Jonathan Shuster

CEE 499H
CEE 499 Report

This report details the result of the independent study completed winter
quarter 2017 at the University of Washington Civil and Environmental Engineering
Department. The work was tied closely to the Urban Freight Lab and Doctor Anne
Goodchild, both of whom are investigating to improve the freight capacity for the
City of Seattle. The beginnings of this independent study originated in the summer
of 2016 with the reading of articles on freight delivery and gaining a better idea of
what to research. The research was originally supposed to take place in the fall, but
never culminated into anything solid until the beginning of winter quarter. The
original plan was to work with a UW grad student to collect Commercial Vehicle
Load Zone (CVLZ) data for downtown Seattle and analyze it. However, the slow
take off of data collection, a foot injury, and the discovery of previous data collected
for the City of Seattle changed the tasks of my study. The tasks of analysis and
recommendations are the same, but now they will come using potentially out of date
City of Seattle data instead of the data currently being collected.
The main goals of this research are to gain a better understanding of the
capacity for the City of Seattle to handle freight, and what more/better data can do
to help gain that understanding. Much of this report will be spent cataloging CVLZS
in terms of the bigger picture of freight in Seattle (with some discussion of alleyways
and loading bays). First, spatial patterns such as density and clustering will be

Figure 1: Study Area

analyzed to paint a broader picture of how the CVLZs in downtown are spaced. Then
we will look at the land use next to the CVLZs to gain a better understanding of what
type of delivery each CVLZ is likely to see. Then we will discuss the technical details
of CVLZs such as their length and time limits. The rest of the paper will be spent
examining what data is missing and what we can do with better data, which includes
a more comprehensive data set, data from other cities and delivery data. The study
area can be seen above in Figure 1: it covers the downtown core, from Mercer Street
in the north to King Street in the south, and stretches from the Elliot Bay in the west
to I-5 in the east.

Spatial Analysis:
Density and clustering are important trends to analyze when looking at the
distribution of points, in this case CVLZs. These trends are often hard to see with
the naked eye but can help answer the question of whether there are patterns that
exist in the data. Were the zones planned in some areas or were they placed
randomly? Are they close together or far apart? To answer these questions I used
the ArcGIS tools of point density, line density, and optimized hot spot analysis. More
advanced spatial analysis required the input of an attribute field, but this was

Figure 2: CVLZs
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nonsensical for simply analyzing the spatial patterns of incident data, not attributes
of each incident.
The actual CVLZ line segment distribution can be seen in Figure 2. It simply
shows where the CVLZs are in the area of study. The point and length weighted
densities of CVLZs can be seen in Figures 3 and 4. The point density simply takes
into account where the points are and how densely they are spaced. The line
weighted density does the same but takes into account the length of the CVLZs,
which is important when looking at truck size. The most noticeable trend is that as
one moves away from the water front we see a decrease in the amount of CVLZs
(both number and light weighted values) that are available for trucks to use. The
load zones are more concentrated nearest the waterfront, other than in south lake
union, where there is a steady amount CVLZS even as one moves closer to I-5. Other
than this pattern however, the density of CVLZs is random; there are no real trends
in the density of CVLZs in the downtown core. However, this does not necessarily
mean that the freight delivery system is strongly focused on buildings near the

Figure 3: CVLZ Density Figure 4: Length Weighted CVLZ Density

waterfront. If one looks at the density of loading docks (see figure 5 below) in the
downtown core one can see that docks are more evenly spread out, with denser
portions and clusters in area that are away from the waterfront. This allows for
trucks to park beneath or behind buildings more frequently and creates less need
for CVLZs on the streets. It is difficult to say whether this was planned by the city or
nearby property owners but it is clear that there are more loading bays and less
CVLZS in some areas, specifically near Olive Way, where Belltown and Downtown
meet. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of alleyways. Alleyway line segment

