Space-sharing and kerbside conflicts in urban deliveries: A framework for understanding space allocation challenges

Increasing demand for scarce urban streetside creates space-sharing conflicts, compromising cities' liveability. Conflict assessments predominantly adopt traffic-centric perspectives, neglecting access and place-making functions of streets and the role of freight in this regard. This paper investigates space-sharing conflicts between freight and other streetside users during delivery operations, aiming to understand challenges in creating liveable streets. Based on empirical evidence from the West End of Central London, a framework is proposed to systematically identify these conflicts, and explore implications on the health, social, economic, and environmental value dimensions of streets, from the freight operators' perspective. The framework proposes four types of freight-related space-sharing conflicts: collision risk, traffic obstruction, space overuse, and pavement damages. Findings highlighted the pressures the identified conflicts create on freight operators, exposing them to high-stress levels and endangering both their own and other street users' health and safety. Additionally, the framework informs right-of-way decisions by considering freight aspects across three distributive justice principles, i.e., sufficientarian, utilitarian, and egalitarian. Analysing last-mile freight operations and their interactions with other users introduces a novel approach to city logistics that traditionally studies freight in isolation. Furthermore, the paper contributes to urban planning, providing insights for right-of-way decisions that include the freight perspective – often overlooked in urban studies.