Changing Retail Business Models and the Impact on CO2 Emissions from Transport: E-commerce Deliveries in Urban and Rural Areas

While researchers have found relationships between passenger vehicle travel and smart growth development patterns, similar relationships have not been extensively studied between urban form and goods movement trip making patterns. In rural areas, where shopping choice is more limited, goods movement delivery has the potential to be relatively more important than in more urban areas. As such, this work examines the relationships between certain development pattern characteristics including density and distance from warehousing. This work models the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and Particle Matter (PM10) generated by personal travel and delivery vehicles in a number of different scenarios, including various warehouse locations. Linear models were estimated via regression modeling for each dependent variable for each goods movement strategy. Parsimonious models maintained nearly all of the explanatory power of more complex models and relied on one or two variables – a measure of road density and a measure of distance to the warehouse. Increasing road density or decreasing the distance to the warehouse reduces the impacts as measured in the dependent variables (vehicle miles traveled (VMT), CO2, NOx, and PM10). The authors find that delivery services offer relatively more CO2 reduction benefit in rural areas when compared to CO2 urban areas, and that in all cases delivery services offer significant VMT reductions. Delivery services in both urban and rural areas, however, increase NOX and PM10 emissions.

• Record URL:
  http://depts.washington.edu/pactrans/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PacTrans-23-626637-Goodchild-Anne-Small-Project.pdf
• 
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This document was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  University of Washington, Seattle

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, P.O. Box 352700
  Seattle, WA  United States  98195-2700

  Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium

  University of Washington
  More Hall Room 112
  Seattle, WA  United States  98195-2700

  Research and Innovative Technology Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Goodchild, Anne
  • Wygonik, Erica
• Publication Date: 2014-10-31

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Project Report
• Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 61p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Carbon dioxide; Delivery vehicles; Development; Electronic commerce; Freight traffic; Land use; Linear regression analysis; Nitrogen oxides; Pollutants; Rural areas; Urban areas; Vehicle miles of travel; Warehouses
• Subject Areas: Environment; Freight Transportation; Highways; I15: Environment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01548609
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 2013-S-UW-0023, 23-626637
• Contract Numbers: DTRT12-UTC10
• Files: UTC, TRIS, RITA, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Dec 23 2014 12:08PM