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Figure 5: Loading Dock Density Figure 6: Alleyway Density

data provided by the city of Seattle was questionable at best, listing only the
entrance and exits to some alleys when others shown on the street layer were
completely left out. Nearly all alleys in the city of Seattle run north-south meaning
their exits and entrances are on east-west streets. However, the GIS data showed
many entrances and exits on North-south streets. A density map of alleyways can be
seen above in Figure 6, but very little can be gleaned from it because of the low
density of alleyways throughout most of the city and the clear inaccuracy of the
data.
The other spatial trend analyzed was the clustering of CVLZs. This analysis
of hot spots or cold spots was done using the ArcGIS Optimized Hot Spot Analysis
tool, which uses the GI* hot spot analysis technique to identify clustering. This
works by looking at a feature within the context of its neighboring features, and the
local sum of a feature and its neighbors are then compared to the sum of all features
(expected local sum). If the local sum varies largely from the expected local sum by
enough to not be considered random chance, then a hot spot or cold spot is
identified. Using this tool in ArcGIS output the data in Figure 7, which shows only
one CVLZ hotspot near Pike Place Market. Other than that, there is no significant
clustering or lack thereof (cold spot) for downtown CVLZs. The cluster that results
in front of the market is most likely due to the high volume of daily deliveries that
are made to the area in order to keep produce, meat, flowers, and other goods fresh
at the market. On the whole however, CVLZs in the downtown area are for the most
part randomly placed in terms of clustering. Some blocks have multiple load zones
while others have none, some correlate with loading docks while some dont, some

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are packed tightly while others arent. This relatively random spacing is an
opportunity to improve the freight delivery system by creating a planned pattern of
CVLZs in order to accommodate all areas of the city based on the areas delivery
volume.

Figure 7: CVLZ Hot Spots

The rest of the discussion on the current state of CVLZs will be done by
comparing four zones in the downtown core. This was done to provide better
documentation of how CVLZs vary across the city and to have context for
interpreting the data. The four zones can be seen Figure 8 below. Zone 1 is South
Lake Union (SLU) and is bounded by Mercer Way in the North, and Denny Way in
the South. All the zones range from Elliot Bay to I-5 in the east-west direction. Zone
2 is Uptown or Belltown and goes from Denny Way in the North to Olive
Way/Stewart Street in the Southeast. Zone 3 is downtown and reaches from
Olive/Stewart to Yesler Way in the south. Zone 4 reached from Yesler down past
the stadiums but was revised into Zone 5 (Pioneer Square), which leaves the
stadium district out of the analysis. This was done because there were very few
CVLZs in the stadium district and including that data in the Pioneer Square zone

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 gave a false
representation of
what the CVLZ
picture is like in
Pioneer Square.
From now on,
Pioneer Square
will mean the
revised Pioneer
Square area,
without the
stadium area.
These zones were
determined by
neighborhood
characteristics
such as land use,
but also along
historical and age
of development
boundaries. The
infrastructure in
the zones
typically gets
newer as one
moves north, with
Pioneer Square
being the oldest
part of the city
and SLU being in
Figure 8: Study Zones the middle of
huge
development mostly funded by Amazon.
The next measure investigated was the percent of curb space that CVLZs take
up in each zone (Figure 9). The data provided was for all curbs in the downtown
area so the percentage was simply calculated by summing the lengths of all CVLZs
and dividing it by length of all curbs. This allows us to get a measure besides
density of how each zone compares in terms of total space available for delivery.
This is important because if we were to just look at density (Figure 10) we come to
the conclusion that SLU is the worst place in the city to make a delivery, but really it
has as high a percentage of curb space as CVLZs. Much of this is due to the fact that
Seattle Center takes up a lot area, but there are no curbs in the Center. Once we look
at percentage of curb space as a better measure of amount of CVLZs we can see that
SLU is the best place to find a CVLZ (likely due to the Amazon campus), while
Uptowns skinny streets make it the least likely place to find a CVLZ as percentage of

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 CVLZS as Percent of Curb Space
6.00
5.00
4.00
3.00
2.00
1.00
0.00
SLU Uptown Downtown Pioneer Square Average
Revised

Figure 9: Percent of Curb Space as CVLZs

CVLZs per Square Mile

600.00
500.00
400.00
300.00
200.00
100.00
0.00
SLU Uptown Downtown Pioneer Square Average
Revised

