Cities can shift gears to make it possible for more deliveries by bike and offer a welcome reprieve from busy commercial streets backed up by double-parked cars — all while making a dent in carbon emissions and traffic violence, a top transportation organization says.
According to a report released by the National Association of City Transportation Officials, delivery services like FedEx and Doordash are growing increasingly ubiquitous in everyday life — and that explosion has “increase[d] travel time, worsen[ed] air quality, and [made] streets less safe.”
Shifting to bike deliveries in dense communities, though, can cut congestion, emissions and traffic violence, making them “a really effective and efficient mode for delivering in cities,” according to Cary Bearn, NACTO’s senior manager for multimodal design.
Far from just the daredevil bike messengers zipping through big city streets in movies like “Premium Rush," Bearn explains that bike deliveries can be a versatile tool to help cities deliver everything from in-town parcel shipping, to e-commerce orders, to quick, on-demand drop-offs of food from restaurants and grocery stores.
What type of deliveries dominate, though, can have big implications for logistics networks, since parcel deliveries might involve multiple stops on a route and on-demand deliveries typically travel directly to the customer.
It also affects what type of bikes are likely to appear on city streets — and what infrastructure and policies cities need to accommodate them. Parcel deliveries, for instance, would likely be done on quad bikes, cargo bikes, or bikes with a trailer; on-demand deliveries, meanwhile, benefit from more compact bikes with a rack, or even standard bikes with the riders simply carrying their load in a backpack.
“Shifting delivery from trucks and motor vehicles to bikes is definitely not a one-size-fits-all,” says Bearn. “[We’re] focused on helping cities see how their local context can fit into the delivery by bike landscape.”
Photo: Zane Selvans via Flickr
Bikes aren’t the only vehicles that can help move cities away from car and truck deliveries. Bearn says other modes like scooters are “all tools that have different capacities, different strengths, different challenges.”
To make that kind of multimodal urban delivery viable, though, the report authors say the regulatory environment has to allow for it in the first place. That might mean clarifying what's legally considered an e-bike versus a motorcycle, where bikes of various types can be ridden, and where bikes can park. Leaders also need to do robust community engagement to foster confidence in city halls and outside stakeholders that bikes can succeed as a delivery method.
But the biggest challenge to encouraging urban bike delivery lies in the street itself.
“Foundational to having successful delivery by bike programs really is having a complete and connected and comfortable bike network,” Bearn says. “Delivery by bike will rely on the infrastructure within the city — so opportunities to support delivery by bike are grounded in investments in safe, bikeable streets.”
The report authors say the key to a strong bike network is “building all ages and abilities bike facilities … that are appropriate for the local context, motor vehicle speeds, and motor vehicle volumes.” And in dense cities, especially, transportation leaders need to consider the unique needs of wider and longer bicycles that take up more space in narrow bike lanes.
When it comes to the curb, NACTO says that delivery bikes can help do away with the problem of double-parked delivery vans — but they can also create comparable roadblocks for pedestrians on the sidewalk if communities don’t build dedicated bike corrals and micro-loading zones to keep the walkers' right of way clear.
Photo: New York City Department of Transportation
While these recommendations alone could spur a lot of urban bike delivery, NACTO encouraged transportation leaders to do more to make such programs a success. Things like battery charging stations, bike-purchasing subsidy programs, and permitting to standardize safety and operations can all help turn a city into a true bike delivery hub — and they have lots of role models to look to.
Bearn spotlights New York and Toronto as examples of cities that have successfully moved from small-scale micromobility delivery pilots to successful permanent programs. Elsewhere, San Francisco has helped delivery workers buy e-bikes and access safety training and Washington D.C. recently announced a yearlong e-bike food delivery pilot program with the goal of identifying how the District government can support it long-term.
As those programs grow, NACTO argues that bike delivery can have spillover effects into other aspects of urban life, too. A better bike network will make it easier for all cyclists to get around, not just those performing deliveries. Subsidy programs built for delivery workers might help people add an income source through delivery, while also giving them a city-friendly way to get around when they’re off the clock. Less cars and trucks on the road, meanwhile will support road safety, while giving the climate a much-needed break.
And those are goals all cities should strive for.
