Double Parked Delivery Trucks

In response to Jim Graham's request that the DMV end its practice of giving delivery companies a break on double parking tickets, GGW started a discussion on how to solve the problem of double parked delivery trucks. For cyclists this is an issue since they often double park in the bike lane or on the right where cyclists often ride. Even if you feel this is only a small inconvenience; they can also slow traffic to a crawl which,in turn, can slow even the most aggressive cyclist.

David Alpert suggests creating more loading zones or "price curbside parking to encourage turnover and maintain some vacancies" a.k.a. performance parking.

Others suggest encouraging vehicles to double park on less congested routes, making the first 10 minutes of parking free, creating "FedEx" loading zones, '"(1) require transportation demand management and (2) freight delivery management within such a system," increasing ticket prices, impounding double parked vehicles, etc...There was even one person who takes the minority possition that it isn't a problem.

But, I think most people agree that this is a problem. So, let me throw my hat in the ring here. First the idea of bulk discounts is ridiculous. Giving people a bulk discount is what you do if you want to encourage them to buy MORE, not less. And we do want them to double park less, right? Normally, the more you repeat a crime, the more serious the punishment becomes. HOV cheats on I-66, for example, find escalating fines.

In 2006, HOV violators became such a problem that the Virginia General Assembly dramatically increased the fines in Northern Virginia. The first ticket is $125; the second, $250; the third, $500; and a fourth offense within five years will cost you $1,000. And beginning with the second violation, three points are added to your driver's license.

I'd go with a carrot and stick system. I like the "FedEx" loading zone idea. Let delivery companies purchase a special parking permit (Ex:a "D" permit) that lets them park in any of these loading zone spaces and then put them in all the logical places with consultation from the delivery companies themselves. Charge a price that will keep those who don't really need one from buying one but keep it cheapish.

Then enforce double parking and escalate tickets for it. After the 5th ticket, they double, ad infinitum. If UPS starts getting some $12000 parking tickets, they'll rethink their strategy.

Of course, I agree with Richard Layman that TDM, and Freight Demand Management should be part of the zoning regulations.

Comments

[Richard Layman]

For example, if more deliveries were made at night, then this would be much less of a problem. It would reduce the number of trucks, thereby providing more room for UPS and Fed Ex trucks.

My point in an earlier entry of UPS (and FedEX) refiguring how they should stage deliveries is relevant too. They could drop packages off in places (even in pods parked in a loading zone) and bike-based couriers could go back and forth. Etc.

[Contrarian]

Note that under current DC law, double parking for the purpose of making deliveries is not a violation.

[Lee Watkins]

How about actually using the loading docks? Something I frequently see is delivery trucks double-parked out front of a building when there is an actual loading dock on the rear of the same building that is not being used. I could name at least a few dozen buildings I know of that have loading docks connected to alleyways, but the UPS truck still double-parks out front. If they are going to set up a delivery parking area - how about putting it around back down the alleyay? What the truck is too big? How about using smaller trucks?

In a number of parts of Europe they deliver the UPS packages on bicycles. if they can do it there, then we can do it here too.

The issue of blocked bike lanes is simple - bike lanes need to be protected from cars with bollards. Again, Bollards! There is no reason why cars need to be able to get into the bike lane. There is also no good reason why the bike lane needs to be in the door zone of parked cars. So here's a concept - put the parked cars with the car-travel lanes, and the bike lanes with the bike racks, and separate them with bollards. The UPS truck will stay in the motorized area, or maybe even use the actual loading dock.

[Washcycle]

On the legality it looks to me from these

2401.2 Unless prohibited by § 2402, a vehicle may stop parallel and as near as practicable to parked vehicles while loading; Provided, that the vehicle while so parked will not unreasonably impede or interfere with orderly two-way traffic, or on a one-way street, that at least one lane is kept open for moving traffic.

2401.3 On any street, highway, or any portion of a street or highway, where parking is prohibited but stopping and standing are not prohibited, passenger vehicles may stop momentarily to load and unload passengers, and any vehicle may stop long enough to actually load and unload materials.