Figure 10: CVLZ Density per Square Mile

total curb space. However, there is not a drastic difference between all four zones
(the highest and lowest percentages of curb space are only separated by 1.5% ). So
while it may be easier to find a CVLZ in SLU, it is not much easier than finding one in
any of the other zones and we can see that the actual physical space for delivery
weighted by curb space is about the same for all the zones.
In addition to looking at the CVLZs themselves, it is important to look at what
is next to the load zones (Figure 11 below). This was done by looking at the
property use data provided by King County and filtering out the parcels that were
not within 60ft of CVLZs. It is important to know what buildings are next to CVLZs
because the type of building can be indicative of the type of delivery, and thus the
length of the delivery and size of the truck using the CVLZ (will be discussed in the
next section). The major land uses in each zone can be seen below. Well start by
noting that there is the most parking (usually commercial lots) next to CVLZs in
Pioneer Square and Uptown. While it is unlikely that trucks will park in these
commercial lots to deliver, it does mean that passenger cars have other options for
parking besides street parking and will be less likely to park in CVLZs for short
periods of time. This slightly increases the likelihood that a CVLZ will be open in
Uptown and Pioneer Square. Next we see the percent of retail next to CVLZs is
pretty uniform with Pioneer Square and Uptown again being slightly higher. These
shipments are likely to be a smaller and more frequent. For instance, a restaurant

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 would get its
Land Use Next to CVLZs butcher meat
and fresh
bread from
% parking different
places, and
these
% retail/service deliveries are
more likely to
be small and
% office
short.
Potentially,
the retailers
% multi family
could have
their
% mixed use deliveries
consolidated
into one or
0 10 20 30 40 50
Average Pioneer Square Downtown two
Uptown SLU
Figure 11: Land Use Next to CVLZs shipments
which would
decrease the total amount of vehicle miles traveled and number of deliveries.
Consolidated deliveries are better for congestion, finding a CVLZ, for the
environment, and they provide another opportunity to improve the freight system.
Moving onto offices, we see that Pioneer Square and Downtown share the bulk of
the office space in the study area. These deliveries are mostly office supplies and
business deliveries that tend to be larger. More importantly, these deliveries often
take longer because the buildings themselves are larger and it takes longer to find
the correct office and get there and back. Housing and mixed use (usually retail and
residential) is highest in SLU and Uptown, which again use mostly smaller packages.
However, the delivery time can vary greatly depending on if the driver has to deliver
the package directly to the door of the recipient or if they can leave it in the lobby to
be consolidated. So for the most part, Uptown and SLU have smaller deliveries;
downtown has big, long deliveries; and Pioneer Square has a mix of big and small as
well as long and short.
The next question is how equipped these load zones are to handle the types
of deliveries they are likely to see. To do this I examined the physical length of the
CVLZs and the time limits on deliveries. This was done by simply averaging the
length and time limit data provided by the City of Seattle. There are two main
questions that need to be answered: 1. Are the CVLZs long enough? And 2. Is the
time limit long enough? The straightforward time data is pretty bland and
unexciting Average time limit is 31 minutes long with all the zones being very close
to that average. As previously mentioned this time limit may not be long enough for
longer buildings, but is usually sufficient for deliveries to smaller buildings and
retail. The length data is slightly more interesting. The average CVLZ length in the

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 Figure 12: Two-Axle Truck Figure 13: 3-Axle Truck

Figure 15: Delivery Van study area is 31.0 feet but varies
greatly. There are some CVLZs that
are only 9ft long while others reach
up to 87ft long. Comparing the
zones we see that SLU has the
longest average CVLZ length at 35.0
ft while Pioneer Square has the
smallest at 26.6ft. Going further in
depth we can look at how CVLZ lengths compare to standard truck lengths. In
general there are three types of delivery vehicles downtown: vans, 2-axle trucks,
and 3-axle trucks (there are exceptions but these three carry the bulk of deliveries).
Vans are typically 15 ft long, 2-axle trucks are usually 30ft long and three axle trucks
are usually 40ft long, according to AASHTO. Figure 15 shows the distribution of
CVLZs by length and zone. We can see that almost every load zone can handle
delivery vans, but only in the downtown zone can more than half the CVLZs handle
two axle trucks, and on average only about 30% of CVLZs can handle 3 axle trucks.
This means that depending of the size of the delivery truck it is very possible that it
will not fit in the loading zone. This also doesnt take into account how the truck is
being loaded and unloaded. If this happens from the back, additional space is need
to have a ramp down to curb level, a mechanical lift, or simply just to unload the
goods from the back of the vehicle. However, a higher percentage of CVLZs in the
downtown zone can handle larger trucks, which as mentioned above are more likely
to carry large office supplies. The other three zones have no large distinction in the
size of trucks they are equipped to handle.

