Sustainable freight access to Reggio-Emilia historic centre

Feasability study of urban freight transport, sustainable access to Reggio-Emilia historic centre

The feasibility study of urban freight transport (UFT) sustainable access to Reggio-Emilia historic centre is a project contracted by Reggio Emilia Municipality. The project is underpinned by the results of the RESOLVE initiative (funded by Horizon 2020) that in the last three years, together with local administration surveys, has monitored average city centre accesses of both retailers and logistic operators.

The study aims to understand the feasibility of urban consolidation centres (UCC) or micro consolidation centres (MCC) to favour last-mile sustainable operations throughout cargo bikes. This is gained by gathering a detailed level of information concerning local user necessities via online surveys and focus groups. Also, the analysis intends to evaluate the quality of infrastructure considering its compatibility with cargo bikes needs.

Reggio-Emilia cyclelogistics feasibility study partly relies on local retailers and logistic operators who will be invited to join the Cyclelogistics Partnership. The joint venture is meant to define daily operative requirements as well as to form a permanent group of initiative forerunners and users. Such requirements will determine the characteristics of the consolidation centres in terms of dedicated structure (permanent, semi-permanent, temporary) and type of furniture/spaces that must consider the services offered and freights categories.

The operative scheme would consist of the intermodal last-mile distribution obtained by the transhipment of parcels from heavier vehicles towards cargo bikes. Such a scheme would prevent or reduce the access of little optimised vehicles as well as polluting, harmful and space-consuming ones in the historic centre. Therefore, offering improved city centre attractivity without harming local supply needs, rather optimizing vehicles according to given spaces and offering more sustainable albeit efficient logistics operations.