Urban Freight Lab

We’re excited to see our research exploring how technology can support Seattle’s growing network of micropantries and community fridges featured in UW News today.

The story highlights PantryMap.org, developed by our research team to connect neighbors to little free pantries across the region through real-time updates, activity feeds, pantry wish lists, and stock-level reporting. The project also explores how sensor technology can provide researchers with better insights into food distribution, reduce food waste, and strengthen mutual aid systems while preserving user privacy.

Led by the Urban Freight Lab and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the CIVIC Innovation Challenge program, this interdisciplinary effort brings together expertise from across the University of Washington — Global Innovation Exchange - GIX, Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health — along with community partners Ridwell, Sustainable Connections, University District Food Bank, Cascade Bicycle Club, and Washington State Department of Health.

“We’re trying to measure and quantify goodwill," said Senior Research Scientist and Co-PI Giacomo Dalla Chiara.

At the Urban Freight Lab, we’re proud to support research that combines innovation, logistics, and community collaboration to address complex urban sustainability and accessibility challenges in Seattle and beyond.

Read the full story:
https://www.washington.edu/news/2026/05/08/little-free-pantry-micropantry-community-fridge-pilot-app/

Looking ahead to Home Delivery World in Nashville next month.

Our Tom Maxner will be speaking on a panel on “Leveraging digital twins for smarter network planning,” bringing perspective from work happening on the ground to better understand and improve how delivery networks operate.

Digital twins are starting to show up more in how teams test ideas, understand tradeoffs, and make decisions about network design in practice.

If you’ll be there, be sure to catch the session.

THE EVENT for retail logistics | Home Delivery World 2026 FROM FREIGHT TO WAREHOUSE TO CONSUMER... THE EVENT FOR E-COMMERCE LOGISTICS

We gathered our members and partners last week for our quarterly meeting at the Seattle Public Utilities North Transfer Station. Huge thanks to SPU for hosting us and giving our group a chance to see the facility up close.

We spent the morning on site learning how waste and recycling are consolidated and transferred within Seattle, and about the people and work behind keeping everything moving day to day.

Radcliffe Dacanay (Seattle Department of Transportation), Karin Moughamer (Pike Place Market PDA), and our own Tom Maxner shared their work on deliveries in and around Pike Place Market, one of the most complex operating environments in Seattle, where coordination across people, timing, and constantly shifting constraints is essential to keeping things moving.

We also heard from Prof. Carla A. Tejada (University of Illinois Chicago), who shared research from the City Logistics Lab on how cities can better understand freight flows at scale.

We're appreciative of everyone who made time to join the conversation, and of our speakers for generously sharing their work and perspective.

There’s a lot of conversation right now about how cities should manage last-mile delivery, and what it means for congestion, emissions, and neighborhood streets.

Urban Freight Lab friend and member Mark Chiusano (Net Zero Logistics) recently published a City Limits opinion piece drawing on work happening on the ground in New York using foot couriers, e-bikes, and waterfront freight to move goods in ways that better match the scale of dense urban neighborhoods.

Always good to see perspectives like this shared, and to see practical work showing up in the broader conversations cities are having about urban freight.

Opinion: How Last-Mile Delivery Can Reduce NYC’s Congestion "The goal shouldn't be to freeze this industry in place. It should be to accelerate the transition already underway—more walkers, more e-bikes, more waterfront freight, more operators building career ladders from the ground