What were missing and what we can do with it:

In terms of data actually on CVLZs there are a few key data points that would
be nice to have. The first is width. Delivery vehicles are typically wider than normal
passenger cars that park on the street and can often block a lane of traffic while
parked or while unloading (if unloading from the side). Being able to analyze the
width of parking strips and how well they handle larger vehicles would be valuable
information to better understand how the city is able to handle freight.
Another great thing to have would be more truck and delivery data. If we
actually knew what percentage of trucks were vans, 2-axle, or 3-axles in certain
areas, and how long they were parked for, we could more easily plan an effective

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 Length Distribution
120.0

100.0
Percent of CVLZs

80.0
15ft or greater

60.0 30ft or greater

40ft or greater
40.0

20.0

0.0
SLU Uptown Downtown Pioneer Average
Square
Revised

Figure 15: CVLZ Length Distribution

CVLZ length and time limit to accommodate the type of delivery that CVLZ is likely
to see. If precise data on the size of truck and time of delivery are unobtainable,
more data about what is being delivered and where could greatly benefit CVLZ
planning and placement. If we know for certain what is being delivered we can have
a better grasp on what size of truck will be needed and how long it will be there for.
In addition, setting up a truck cordon to see how many trucks actually are entering
the study zone and comparing it to the number of load zones would be greatly
helpful in seeing if the current system is large enough. Truck cordons are often
expensive and time consuming, but having that type of information about what
kinds and what numbers of trucks are entering an area would also be very helpful.
One of the biggest thing thats missing is just a significant amount of data on
the topic of CVLZs and loading/unloading sites in general. There are a number of
major U.S. cities that are lacking data on alleyways, loading docks, and CVLZs and
therefore are unable to do any type of real analysis on the state of their freight
delivery system. If other cities had data, it would be easier to see what factors make
for an effective delivery system. Say that we know for instance that NYC has a great
system; we can then look at the measures such as average length and point
distribution and adapt it to a local setting in order to improve the freight delivery
system here. Going along with that is data accuracy. As mentioned above with the
alleyways much of the data collected on CVLZs has questions about its accuracy and
data analysis would be improved with improved accuracy of data.
Continuing on a large scale, once the data is gathered, there needs to be a
more complete manner of looking at a freight system and judging its ability to
handle the freight demand. This paper solely examined CVLZs but other parts of the

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freight delivery system need to be examined and integrated into a more extensive
analysis. Topics include incorporating more loading dock and alley data,
determining how the package actually gets from truck to recipient, the amount of
congestion caused by trucks and truck parking, safety concerns, and a myriad of
other parts of the freight system. Researchers at the University of Washington are
working with industry to build a freight score, which seeks to quantify aspects of the
built environment to evaluate the accessibility of various locations in the city for
trucks. The website for the project defines it as a scoring system that will evaluate
the accessibility of buildings freight facilities and the surrounding area by looking
at possible variables that impact urban freight. More comprehensive analysis
techniques will help identify the successes and failures of the freight delivery
system and show where improvements can be made.
Improving comprehensive measures and more/better data provide an
opportunity to rework Seattles freight delivery system into something more
effective and deliberate. Looking at the density and clustering figures, we can see
that CVLZs are clearly placed with little to no intention of promoting the larger
freight system, and time limits and CVLZ length arent tailored to the type of
delivery the CVLZ is likely to perform. CVLZ characteristics vary throughout the
zones defined in this report, but the differences are often minimal and the
randomness of CVLZ placement and characteristics can be seen in all the zones.
Data such as delivery statistics, figures from other cities around the country and
around the world, and zone width should be compiled in a way that clearly
describes the entire freight picture for an area, with the data being as complete and
accurate as possible. These actions will lead to a more productive freight system,
economy, and city.

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