Environmental and Operational Efficiency of Integrated Urban Last-Mile Freight Distribution Systems Based on the Use of Cargo Bikes

During the last decade, several city logistics measures have been developed to reduce the detrimental effects of freight transport, without penalizing the quality of life in urban areas. Nowadays, there is a growing interest in e-cargo bikes for last-mile freight distribution since they allow delivering goods in urban areas without affecting road congestion and at zero environmental emissions. This chapter explores an aspect that is not yet thoroughly investigated in the literature, namely the evaluation of the share of freight demand that can be delivered by e-cargo bikes. The work follows a consolidated approach that entails transport and activity system modelling, in a scenario involving the use of urban consolidation centres (UCCs) that are key logistics facilities of urban freight transportation schemes. Once the study area has been characterized and the transportation network has been modelled, the estimation of attracted freight demand and its features was performed by implementing a direct survey (questionnaires). Finally, freight flows in terms of trips and deliveries made by e-cargo bikes have been quantified by assigning freight demand to the transport network. The model has been applied to the test case of the city of Ravenna and several scenarios have been implemented and compared in terms of operational performances.