Urban consolidation and cargo bikes: a simulation study

Abstract

In the course of congested city centers, increasing delivery volumes and growing environmental awareness, both local public administrations and logistics service providers are faced with the challenge of finding sustainable solutions for urban freight transport. Two promising approaches for urban logistics are consolidation concepts and cargo bicycles. In our paper, we present hybrid agent-based and discrete event simulation model to analyze the integration of cargo bikes into urban consolidation concepts across multiple logistics service providers. Based on a case study of the city of Frankfurt we compare different urban logistics schemes. The simulation results show that cargo bikes can be a suitable addition to urban consolidation concepts from both an environmental and financial point of view.