Improving the design of urban loading zone systems

Despite the ubiquity of loading zones in most commercially dense streets of medium and large cities, there exists no generally acknowledged procedure to establish their number, location and management system. We propose a methodology divided in two steps, where the first one estimates the required number of loading zones on a given street and the second one locates them taking into account the delivery characteristics of the retail establishments they will be serving. The application of the methodology is tested in four streets in the Spanish city of Seville, following a retailer survey to collect all the relevant data. The results provided by the application in terms of number and location of loading zones are simulated together with other scenarios with different numbers of loading zones, and the outcomes are compared with the existing situation. The new methodology results in an improvement in the level of service provided with a similar - or smaller - number of loading zones, but most importantly causes a significant reduction in the distances between loading zone parking spaces and final destinations.