2402.4 The loading of materials shall be restricted to loading zones in each block where such zones have been designated by official signs; Provided, that this limitation shall not apply during hours when parking (but not standing) is prohibited in such block.

It looks like you can double park for deliveries if all of the following are true:

1.it will not unreasonably impede or interfere with orderly two-way traffic
2. You are not blocking the only lane of a one-way street
3. stopping and standing are not prohibited
4. There is no loading zone available or there is a loading zone, but parking isn't currently allowed

I'm not sure where stopping and standing are prohibited.

[mirrorball]

I read that as saying you can double park only for the amount of time it takes to unload your cargo ("long enough to actually load and unload materials".) To me this doesn't cover the time it takes deliver all of the packages at a particular office building.

[julie the ocassional driver to work]

"While leaving one lane open.."

Well, that explains why UPS routinely uses (or at least used to use) two of the three lanes on I street between 13th and 14th at 7:15 every night. Including plenty of nights when there is plentiful parallel parking so they could reduce the disruption to one lane.

I actually stopped and chastised them once and got an earful.

[Jack]

I just go around them, not too big a deal. Actually I think delivery trucks slow drivers more than cyclists, and that might even make streets safer for bikes.

[Contrarian]

There's an eerie parallelism between what I'm reading here and you typical anti-cyclist letter-to-the-editor rant. First, there's the outcry that the police need to enforce the law, when the reality is that the behavior that gets people so worked up -- whether it's delivery people double-parking or cyclists riding in the road -- is for the most part legal.

Second, it's much ado about nothing. I drive in the city, and I bike in the city. When I'm driving, I've never found cyclists to particularly be a problem. When I'm cycling or driving, I've never found double-parked vehicles to particularly be a problem -- I just go around them. Compared to everything you have to deal with getting around the city they're really nothing. The notion that if it weren't for double-parkers -- or cyclists -- everyone could just go as fast as they wanted around the city is so far removed from reality to be laughable.

[Washcycle]

I ride in the bike lane when there is one. And if there is a truck, yes, I just go around them. But that involves merging with traffic, which isn't always effortless. They aren't always doing it legally and depending on how you read the law, often aren't. And when they block most of a lane on a two lane road they do slow traffic as cars have to wait for it to be safe to pass. At rush hour it doesn't take much to make a mess.

[Washcycle]

Also... on the subject of "the behavior that gets people so worked up -- whether it's delivery people double-parking or cyclists riding in the road -- is for the most part legal."

The delivery trucks are probably doing SOMETHING illegal or they wouldn't be racking up $240,000 in parking tickets every year.

[Eric_W.]

One delivery truck (or some car "just waiting for someone") in the rush-hour lane can totally clog up traffic because cars either do not drive in that lane or have to merge into traffic in the other lane which slows down tarffic and/ or can lead to some dangerous situations.

My personal favorite form my driving days was the USPS truck that appeared every day between 5pm and 5:30 pm on 13th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Since the guy parked at the very bottom of 13th street he backed up the whole block and made it impossible for people to use the lane, especially for the cars that wanted to turn right onto Pennsylvania. The simple solution would have been to drive around the corner (estimated 70 feet total distance) and park out of the way. Why this can go on for over three years (likely longer but that is how long I observed it) is a total mystery to me.

[Contrarian]

"One delivery truck (or some car "just waiting for someone") in the rush-hour lane can totally clog up traffic because cars either do not drive in that lane or have to merge into traffic in the other lane which slows down tarffic and/ or can lead to some dangerous situations."

If you substitute "bicycle" for "delivery truck" in that sentence the logic doesn't change.

As for "why this can go on" the answer is that it's not against the law.

As an aside, I used to really resent the old Dr. Gridlock in the Post because several times a year he would write something that implied that cycling in the road was somehow illegal, and chastise the cops for lack of enforcement. I feel a little better now that I know that double-parking is not illegal, because quite a bit more often he would spout off on how the cops never do anything about the double-parkers.

