
The last several decades have fundamentally reshaped freight—and the way freight researchers think about it. In her work as founding director of the University of Washington’s Urban Freight Lab, professor Anne Goodchild has witnessed the explosion of freight into residential areas and come to realize the importance of the “Final 50 Feet” of freight movements. During the 2024 CTS Transportation Research Conference luncheon, Goodchild shared insights and results from her decades of experience as a freight researcher.
“When I say ‘freight,’ most people imagine large vehicles like semis, tractor trailers, and long-haul trains,” Goodchild said. “However, as we’ve moved toward a greater and deeper understanding, we’ve expanded the complexity of freight research and the types of problems we think about.”
Addressing these new, complex issues requires strong partnerships with the private sector, Goodchild explained. As a structured partnership, the Urban Freight Lab focuses on addressing urban freight challenges by bringing together university researchers, public-sector agencies, and private-sector industry from across the transportation and logistics landscape into a strategic workgroup.
“We really work together,” Goodchild said. “Rather than going to the private sector with our ideas, we go to them and listen, taking their advice and input.”
One of the key changes the Urban Freight Lab is confronting is the dramatic shift of freight traffic into residential areas resulting from delivery-based retail models. When studying the city of Seattle, Goodchild discovered that residential neighborhoods are now the largest demanders of freight. Her study of the West Seattle peninsula area revealed that residential deliveries accounted for more than 90 percent of all freight trips.
“When we think about regional policy, planning, and land use, we have to understand that the freight load on cities has shifted heavily from commercial and industrial districts to residential districts,” Goodchild said. “We need to look at pavement, intersections, and the type of investments that are needed to expand capacity and increase safety.”
The shift of freight load to residential areas has also led to evolving research priorities at the Urban Freight Lab. One example is curb management—“Who is showing up at the curb, how big the trucks are, how long they stay there, and what they look for when parking,” Goodchild said. The Urban Freight Lab is engaged in several curb management projects. In one study, researchers examined Seattle’s permitting process for commercial vehicle loading zones to determine what was behind the decline in permit compliance-with a goal of increasing both the number of permits purchased and automated enforcement. A second project examined whether and why delivery vehicles cruise for parking, then developed sensors and an app to identify open commercial parking spaces. A third project examined how using parcel lockers in residential buildings could reduce delivery time and amount of time a driver needs to spend parked at the curb ("dwell time").
Finally, Goodchild shared four keys to transformative freight research: robust data and analytical methods; shared, transparent goals and metrics that capture stakeholder values; a deep understanding of freight markets and operations; and true commitment to engaging with stakeholders and finding areas of mutual interest.
“Trusted, skin-in-the-game relationships with the people who implement the freight system are really essential,” Goodchild concluded. “If we’re going to do it well, we have to build the relationships to support high-quality and relevant freight research.”
Watch a video of Goodchild’s keynote presentation.
—Megan Tsai, contributing writer