1372315 - The Community Impacts of E-Commerce Development

Over the last decade, e-commerce distribution facilities have proliferated in the US and around the world. Due to (1) growing package volumes that demand large facilities in accessible areas where space is affordable and (2) introduction of rapid on-demand delivery services that necessitate centrally located fulfillment, this type of development is occurring in both urban and rural communities. This presentation will discuss methods and findings from two case study analyses conducted to evaluate the community impacts of e-commerce facility development. The first case study focuses on Berks County, Pennsylvania - a primarily rural county, while the second focuses on New York City, New York, the nation's largest city. Each analysis investigates recent warehousing development, expected truck and commuter transportation activity generated, and related environmental and economic impacts. The first phase of each study includes a comprehensive review of local media reports and outreach to relevant stakeholders to identify key concerns and challenges. In the second phase, several open city, state, and federal data sources are evaluated and mapped to quantify e-commerce activity trends, to identify travel trends and trip characteristics associated with e-commerce development, and to quantify economic impacts and trade-offs from growth in distribution activity. Replicable methods for extracting, processing, analyzing, and mapping the relevant data sources were developed in Python. The results highlight unique concerns in rural and urban communities, and are useful to inform long range planning, project level decision-making, and infrastructure design and operation for growing e-commerce activity.