Urban freight transport in Bologna: Planning commercial vehicle loading/unloading zones

Many European and overseas studies have brought into focus issues related to urban freight transport in order to find possible solutions (city logistics). Urban areas, instead of being living, commercial and resting places may have their functions jeopardized either due to the intense and short range road good's transport and by the lack of infrastructure. Commercial vehicles are detrimental for the urban environment, polluting with gasses and noise. The “just in time” policy of no warehousing enhances this kind of transportation. This paper describes some technical solutions for the management of stop and access areas for goods transport vehicles in order to allow the on-time delivery as well as to mitigate the traffic induced issues towards citizens. In particular, we focus attention on various issues concerning the areas where goods are loaded and unloaded, proposing a method that allows their size, their number and their location to be optimised.