Urban Freight Lab

We’re excited to see our research exploring how technology can support Seattle’s growing network of micropantries and community fridges featured in UW News today.

The story highlights PantryMap.org, developed by our research team to connect neighbors to little free pantries across the region through real-time updates, activity feeds, pantry wish lists, and stock-level reporting. The project also explores how sensor technology can provide researchers with better insights into food distribution, reduce food waste, and strengthen mutual aid systems while preserving user privacy.

Led by the Urban Freight Lab and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the CIVIC Innovation Challenge program, this interdisciplinary effort brings together expertise from across the University of Washington — Global Innovation Exchange - GIX, Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health — along with community partners Ridwell, Sustainable Connections, University District Food Bank, Cascade Bicycle Club, and Washington State Department of Health.

“We’re trying to measure and quantify goodwill," said Senior Research Scientist and Co-PI Giacomo Dalla Chiara.

At the Urban Freight Lab, we’re proud to support research that combines innovation, logistics, and community collaboration to address complex urban sustainability and accessibility challenges in Seattle and beyond.

Read the full story:
https://www.washington.edu/news/2026/05/08/little-free-pantry-micropantry-community-fridge-pilot-app/

Cascade Bicycle Club’s Pedaling Relief Project (PRP) is expanding into Bellevue through a new partnership with Hopelink Bellevue Market.

At the Urban Freight Lab, we study how systems like this operate in real city conditions. Launched in 2020 in response to increased demand at food banks, PRP organizes volunteers using bicycles and electric cargo bikes to redistribute surplus food from grocery stores and farmers markets to food banks, little free pantries, and directly to people in need. Since then, volunteers have moved more than 1.7 million pounds of food and goods, reducing waste, traffic congestion, air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions by replacing vehicle trips with bike-based delivery.

Great to see a friend of the Lab growing in scope and reach!

Read more:

Cascade’s Food Rescue Rides Expand to Bellevue | Cascade Bicycle Club Cascade’s Pedaling Relief Project is expanding to Bellevue thanks to a new partnership with Hopelink Bellevue Market.Pedaling Relief Project is a national model for cities seeking to reduce waste, traffic congestion and climate pollution.

City of Seattle Government is set to host matches for the FIFA World Cup 26™ this summer, and planning is underway that is already shaping how people and vehicles move through some of the city's busiest public spaces.

KING 5 highlights how Pike Place Market is part of those conversations, as the city considers how to balance pedestrian safety, business activity, and essential deliveries while managing vehicle access during major events. The Urban Freight Lab is working with Seattle Department of Transportation to better understand how delivery access and freight movement would function under planned access changes in and around Pike Place Market.

Rendering shows Pike Place Market barrier plan to restrict vehicles ahead of World Cup Pike Place Market is extending its pilot program limiting vehicle access. Leaders say it's helping them learn how to manage traffic year-round.

Looking ahead to Home Delivery World in Nashville next month.

Our Tom Maxner will be speaking on a panel on “Leveraging digital twins for smarter network planning,” bringing perspective from work happening on the ground to better understand and improve how delivery networks operate.

Digital twins are starting to show up more in how teams test ideas, understand tradeoffs, and make decisions about network design in practice.

If you’ll be there, be sure to catch the session.

THE EVENT for retail logistics | Home Delivery World 2026 FROM FREIGHT TO WAREHOUSE TO CONSUMER... THE EVENT FOR E-COMMERCE LOGISTICS

We gathered our members and partners last week for our quarterly meeting at the Seattle Public Utilities North Transfer Station. Huge thanks to SPU for hosting us and giving our group a chance to see the facility up close.

We spent the morning on site learning how waste and recycling are consolidated and transferred within Seattle, and about the people and work behind keeping everything moving day to day.

Radcliffe Dacanay (Seattle Department of Transportation), Karin Moughamer (Pike Place Market PDA), and our own Tom Maxner shared their work on deliveries in and around Pike Place Market, one of the most complex operating environments in Seattle, where coordination across people, timing, and constantly shifting constraints is essential to keeping things moving.

We also heard from Prof. Carla A. Tejada (University of Illinois Chicago), who shared research from the City Logistics Lab on how cities can better understand freight flows at scale.

We're appreciative of everyone who made time to join the conversation, and of our speakers for generously sharing their work and perspective.

There’s a lot of conversation right now about how cities should manage last-mile delivery, and what it means for congestion, emissions, and neighborhood streets.

Urban Freight Lab friend and member Mark Chiusano (Net Zero Logistics) recently published a City Limits opinion piece drawing on work happening on the ground in New York using foot couriers, e-bikes, and waterfront freight to move goods in ways that better match the scale of dense urban neighborhoods.

Always good to see perspectives like this shared, and to see practical work showing up in the broader conversations cities are having about urban freight.

