Last week the King Co. Superior Court agreed to hear Escala Condominium’s appeal of a Seattle Hearing Examiner ruling denying its claim that a proposed adjacent high rise lacked adequate loading berths and would disable their shared alley.

Standing by the developer in this fight, the City is not only waging war with its citizens, it’s fighting a losing battle with an overwhelming global trend.

For several years a 20% annual rise in e-commerce has caused a surge in urban freight deliveries and congestion. Since COVID-19 the impacts have intensified with online shopping increasing 28%.

The World Resource Institute (WRI) Ross Center for Sustainable Cities says home deliveries have become a lifeline for millions:

“From the U.S. to Europe, freight carriers are reporting record volumes of traffic. The influx is accelerating an existing trend and putting the logistics of urban freight in the spotlight,” adding, “It’s clear that how we handle freight can no longer be an afterthought – it’s a critical component of building more sustainable, more equitable, more resilient cities.”

It’s become an urgent priority for cities worldwide to understand and plan for adverse delivery impacts from a growing fleet of vehicles.  However, until recently, measurable data was lacking. That’s changed, thanks to the University of Washington.

Examining downtown Seattle, UW researchers just published the first empirical analysis of transportation impacts from delivery vehicles chronically unable to find adequate curbside or off-street loading space.  

Analyzing GPS and route data from 2,900 commercial vehicle delivery trips downtown, the authors found carriers spent an average of 2.3 minutes circling to find parking, for an average 28% of total trip time. Importantly, the analysis included site-specific variations among delivery routes including the one for Escala’s block.  In the Escala block, commercial vehicles spent 10-12 minutes circling for parking—more than five times the downtown average. 

Compelling by itself, this data was collected pre-COVID.  Not only have home deliveries increased, but so has demand for new curb space uses like restaurant cafes and drop-off/pick-up zones for app-based on-demand goods and food deliveries. Meanwhile, personal vehicle use is up 30% and while transit lanes still dominate streets, transit use has dropped 61%.

Escala residents may be the first to press the City for new buildings designed to accommodate their transportation impacts.  But other downtown buildings are making the same request. Will the City also force them to choose between a court hearing or maintaining city right-of-way’s that are clean, safe and functioning?

When it comes to the need for off-street residential and commercial loading, it’s not ‘if you build it they will come.’  It’s ‘ready or not,’ the crush of delivery vehicles is here.