Indirect Sources of Transportation Regulation

Numerous freight and trust deregulation laws of the 1970s and 80s led to the consolidation of businesses and emergence of big box stores. The changes mirrored suburban housing growth as land use became more spread out. But consolidation and monopolization increased and e-commerce companies gained market share.

Now even less tied to physical location due to home delivery, I believe we are seeing commercial and manufacturing detach even further from sustainable land use. In the suburbs, warehouses and data centers and manufacturing have been sprouting like weeds, seeking to increase the logistical power of big box stores and e-commerce companies without a care for the long term human impacts.

In cities, land values are increasing for industrial and commercial land as space for just in time delivery services expands for packages. The connective tissue between these far off warehouses and in city urban distribution centers is roads. Highways and arterials in the periphery used by eighteen wheelers and local roads used by package delivery trucks, app delivery drivers in cars and in some cases cargo bikes and scooters.

The movement of packages thus has impacts on the movement and quality of life of people. A new report from Street Light Data intimates that vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and the reduction thereof, is the single most important factor in determining a street’s safety. City streets are safer, but they are getting more crowded with delivery trucks and even now autonomous taxis. Amazon just announced that they will open up 1 and 3 hour deliveries to compete with Uber Eats and Doordash. I would posit that rushed VMT is less safe than patient travel.

And even with the electrification of vehicles, carbon emissions and particulates increase with more VMT. So not only does traffic safety suffer, but public health as well. The Trump administration has moved to allow pollution and has targeted California tailpipe regulations that began cleaning dirty air in 1966.

But California is likely to push back. A bill in the legislature would regulate ports, and warehouses, and railyards for the indirect pollution they create. Though it’s decoupled from the trucks and ships themselves it is likely to promote electrification if it can stand up to legal challenges.

The tactic gets me thinking that there’s a way to regulate the half century of impacts of sprawling land use policy on both sides of the destination coin. What that looks like I’m not sure. But if we can regulate warehouses and ports, what’s to stop us from cleaning up VMT generators in new ways never imagined. It might just open up a way to clean the air and increase traffic safety. I’m always open to new ideas.

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