Opinion: How Last-Mile Delivery Can Reduce NYC’s Congestion "The goal shouldn't be to freeze this industry in place. It should be to accelerate the transition already underway—more walkers, more e-bikes, more waterfront freight, more operators building career ladders from the ground

A new paper is now out in Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, coauthored by our Anne Goodchild and Edward McCormack.

The study looks at how commercial vehicle drivers make curbside parking decisions in dense urban environments as freight demand increases and curb space becomes more constrained.

Using a heavy vehicle driving simulator and eye tracking data, researchers examine driver behavior across different curb conditions, including loading zones that are available, occupied, or missing, along with surrounding factors like bike lanes and passenger parking.

Read the paper:

Redirecting

Rain or shine: Behind the scenes from a sensor installation for our project on Leveraging a Connected Network of Unattended Micro-Pantries to Reduce Food Waste and Improve Food Security, sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Seattle weather was being Seattle weather, and our team was out in Lower Queen Anne setting up a new site as part of our work to build a connected network of neighborhood food access sites.

We are studying how these hyper-local micro-pantries function across the city, looking at patterns in stocking and usage, how communities help keep them filled, and how improved visibility can support more responsive food distribution alongside existing hunger relief efforts.

This site is now active and part of our growing micro-pantry network.

Project partners: Ridwell, Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, Cascade Bicycle Club, Washington State Department of Health, Sustainable Connections, UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, University District Food Bank, Global Innovation Exchange - GIX

More about the project: https://urbanfreightlab.com/news_announcements/seattle-to-launch-first-connected-network-of-community-food-micro-pantries/

We’re excited to welcome Jeongjoon Gwon to the Urban Freight Lab as a student researcher.

Jeongjoon is an undergraduate at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, studying Industrial & Systems Engineering with a double major in Computer Science. His research focuses on operations and supply chain optimization, with an emphasis on data-driven approaches to urban freight and last-mile delivery.

Jeongjoon has earned several notable recognitions, including Korea’s Presidential Science Scholarship, selection as an Future Engineer, and a KAIST Undergraduate Research Grant.

At UFL, Jeongjoon is contributing to the SMART Curb Loading Zone ( ) Data Program and the Low Pollution Neighborhood (LPN) freight strategy with the Seattle Department of Transportation, helping integrate and analyze curb regulation and loading zone data across U.S. cities to support more effective urban freight policy and planning.

We’re thrilled to have Jeongjoon on the team!

Jeongjoon Gwon Jeongjoon Gwon Jeongjoon GwonStudent Assistant (Researcher), Urban Freight LabUndergraduate Student, Industrial & Systems Engineering and Computer Science, KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)[email protected] AreasCurrent ResearchAwardsEducationBiography Supply Chain Networ...

If you've walked through a Seattle neighborhood lately, you've probably seen one: a small box stocked with canned goods, snacks, or fresh produce. Micro-pantries are simple, community-powered infrastructure, but they raise bigger questions about how cities move food, reduce waste, and support neighbors.

The Urban Freight Lab is featured in Ridwell's blog highlighting our National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded research on Seattle's micro-pantry network. Our interdisciplinary team is studying how these hyperlocal food systems operate: how food moves through them, when they're used, and who needs them most.

We're combining low-cost sensors with data analysis to understand utilization patterns across the city, and developing a digital pantry finder to help neighbors locate pantries, donate food, and connect with their communities.

Micro-pantries may be small, but they offer a revealing window into how communities share resources, and how cities might rethink food access and waste. Excited to see where this work leads, and grateful to all the neighbors, researchers, and partners making it happen.

This work is a collaboration with our fantastic partners! Cascade Bicycle Club, Washington State Department of Health, UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering

Micro-pantries, big science—and Ridwell is part of it — Ridwell During this spring’s Non-Perishable Food Collection in Seattle, Ridwell is partnering with a team at UW to put micro-pantry research into action.

There’s still time to submit to a special issue of Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review on Emerging Vehicle Technologies for Next-Generation Transportation and Logistics Systems, guest edited by our Giacomo Dalla Chiara, with Zhiwei Chen (Drexel University), Qianwen (Cami) Li (University of Georgia), and David Z.W. Wang (Nanyang Technological University).

Submissions due: April 30, 2026

This issue invites research exploring how innovations like connected and automated vehicles, electric and hydrogen-powered fleets, modular vehicle designs, and drone delivery are reshaping transportation and logistics networks. Topics include last-mile delivery, fleet operations, environmental impacts, policy considerations, and equity in transportation systems.

Researchers working at the intersection of transportation, logistics, and emerging vehicle technologies are encouraged to submit.

More about the submission process:

Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review | Journal | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier Read the latest articles of Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review at ScienceDirect.com, Elsevier’s leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature