gridlock
contribute to
greenhouse gas
emissions.
From 1990 to 2017,
CO2 emissions
from cars and trucks
in the New York
City area,
grew by 27%,
making the region
the largest
contributor
of driving-related
CO2 emissions
in the country.
UPS and FedEx
delivery trucks
double-park
on streets,
blocking bus
and bike lanes.
Delivery trucks
got more than
471,000
parking
violations
last year,
up +34%
from 2013.
DETAILS:
The main entryway
for packages into NYC
is the George Washington
Bridge, from New Jersey
The interchange
of Interstate 95 and
New Jersey Route 4,
about a half-mile
from the George
Washington Bridge.
is now the
most congested
interchange
in the country.
Trucks heading to the bridge
travel at 23 miles per hour,
down from 30mph five years ago.
Ride-hailing services like Uber
have also added to the traffic
in Manhattan.
The busiest parts of Manhattan
now move at about 7 m.p.h.,
23% percent slower than in 2010.
Many warehouses
are sprouting up,
within the city,
to avoid coming
in from New Jersey,
or elsewhere,
and to implement
one day deliveries.
Amazon is now moving
toward one-day delivery,
rather than two days,
for its Prime customers.
A tighter deadline can only
make congestion worse.
And remember:
Just 10% percent
of retail transactions
in the United States,
during 1Q 2019,
were made online,
up from 4%
a decade ago,
and still growing.
Much of the recent growth
was from orders for items
like perishable goods
and clothing.
People love convenience.
They don’t like truck traffic
congestion and air pollution.
FedEx, FreshDirect,
Peapod and UPS
combines accumulated
just over 515,000
parking tickets
in 2018, totaling
$27 million in fines,
according to the city.
The same companies
received roughly
372,000 summonses
and paid $21.8 million,
back in 2013
Images and videos
of delivery trucks
blocking bike lanes,
sidewalks and
crosswalks
are easy to find
on social media.
The total number
of trucks on all
tolled crossings
into New York City, and
within the five boroughs,
rose +9.4% in 2018,
to 35.7 million, up from
32.6 million in 2013.
Delivery truck drivers
often can't find
legal parking because
there are not enough
loading zones.
About 15% of New York City
households receive an average
of one package every day,
according to the Sustainable
Urban Freight Systems
center at Rensselaer.
This congestion problem
is AFTER New York City
implemented two fixes:
(1)
Tranportation officials
created 2,300 new loading
zones around the city last year.
(2)
And they tried to shift
more truck deliveries
to nights and weekends.
About 500 companies,
including pharmacies
and grocery stores,
deliver goods from
7 p.m. to 6 a.m.,
under a voluntary
city program.