An exploratory evaluation of urban street networks for last mile distribution

The increasing congestion of cities together with the unprecedented growth rate of e-commerce has drawn a lot of attention to the challenges of last mile distribution in urban areas. In this context and motivated by the recent ample availability of geospatial data related to urban street networks lately, in this paper we propose an approach that allows to identify how the street network within a given urban area may affect last mile distribution in terms of travel distances, travel times and topography. The approach we have devised is simple, generic and does not depend on field data collection or restricted-access data (such as satellite images, commercial databases, etc.), which can be either too expensive for larger areas or simply unavailable. We also show how maps can be built to represent such measures in an intuitive manner that allows the visual comparison of different areas and cities. Its practical utilization is demonstrated by a case study comprising busy central areas of six large cities in three different continents: Latin America, United States and Europe. The results and insights we present can help different stakeholders, from carriers to local authorities understand the difficulties of a new delivery operation as well as identify more critical areas that may require more attention or some intervention.