SubEx: Moving Small Package Freight through City Subways, not City Streets
Major cities’ subway systems move people efficiently through central business districts – why not freight? Starting in NYC, a pooled service would push surface small package freight underground into under-utilized subways and commuter buses. SubEx Freight Systems (SubEx) would operate franchises, as public-private partnerships with local transit authorities, for the major courier services. We complete “the last mile” of urban small package freight delivery cheaply and ecologically.
Describe the current stage of your initiative and your implementation plan over the next three years
Sub-Ex is a start-up.
Our timing is opportune as transit officials seek sustainability options generating creative revenues for fiscally-challenged cities like New York.
Over the next three years, SubEx would enter into conditional arrangements to establish four revenue streams:
• Courier services convenience fees for completing their package’s delivery (the “last mile”), to be recouped at a profit when eco-aware customers select SubEx services as their package’s route on the courier’s online shipping label generator.
• Corporate purchases of “carbon offsets” from SubEx, so as to further reduce their urban carbon footprints.
• Transit authorities annual fees for SubEx providing services at peak commuter hours to disabled persons on dual-use elevators at interchange stations, thereby enhancing equal access compliance under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandates.
• SubEx advertising revenues from its website, cargo train exteriors, delivery labels, hybrid and bicycle delivery vehicles and other infrastructure.
We would use the Challenge’s $100,000 prize to create a three-dimensional model of New York City’s transit system with and without SubEx in place, and estimating the savings in traffic congestion, carbon footprint, urban air quality and other benefits. The model would also estimate and “stress test” the subway and bus systems’ potential for delaying small package freight or passenger average trip times, so as to iterate improvements in the hardware and software for SubEx.
Transportation is a mix of “modes”: street and highway, rail, air, water, bicycle, pedestrian and even Web. Preconceptions of modal “ridership” (i) focus myopically on how to “green” cars and (ii) obscure smart inter-modal innovations. Politically-fixed circles of lethargic government transportation funding favor vehicular traffic over rail service. Greener “trips” for small packages and people are synergistically profitable. We would use SubEx’s computer model to attract investment in greener small package freight service.
Describe how your strategy meets the entry criteria ("What We're Looking For")
• Comprehensive - SubEx leverages existing rail and bus mass transit passenger systems to add new revenues, improve safety, reduce traffic congestion and retrofit elevators for speedy freight and handicapped access.
• Anticipatory – In urbanizing regions, SubEx mitigates the transportation needs of city dwellers who increasingly order goods online for local delivery.
• Ecological - SubEx removes urban dependence on fossil-fueled delivery vans, reduces traffic congestion and improves rail transit for city neighborhoods.
• Feasibility - SubEx is a trimtab for transit infrastructure. As the last car on a daily commuter’s subway or as the cargo in the holds of empty commuter buses, SubEx makes today’s freight delivery services eco-friendly economically.
• Verifiable - SubEx’s impact is quantifiable: Our bar-coded packages map smaller carbon footprints, as compared to delivery by normal trucks/vans.
• Replicable - As an island where density demands functionality, Manhattan is a perfect setting for scaling SubEx.
Describe the qualifications and experience of you and/or your team and your ability to execute your implementation plan
Bruce Cahan is an Ashoka Fellow, project finance lawyer and banker. Bruce worked on such NYC urban infrastructure projects as the renewal of Times Square and the creation and financing of NYC’s geographic information utility. During the 1990s, Bruce instigated new data sharing arrangements with utilities based on his research of ancient street franchise rights long forgotten. As September 11th emergency responder, Bruce leveraged numerous public-private infrastructure partnerships to survey, protect and restore underground infrastructure. In 2002, the President’s Office of Management and Budget asked Bruce to present his knowledge of public-private partnerships options at OECD headquarters in Paris. Bruce’s conversations with the sustainability team at New York City’s mass transit agency validate the financing and other benefits of SubEx.
how to
Just a thought- if there is a team like UPS or Fed-Ex, with employees- one person at every station and one person traveling in a train, who can deliver a small bag of packages at every station and take one from that station for other.
whoa!
How did this idea become taken seriously? As far as New York City is concerned, this is a preposterous and naive idea. I can't even begin to imagine all the reasons why. To begin with, this is rapid transit. There's no time for loading freight. Moreover, the subways are already near capacity even off rush hours, and you would have to decouple and reconfigure trains throughout the day. The trains are already at the platform limit so you could not add more cars to a train. Loading and unloading freight would create havoc with scheduling. Then there is access. You would have to create very expensive freight elevators and loading facilities because you can't tie up the passenger egress areas or use the passenger/handicap access elevators. Those terminals could only be located at end-of-line stations on each line, because there is no way you are going to load freight in the 30 odd seconds that the train is in the stations. Then there is security. A 'sensor network' sounds like blue sky at this point. How does that work at high speed? And any ideas about routing freight on late nights can only be proposed by someone who has never experienced the service interruptions and rerouting that constantly pervade the system. Then there are commercial and legal issues that separate the passenger and freight industries. Add to this the fact that the subway infrastructure is in an abysmal state of neglect bordering on anarchy at this point, with skeleton trains crews and frequent signaling malfunctions. I just don't understand how anyone could take this idea seriously. And finally, take a look at all the new residential development in Manhattan. Passenger demand will only rise above the current system capacity, and already there is talk of decreasing the number of trains in service. Where's is there room for freight? This is a terrible idea that would create chaos in a system that is already bordering on chaos. Is that not obvious?
Whoa-y NOT?
Hi Grady:
And that is why they make chocolate and vanilla.
I see nothing in the design specifications for SubEx that is unworkable.
Riddle me this: What other major options for ongoing revenue creation, capital budget funding, fare reduction and increased physical accessibility and safety exist that are as complementary, comprehensive and innovative as SubEx?
The Buckminster Fuller Challenge, like Bucky himself, drew no antiquated cynicism around entrants' minds and creativity.
I accept cynicism as excuse for the way mass transit has been. I do not accept cynicism's "it will never work" as the recipe for bankrupting urban mass transit's revenues, function and future.
Please feel free to contact me directly, and we can dialogue about this important subject and project.
All the best,
Bruce
bcahan (at) urbanlogic.org
tunnels are rare
I like the idea but it can only work in cities with subways that already exist. I am an impatient OCD driver and thought of a couple options over the years. One is the use of "jack up trucks" by the larger couriers. This could allow average sized cars to pass beneath. The delivery driver could deploy hydraulic lift and fold up conveyors when needed. 6' 7" lift is feasible with a hydraulic PTO system and air compressors. Unlikely to ever happen. The other solutions, since I hate pedestrians, is to make all major metro downtown area's use a "level 2" entry, i.e. the whole street level is dedicated to motorized vehicles. That way the trucks can stay on the streets the cars can flow without the "untimable, ubiquitous inconsiderate pedestrian attitude/evil stare at drivers. Nobody cares about anyone else and most people lack the gumption to motivate on any topic or solution. Take the responsibility away from the individual, do not mix people and motorized steel. Imagine the amount of gas squandered on pedestrian flow mixing with traffic, right turn, left turn can't occur with crunchies in the street. While one person crosses the street we have 30-40 cars and 2-3 busses JAMMED on all streets.
signed: a nobody with no education
