Cargo Bike hubs: Planning of depot hubs for new urban logistics concepts

Cargo bikes have the potential to substitute 25% [1] of today's inner-city delivery trips. Setting up city centre depots for cargo bikes enables the storage and transhipment of goods for subsequent distribution by cargo bike in the city. The aim of this project was to develop a model guideline for the implementation of inner city depots according to the logistical requirements, while guaranteeing an optimal traffic flow and a high level of acceptance by the citizens. With an interdisciplinary, non-investment research design, suitable design forms of transshipment hubs and street spaces for cargo bikes were developed, modelled, simulated and tested in surveys.

The project focuses on improving traffic quality, ensuring sustainable mobility, broad applicability of the results and generating new knowledge.  Within an interdisciplinary research design a guide for municipal planners was developed and the effect of cargo bike transshipment hubs on the traffic space as well as their urban-friendly design was investigated.

The project started in August 2017 and lasted for two years. At the end of the project, a final conference was held as part of the 1st Cycle Logistics Conference. The project was implemented in equal parts by the Chair of Logistics Systems and the Chair of Environmental Psychology at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. The implementation was evaluated and supported by a project advisory board consisting of practitioners and academics.

In the first phase of the project, the Chair of Logistics Systems developed a simulation model for the traffic area around a cargo bike hub. For this, questions of the optimal location as well as possible scenarios of traffic impact and infrastructure were taken into account. Real test rides with cargo bikes in the Galileo test field in Magdeburg's Port of Science were used to determine the driving behaviour and perception of the traffic area among cargo bike riders. At the same time, the Chair of Environmental Psychology used qualitative interviews with experts (e.g. people from municipalities with implementation experience, cargo bike experts, cargo bike riders) and citizens to identify possible reservations and conducive factors for the acceptance of an inner-city cargo bike depot. Based on this, a questionnaire was developed for a representative sample of the urban population in Germany, into which scenarios derived from the simulation model of the Chair of Logistics Systems were graphically processed. This made it possible to create certain configurations of traffic areas that are suitable for cargo bikes.

In the second project phase, a step-by-step optimisation to logistics- and traffic-related requirements was achieved through simulation and evaluation of the traffic space model by the Chair of Logistics Systems. The quantitative survey of city dwellers by the Chair of Environmental Psychology provided core results on the perceived barriers and conducive factors with regard to a corresponding implementation.

From the resulting logistics-, traffic- and acceptance-related findings, joint recommendations were derived in the third phase, which were transferred into a guideline. The involvement of a project advisory board in all project phases ensured the quality, practical relevance and transferability of the findings. The members of the project advisory board met as experts in the workshops at milestones M0, M2 and M3 (cf. figure). Members of the project advisory board were representatives of the following organisations:

• Cargobike.jetzt
• Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR)
• DPD Deutschland GmbH
• PedalPower Schönstedt&Busack GbR
• United Parcel Service (UPS)
• Zentrum für angewandte Psychologie, Umwelt- und Sozialforschung (ZEUS GmbH)
• Clac / neomesh GmbH
• Landeshauptstadt Köln, Amt für Verkehrsplanung.

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[1] Reiter, Karl, Wrighton, Susanne & Rzewnicki, Randy 2014. Potential to shift goods transport from cars to bicycles in European cities. Cyclelogistics Moving Europe forward. www.cyclelogistics.eu.