On Friday, December 7 in the Perkins Building, Alison Conway of City College of New York explored how ecommerce has revolutionized personal shopping over the last decade. To meet demands for on-demand deliveries of a variety of household and consumer goods, supply chains have had to quickly adapt, introducing new diverse warehousing strategies, fulfillment models, and even vehicle fleets. To ensure safe and efficient delivery to customers, shippers and carriers have implemented new last-mile and last-50 foot strategies. Resulting goods movements are both spatially and temporally unique from traditional commercial delivery activity, resulting in traffic and curb demands different from those traditionally considered in freight planning and management. The presentation discussed recent changes in freight delivery patterns in ecommerce, specific impacts this activity has had on streets, curbs, and buildings in New York City, and design, management, and regulatory strategies to address them.

Aside from teaching, Dr. Conway is also the Associate Director for Education at the University Transportation Research Center (UTRC). She is an Associated Researcher to the MetroFreight Center, a Volvo Research and Education Foundations (VREF) Center of Excellence, and has been PI or co-PI on 17 funded research projects. Her current focus is in the areas of urban freight and city logistics, freight data, and multi-modal interactions in the urban environment. She currently serves as Chair of the ASCE Transportation and Development Institute’s (T&DI) Freight and Logistics Committee, as Chair of the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB’s) Freight Data Committee, and as a member of TRB’s Urban Freight Committee. From 2014-2016, she chaired the TRB Young Member’s Council. With her diverse and in-depth experience, Dr. Conway facilitated an englightening and engaging discussion.

This program was sponsored by the NCST program at the UVM Transportation Research Center.

PUBLISHED 12-12-2018