This fall, New York City will try out new mini distribution centers to shift packages from trucks to smaller, more sustainable vehicles at two densely trafficked parts of Brooklyn: beneath the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in Greenpoint, at Meeker and Kingsland avenues, and in Clinton Hill, at Park and Washington Avenues. The microhubs are meant to centralize truck traffic and allow human-powered or low-emission vehicles – like cargo bikes or EV vans – to complete the last leg of deliveries to businesses and homes, noted the Department of Transportation (DOT).
The Brooklyn locations will be among the first of 20 so-called microhub centers the DOT will launch this year as part of the agency’s efforts to reduce truck traffic clogging city streets, officials said in late July. The pilot locations were chosen because they’re in high-delivery demand neighborhoods, and near a mix of commercial, manufacturing and residential areas, while also being close to truck routes and bike lanes.
DOT has said the Upper West Side will also receive three of the hubs, but the exact locations have yet to be determined.
A surge of truck traffic in recent years has created logistical headaches for businesses and quality of life concerns for residents. More than 2.3 million packages are delivered in the five boroughs each day – up from 1.5 million packages prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. Double-parked delivery trucks cost the city more than $240 million in lost productivity and pollution, according to an April report by Columbia University’s School for Professional Studies.
Without enough designated space, unloading and distributing packages from trucks eats up street and sidewalk space. Prepandemic, some 60% of deliveries were made to commercial customers and 40% to residential consumers – now 80% of packages go directly to residents, according to DOT data. If the new model is successful, DOT plans to expand the program to locations across the city.
Source: Crain’s New York Business
