Re Cities Seek Deliverance From the E-Commerce Boom

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Gregory Aharonian <greg.aharonian () gmail com>
> Date: May 1, 2017 at 7:31:15 AM EDT
> To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: Re: [IP] Re Cities Seek Deliverance From the E-Commerce Boom
>
> Dave,
>
> Your reader makes a very troubling, flawed assumption, when they write:  "Delivering multiple packages to multiple 
> homes in a truck is far more efficient than myself (and every one of our neighbours) driving our (private) cars to 
> the local green grocer, picking up the 3-4 items I'll need and driving home."
>
> This statement is true if they had written "more efficient logistically".  But it is not necessarily true if they had 
> written "more efficient socially" (and if they used their own minds to not avoid instant gratification).  I do not go 
> shopping just to buy goods efficiently.  I also go to interact with those messy, smelly, unpredictable … humans. I 
> cry every time when I am in many other countries and see …. bookstores - filled with … humans … not only buying their 
> books but being social with each other (especially my favorite, the book cafes of South America) and with the 
> bookstore owner.  It is part and parcel of the social compact.
>
> When I ask the bookstore owner for a recommendation on a book, or a question about a book, I and society receive more 
> than an answer to the question, which of course I could easily get misanthropically from Amazon.  I also receive the 
> opportunity to create a physical, social link to another person.  The bookstore owner gets a chance to learn 
> something new (my book need), and to hone their skills.  Maybe someone overhears my questions and learns/thinks about 
> the book themselves.  There is, in this instance, a human social network established.  To me, it is obscene to 
> simplistically state it is more "efficient" to do this online.
>
> This is the misanthropic false assumption about e-commerce - that electronic social links are identical and 
> beneficial as human social links. That is as false as saying that artificial intelligence has any relationship to 
> human intelligence.  Look at the result for e-commerce coupled to artificial intelligence of the social networks - 
> the destruction of bookstores and other retail shops, destruction of the shopping centers and malls that house them 
> (the current last short on Wall Street), the increased alienation in U.S. society.
>
> The dystopian efficiency of the Matrix and the Borg are hilarious to watch as entertainment with my fellow human 
> friends.  But both efficiencies are utterly detestable as lifestyles.
>
> And as the original article points out, these "efficiencies" have other negative social compact consequences - loss 
> of jobs locally, loss of local tax revenues to fund social services, and increased strains on social services (such 
> as policing traffic) due to these "efficient transportation" impositions.
>
> So I would ask your readers to be more specific in the terms they use.  Home delivery of e-commerce orders is 
> logistically efficient.  It is not socially efficient.
>
> Greg Aharonian
> Editor, Internet Patent News Service
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Sun, Apr 30, 2017 at 10:59 PM, Dave Farber <farber () gmail com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > Begin forwarded message:
> >
> > > From: Hasan Diwan <hasan.diwan () gmail com>
> > > Date: April 30, 2017 at 6:58:25 PM EDT
> > > To: "dave () farber net" <dave () farber net>
> > > Subject: Re: [IP] Cities Seek Deliverance From the E-Commerce Boom
> > >
> > > Prof Farber,
> > > [for IP, if you wish]
> > >
> > > Delivering multiple packages to multiple homes in a truck is far more efficient than myself (and every one of our 
> > > neighbours) driving our (private) cars to the local green grocer, picking up the 3-4 items I'll need and driving 
> > > home. This is especially so in high-density urban areas like New York City or Washington DC. -- H
> > >
> > > > On 30 April 2017 at 13:32, Dave Farber <farber () gmail com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > > Begin forwarded message:
> > > > >
> > > > > From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> > > > > Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Cities Seek Deliverance From the E-Commerce Boom
> > > > > Date: April 30, 2017 at 4:16:16 PM EDT
> > > > > To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> > > > > Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
> > > > >
> > > > > [Note:  This item comes from friend David Rosenthal.  DLH]
> > > > >
> > > > > Cities Seek Deliverance From the E-Commerce Boom
> > > > > It’s the flip-side to the “retail apocalypse:” A siege of delivery trucks is threatening to choke cities with 
> > > > > traffic. But not everyone agrees on what to do about it.
> > > > > By ANDREW ZALESKI
> > > > > Apr 20 2017
> > > > > <https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2017/04/cities-seek-deliverance-from-the-e-commerce-boom/523671/>
> > > > >
> > > > > Just before 3 in the afternoon on a rainy spring day, Keith Greenleaf busts out his “bricklaying” skills. That’s 
> > > > > delivery-driver parlance for balancing an inordinate amount of cardboard boxes on a metal handcart. As high as 
> > > > > his collarbone he stacks them, packages labeled HP, J. Crew, Amazon Prime. “This is probably one of the first 
> > > > > days I don’t have Pampers or dog food,” he says.
> > > > >
> > > > > Greenleaf also doesn’t have any 60-pound boxes of copier paper, which is a welcome way to finish his daily 
> > > > > rounds.The veteran UPS driver is parked near 22nd and I St. in Washington, D.C., having arrived there about six 
> > > > > hours earlier in a truck loaded down with 320 boxes. In a few hours he’ll drive back to the distribution center 
> > > > > in Landover, Maryland; several hours after that, he’ll be at Outback Steakhouse downing beers with a few fellow 
> > > > > drivers.
