City distribution, a key element of the urban economy: Guidelines for practitioners

Cities need freight, but they tend to ignore this particular kind of urban transport. Freight transport, despite providing thousands of jobs and much- needed services to the urban economy, has been neglected by transport surveys and models, transport strategies and regional master planning. In the meantime, freight operators have carried on with their business, providing the goods required by shops, companies and households at the right place and the right time. They usually succeed, but sometimes at an environmental or social cost. In large cities, one fourth of CO2, one third of nitrate oxides, and half of the particulates that come from transport are generated by trucks and vans (LET et al., 2006). Today, municipalities must make freight transport one of their priorities if it is to become more effi cient and sustainable.