A UPS truck and a delivery bicycle, parked in Boulder, Colorado. by Zane Selvans licensed under Creative Commons.

Reimagining parcel delivery for cities. A look into depaving efforts across the country. How Brussels, Belgium reduced driving and increased cycling in just one year.

Teaming up on delivery truck design: General Motors’ Wade Bryant was in New York City when he was struck with the huge amount of work delivery workers do to get customers their packages every day. His team then focused on designing a zero-emissions delivery vehicle from the perspective of the delivery worker, from handling packages to the large number of times workers have to get themselves in and out of the driver’s seat. The result was the Zevo electric delivery van. (This article is behind a paywall). (Nate Berg | Fast Company)

Depaving cities: With extreme weather events like heavy rain events and heat waves becoming more severe and frequent, communities across the US are starting to reconsider asphalt paving. Removing asphalt from schoolyards and backyards can have huge benefits, including reduced runoff and less absorbed heat that results in lower temperatures. Now a group called Depave Chicago is trying to bring more attention to the benefits of reducing impervious cover in the city. (Lucy Sherriff | Nexus Media News)

Brussels reduces driving in the city: One year after the implementation of a new traffic circulation plan in Brussels, Belgium, car traffic is down 25%, and bike ridership is up 36%. While the pandemic had some impact on the uptick in bicycles, the transportation plan owes much of its success to business outreach and continued relationship building by local leaders. Additionally, concerns raised by opponents of the plan, like a complete traffic jam of the Small Ring road around Brussels, never materialized. (Michiel Modijefsky | Eltis)

Birmingham bankruptcy: Birmingham, the UK’s second-largest city after London, has declared itself bankrupt after having difficulty paying almost $1 billion dollars in equal pay claims. Historically, female workers in the city had been paid less than men for doing the same work, and the city has had to pay for past injustices. A perfect storm of lower revenues, inflation, and adult social care has impacted other cities around the country, but Birmingham is the first to declare itself bankrupt due to financial hardship. (Rob Picheta and Catherine Nicholls | CNN)

Vacant storefronts are key: The pandemic and subsequent trends towards working from home for many white-collar workers have led to a reduction in activity in downtowns across the country. But what makes the reduction more stark, argues Emily Badger, is the vacant storefronts on the ground floors of downtown office buildings. If filling empty storefronts is needed to restore activity, then cities and building owners need to rethink how to get people downtown and how they value the ground floor. (This article is behind a paywall). (Emily Badger | New York Times)

Quote of the Week

“Sometimes you just have to take the leap, understanding the theory and evidence about how transport infrastructure reshapes the world in a positive feedback way (more access → more development, more development → more infrastructure and more access) while recognizing the randomness of life and unknowns of the world.”

University of Sydney professor David Levinson in Transportist discusses the fantasy of transportation modeling.

This week on the podcast, Dr. Robert Blaine of the National League of Cities joins us to chat about getting small cities federal infrastructure funds.