> > > > >
> > > > > Right now, however, Greenleaf’s in the thick of it. For 15 of his 25 years driving for UPS, he has delivered 
> > > > > along roughly a 10-block route close to 22nd and I. Several years ago, to meet the demand, UPS shortened 
> > > > > Greenleaf’s route by two blocks and gave them to a new driver on a new route. When I meet up with him 
> > > > > mid-afternoon one Friday (per UPS media ride-along convention, I’ve been given my own iconic brown uniform, 
> > > > > including pants so baggy MC Hammer would cringe), he’s unloading boxes from his parked truck onto a loading dock 
> > > > > underneath the Residences on the Avenue, an apartment building with a Whole Foods right next door. As I get ready 
> > > > > to climb aboard, he tells me we won’t be making any deliveries in the truck.
> > > > >
> > > > > Several years ago, the 56-year-old was delivering mainly to commercial locations. Now half his drop-offs are 
> > > > > residential. The traffic congestion and lack of available parking has become so unworkable that Greenleaf would 
> > > > > rather walk the remainder of his route, delivering packages by handcart, which is what he’s done every afternoon 
> > > > > for the last three years.
> > > > >
> > > > > Pick any other major city or metropolitan area in the U.S., and the situation’s probably the same: a massive 
> > > > > surge in deliveries to residential dwellings, one that’s outstripping deliveries to commercial establishments and 
> > > > > creating a traffic nightmare.
> > > > >
> > > > > Consumers today are spending less time in local stores and more time online, buying not only retail items but 
> > > > > also such goods as groceries from Peapod, office supplies from Postmates, and whatever the hell they want from 
> > > > > Amazon. It’s estimated that, on average, every person in the U.S. generates demand for roughly 60 tons of freight 
> > > > > each year, according to the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board. In 2010, the United States 
> > > > > Post Office—which has overtaken both FedEx and UPS as the largest parcel-delivery service in the 
> > > > > country—delivered 3.1 billion packages nationwide; last year, the USPS delivered more than 5.1 billion packages. 
> > > > > The growth in e-commerce is fueling a commensurate rise in the number of delivery vehicles—box trucks, smaller 
> > > > > vans, and cars alike—on city streets.
> > > > >
> > > > > While truck traffic currently represents about 7 percent of urban traffic in American cities, it bears a 
> > > > > disproportionate congestion cost of $28 billion, or about 17 percent of the total U.S. congestion costs, in 
> > > > > wasted hours and gas. Cities, struggling to keep up with the deluge of delivery drivers, are seeing their curb 
> > > > > space and streets overtaken by double-parked vehicles, to say nothing of the bonus pollution and roadwear 
> > > > > produced thanks to a surfeit of Amazon Prime orders.
> > > > >
> > > > > “A humongous amount of externalities are being produced,” says José Holguín-Veras, director of the Center of 
> > > > > Excellence for Sustainable Urban Freight Systems at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. “Every 25 people produce 
> > > > > one Internet delivery. … So imagine any congested city you know of. Imagine that you were to increase freight 
> > > > > traffic by a factor of three. This is what’s happening now.”
> > > > >
> > > > > UPS driver Keith Greenleaf is doing less driving in the city these days: Most of his urban drop-offs need to be 
> > > > > done via hand-cart, because of traffic congestion. (Andrew Zaleski/CityLab)
> > > > > It didn’t used to be like this.
> > > > >
> > > > > The urban home-delivery ecosystem of yore evokes images of icemen making their rounds or kindly white-capped milk 
> > > > > men stopping by with a new glass bottle. City dwellers, with their density of retail options within close walking 
> > > > > distance, often had newspapers and perishables delivered daily, but in the earlier decades of the 20th century, 
> > > > > home delivery of purchased goods was typically something arranged after a trip to the store, where shoppers tried 
> > > > > on or tested out the clothes and furniture they wanted, and then scheduled what they couldn’t carry back by hand 
> > > > > or in taxis or streetcars to be dropped off later. It was for this very purpose that UPS was founded in 1907 in 
> > > > > Seattle. Overall, though, bulk deliveries predominated. These were deliveries of large retail goods to stores in 
> > > > > shopping districts, where some thought had been given to how streets would accommodate trucks.
> > > > >
> > > > > In recent years, urban dwellers have managed to flip the script. Since the beginning of this decade, online 
> > > > > retail sales in the U.S. have grown by about 15 percent every year. So consider a UPS driver like Greenleaf 110 
> > > > > years later: On any given weekday, he’s one of an average of 241 drivers making deliveries on D.C.’s streets, 
> > > > > delivering products like clothes, books, food, and household goods—stuff that shoppers could easily pick up on 
> > > > > their own at area stores. (Often, he’s dropping off boxes of toiletries to residents in an apartment building 
> > > > > with a pharmacy or a grocery store on the same block.)
> > > > >
> > > > > [snip]
> > > > >
> > > > > Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: <http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/>
> > >
> > >
> > >
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