[Washcycle]

I'm not sure I agree that double parking is legal. I think from above, sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't.

[Contrarian]

I'm not sure I agree that double parking is legal. I think from above, sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't.

Wash, you're sounding more and more like the posters we get from time to time here who just don't believe that there's no law against cycling in the street, or no law that says cyclists can't impede traffic, or no law that gives drivers priority over cyclists. They're unable to make a distinction between what the law is and what they think it should be.

The law is clear: except in specific conditions where it is prohibited, double-parking for the purpose of making deliveries is legal in DC. Laws don't just write themselves -- they're enacted by the legistature after debate and consideration. Don't you think that the Council had a very specific behavior in mind when they wrote "a vehicle may stop parallel and as near as practicable to parked vehicles while loading"? What behavior could they possibly have been thinking of?

I'm not saying this law is good, I'm not saying it's as it should be, I'm saying it is what it is. And I'll say the same thing to you I say to people who go on about cyclists who violate laws that exist only in their imaginations: don't rant about the "scofflaws," don't rant about the lack of "enforcement" on the police. The problem is the law. Complain about the lawmakers -- and work to get it changed if you disagree.

If this debate goes true to form, are you going to come back and say "I don't care what the law says" like a typical anti-cyclist?

[Washcycle]

Wait, how is saying that "sometimes [double parking is legal] and sometimes it isn't" different from "except in specific conditions where it is prohibited, double-parking for the purpose of making deliveries is legal in DC."? Do I need to reverse the order "Sometimes it's illegal and sometimes it isn't"? Is that better?

[Washcycle]

And...Sometimes biking in the street is legal and sometimes it isn't (on highways for example). Sometimes impeding traffic is legal and sometimes it isn't (riding two abreast).

And... the law is hardly clear. "a vehicle may stop parallel and as near as practicable to parked vehicles while loading; Provided, that the vehicle while so parked will not unreasonably impede or interfere with orderly two-way traffic." "Unreasonably" is an ambiguous word. Your reasonable might very well be my unreasonable.

[Eric_W.]

"double-parking for the purpose of making deliveries is legal in DC"

contrarian, the law seems to read differently. I repeat from above:

2401.2 Unless prohibited by § 2402, a vehicle may stop parallel and as near as practicable to parked vehicles while loading; Provided, that the vehicle while so parked will not unreasonably impede or interfere with orderly two-way traffic, or on a one-way street, that at least one lane is kept open for moving traffic.

2401.3 On any street, highway, or any portion of a street or highway, where parking is prohibited but stopping and standing are not prohibited, passenger vehicles may stop momentarily to load and unload passengers, and any vehicle may stop long enough to actually load and unload materials.

What this means is that delivery trucks (let's stay with them since we focus on these) can STOP to load/ unload, then drive on. This does not mean that drivers of delivery trucks can load their cargo on hand carts and deliver them in buildings and come back after 30 minutes expecting to be complying with the law.

As to your comparison of parked delivery trucks to moving bicycles and how they affect traffic, I am not sure I see the point you are trying to make except maybe that all bikes should be banned from the streets.

My experience from my daily commute is that I am as fast or faster than the cars in rush hour traffic and parked cars (no unloading going on but delivery) in the rush hour lane are the major impediment to traffic flow at that time. Yes, the commuter busses and cars atopping briefly to drop off passengers slow down the flow but generally without creating a long-lasting effect like the parked delivery vehicles whose drivers are nowhere near their vehicles.

In the end, this seems to be really a much bigger issue for drivers than bicyclists who are penalized by the unsocial behavior of delivery truck operators.

[boom trucks]

It is great that people are thinking about the environment and working to make the world a safer place. Not only the materials that you are using on your home are safe for the environment but dump trucks have come a long way since the earlier models. We are learning and expanding and coming up with a wide range of safer more effective vehicles for the work force. I think it is great that many auto manufacturers are turning to hybrid vehicles to protect the environment and now they are even using hybrid dump trucks.