Your package is delayed because NYC needs curb reform

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Do you hear that in the distance? Is it sleigh bells? The tinkling piano of a holiday party? No, actually, it’s 40% more delivery trucks circling our city blocks looking for a place to unload holiday freight - and not finding one.

Online shopping skyrockets this time of year, bringing many more trucks to the streets. But the problems don’t stop with increased congestion. Once drivers arrive in your neighborhood, they must search for open curb space to sort and distribute all those holiday gifts and new party outfits. But without designated space to do it, most end up idling in bike lanes, car lanes, or in crosswalks.

1. One of the best ways to get idling trucks out of the bike, bus, and driving lanes is to provide them dedicated space to unload. The delivery workers that are unloading New York City’s 1.2 million daily packages aren’t using these lanes to be spiteful; they have a massive job to do and little time to do it. Consumers demand their products be delivered next-day, and so we have to accommodate these deliveries by implementing more dedicated loading zones in the curb.
2. Another innovative way to deal with package deliveries in our city (the densest major city in the country) is microhubs, local hubs where packages can be offloaded to lower emissions vehicles or cargo bikes. New York City is implementing a pilot program over the next few years, and we are hopeful the pilot will be a success and expand around the city.
3. Cargo bikes are an efficient way to transport packages in dense cities like New York. They take the big trucks off our narrow streets, reducing overall congestion and greenhouse gas emissions. However to seriously pursue cargo bikes for deliveries we need to build infrastructure that supports them, including double-wide bike lanes.

There’s a better way to manage the holiday season; one that takes advantage of the full potential at the curb to keep New Yorkers safe, keep our air clean, and ensure that deliverers can bounce from home to home with the efficiency of St. Nick’s sleigh.

Happy holidays!

Michael Sutherland

Policy Analyst

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