Future of Freight in NYC: Connecting Our Streets with the Blue Highway

AIANY’s 2022 report Delivering the Goods: NYC Urban Freight in the Age of E-Commerce examined the exponential rise in e-commerce and goods deliveries to businesses and consumers during the Covid years, offering strategies to better manage the city’s freight networks and infrastructure. Although the uptick in local deliveries has returned to historic growth patterns since then, freight volumes in NYC continue to rise, with 90 percent of goods still delivered by truck, while our highways and streets are at or over capacity.

How can we move more goods with our existing street network in more sustainable and equitable ways? Join us as we discuss the City’s Blue Highways Action Plan connecting land and sea to unlock the future potential for more sustainable freight networks. Connecting maritime goods movement through the Blue Highway with land-based micro-distribution through our street networks is part of the solution—shifting goods onto our waterways for the middle-mile segment of deliveries, with electric cargo bikes handling the last-mile.

Representing key City agencies, academic researchers, maritime and land-based delivery operators, and community advocates, our speakers will assess the current state of the freight landscape in New York City, review strategies to scale up our freight networks, look at the many initiatives by NYC DOT and NYCEDC to develop alternative low-carbon modes of delivery in the city, and introduce emerging initiatives to spur the development of marine-based components on the Blue Highways.

It’s back to the future with a 21st century twist.

Speakers:
Chris Canary, Vice President, Ports, Waterfront, and Transportation Department, NYCEDC
Alison Conway, Herbert G. Kayser Professor of Civil Engineering, The City College of New York
Kerry Goleski, Program Lead, Freight Mobility, NYC DOT
Marcus Hoed, Co-Founder and Co-Owner DutchX
Paul Lipson, Co-Principal, Barretto Bay Strategies
Ilana Mayid-Dennis, President, U.S. Coastal Service
Jim Wright, AIA, Advocacy Director, AIANY Transportation and Infrastructure Committee

About the Speakers:
Alison Conway is a Professor of Civil Engineering at the City College of New York and conducts research through CUNY’s University Transportation Research Center (UTRC). She is also an Associate Director of the Center for Understanding Future Travel Behavior and Demand (TBD), a USDOT-designated National University Transportation Center. She conducts work primarily in the areas of urban freight and city logistics and multi-modal interactions in the urban environment, and has completed projects in New York City on a variety of freight-related topics including urban street design, curb management, land use policy, freight data, and alternative vehicles. In addition, she teaches courses in transportation planning, transportation systems engineering, multi-modal street design, and city logistics.

Kerry Goleski is a Program Lead on the Freight Mobility team at New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT). Her role includes program management for the City’s Blue Highways program and the Cargo Bikes program. These programs fit into Freight Mobility's portfolio of programs that approach the freight network holistically to reduce emissions, improve air quality, create efficient drop-offs, improve safety, and reduce congestion. She focused on transportation and the environment for her Masters Degree in Urban Planning at CUNY Hunter College. She is passionate about freight planning as a way to address climate change and improve quality of life for all New Yorkers.

Chris Canary is Vice President within the Ports, Waterfront and Transportation Department at the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC). He manages the Blue Highways program for EDC, which aims to reduce congestion on the city's roadways through increased use of the city's waterways to move micro-freight and bulk freight. He previously worked for McKinsey & Company and the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. He holds a Master of Philosophy Degree in Public Policy from the University of Cambridge. Originally from Oregon, Canary enjoys climbing, biking the city’s greenways, and reading.

Marcus Hoed is a co-founder of DutchX, which specializes in tech-enabled, zero-emission same- and next-day delivery operations by small EVs and cargo bikes, serving major retailers like Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods as well as smaller specialty clients. DutchX’s commitment to ethical labor practices is evident in its W2 employee model providing full benefits to delivery workers, differentiating the company from many of its competitors. DutchX is currently engaged in a pilot program delivering goods from its warehouse based in Brooklyn’s Atlantic Basin via NY Waterway’s passenger boats to Pier 79 on Manhattan’s West Side where the goods are transloaded to cargo bikes for delivery to the final destinations.

Ilana Mayid-Dennis is the president of U.S. Coastal Service (USCS) which provides urban maritime freight solutions through the development of a purpose-built, zero-emission maritime fleet to move freight and small cargo across New York Harbor. Before joining USCS in its initial stages in 2020, she spent eight years in finance and completed her MBA at Duke University focusing on energy, environment, and social entrepreneurship. Previously she worked for Amazon Logistics in their last-mile delivery station operations and also conducted research for the World Wildlife Fund and Oceans 2050 on the blue economy. Mayid-Dennis rejoined USCS in late 2023 after three years at PayPal, managing the company’s ESG program.

Paul Lipson is an urban solutions consultant with a specialization in place-based economic development, clean transportation, and waterborne freight. He leads Barretto Bay Strategies, providing strategic advising to community development organizations, anchor institutions, and public agencies in the areas of clean energy, transportation, and community planning. The firm specializes in messaging change and engaging communities around projects positioned at the interface of public policy and market development. Earlier in his career, Lipson founded and led The Point Community Development Corporation, a pioneering CDC active in the sustainability sector based in the Hunts Point section of The Bronx.

Jim Wright’s 40-year architectural career has focused on the public sector while leading the design of numerous public transportation and infrastructure projects, public realm improvements, and cultural and educational facilities in NYC and abroad. He directs advocacy initiatives for AIANY’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee where he advises on advocacy initiatives for AIANY. He was co-author of AIANY’s 2022 report Delivering the Goods: NYC Urban Freight in the Age of E-Commerce which offers sustainable solutions to reduce the impacts imposed on city neighborhoods by the delivery of freight and goods.

If you register for a virtual ticket, you will receive an email with a Zoom link to access the program. Please note, AIA credits for this program will only be offered to in-person attendees.