Just in time for Earth Day, the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) opened three sustainable delivery hubs on the Upper West Side on Tuesday. These hubs allow trucks to easily drop off and transport their goods, protecting the neighborhood and the environment.
The DOT unveiled three new “microhubs” to “promote cleaner, greener,” last-mile deliveries. They are located on: Amsterdam Avenue at 85th Street; Amsterdam at 73rd Street; and Broadway at 77th Street.
Each microhub allocates space on city streets for truck drivers to park, transfer goods onto more portable modes of transportation, and complete their deliveries. These modes of transportation include low-emission options like e-cargo bikes and hand carts, as well as smaller electric sprinter vans for the last leg of a delivery route.
The program’s price tag was not announced, but delivery companies will have to apply for and pay for an annual permit. Net Zero Logistics, Amazon, and UPS will be the first three companies to use the new micro hubs.
“With more and more New Yorkers ordering online, our streets are seeing more trucks than ever before,” DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said. “Nearly 90% of goods in our city are delivered by truck, so the trucks are not our enemy. It is the consumers putting the pressure, placing orders three times a week in our city.”
The microhubs, part of a three-year pilot program, are installed on the street, about 80 to 100 feet long and located in the curb lane. Signs and other markings will show that they are micropubs. DOT officials said there is enough space for package sorting and transferring. The agency will also install upgraded safety barriers and cargo bike corrals where they feel they are needed.
The three announced on April 22 are the first of up to 36 locations that will be part of the DOT’s microhub pilot. Locations were selected based on compatible land uses, proximity to high-density areas, truck routes, bike lane networks, and transit, and conversations with communities and businesses. The pilot will include on-street locations and off-street sites on city-owned properties.
A ‘meaningful step’ toward sustainability
The hubs are also designed to reduce double parking and trucks parking in front of homes while providing safer ways to make deliveries.
Manhattan Congress Member Jerry Nadler described the microhub initiative as a “critical solution” to NYC’s delivery challenges.
“As we celebrate Earth Day today, it’s especially important to recognize that microhubs represent a meaningful step for a more sustainable future,” he said. “NYC desperately needs microhubs because our streets are too congested with truck traffic, and we must look at alternative means to deliver small packages.”
City Council Member Gale Brewer applauded the program.
“It is incredibly important to have these hubs where we can pull the trucks off the streets and get the delivery via bicycle or down the line, we hope to have more blue highway,” she said. (Blue highways refer to using waterways for freight delivery.)
The microhub pilot program is part of the agency’s “Curb Management Action Plan,” the DOT’s efforts to “reimagine freight delivery” in the city.
