We need action, not more talk
Today’s blog post is the second in a series where we look at Seattle’s land use history and decades of missed opportunities for comprehensive infrastructure planning for transportation and housing.
As America battles the Corona crisis, we’ve learned the importance of supply chains. Until recently the public took for granted the ability to receive goods and services when needed.
We’ll move forward by recognizing and fixing weak links in order to build a stronger, more resilient system. The crisis reinforces the need to plan for anticipated demands and put necessary infrastructure in place.
That lesson should be a priority for Seattle transportation planning. Over the past decade e-commerce has become an essential way of life making people’s homes the transportation endpoint in the consumer supply chain. Private and public institutions have spent years studying these deliveries to what is called the final mile or fifty feet in the transportation chain.
Yet with e-commerce home deliveries of packages, food and furniture in Seattle rising 20% annually, the City is approving 1,000-person downtown residential towers without a functioning loading berth.
Our current infrastructure won’t handle it. The City’s 167-year old transportation grid is already poised for failure, straining to cope with density and congestion. Far from an unknown, researchers at the University of Washington Freight Lab (UWFL) and Texas A&M Transportation Institute have documented the situation on Seattle streets.
The UWFL reports 87% of trucks rely on public curb space for deliveries at the same time the City is converting parking lanes into transit and bike only. This means more trucks circling looking for fewer spaces. Texas A&M’s Transportation Institute Annual Urban Mobility report shows Seattle truck delays top 7 million hours annually costing $359 million in excess fuel consumption. There’s no estimate on environmental costs.
The problem goes beyond Seattle. National industry tracker SupplyChainDive reports urban freight will rise 40% by 2050 “clogging precious residential and downtown street space.” It quotes an Accenture logistics expert saying, “Where you now see UPS and FedEx trucks in neighborhood once a day, you will see them four to five times a day, plus the smaller players.”
Technology and traffic planning can improve efficiency but increasing downtown density requires private infrastructure to support it.
SupplyChainDive experts concur. “Since it’s easier to regulate new construction, a city could mandate the creation of extra loading zones, docks, or even package rooms in buildings, for example. That way, a delivery person doesn’t have to go to each residence or office suite.”
Seattle has already recognized the need for more private loading infrastructure but is failing to act.
Last fall a spokesman for the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) told a downtown community group that an Alleys Loading Berth and Solid Waste (ALBSW) Director’s Rule would take effect by year’s end. It would require new downtown residential towers include at least one working loading berth with proven truck turn radius along with a staging space for garbage that won’t block the alley.
The rule was tabled without explanation but SDCI’s Director said it would be reintroduced in April. That time is here and in the interim, more towers with inadequate infrastructure have been approved.
Failure to act will permanently limit Seattle’s options to deal with urban growth. It will cost us all time, money and environmental health and safety.
It takes planning and infrastructure to create a sustainable, resilient transportation supply chain.
Armed with data, let’s insist on taking basic steps now to avoid big problems later. It shouldn’t take a crisis to convince us.
Stay tuned for future posts in this series, exploring how current Seattle development and land use policy is impacting Seattle transportation and sustainable housing.
Be sure to read additional posts in series:
Will Seattle’s 19th century transportation grid continue to survive business as usual?
Another rubber-stamped tower is designed to fail
Demands of e-commerce won’t be met by paper band aids
Surface parking lots: A hot button issue
If you agree, please write your Council Members. Ask them to approve the Alleys Loading Berth and Solid Waste Directors Rule and Code Amendments and require any proposed downtown tower be required to meet these standards.
Stay tuned for future posts in this series, exploring how current Seattle development and land use policy is impacting Seattle transportation and sustainable housing.
Additional posts in series:
Will Seattle’s 19th century transportation grid continue to survive business as usual?
