Dublin
The City
Dublin, with 1.024 million residents and 1.53 million in the metropolitan area*, covers 115 sq km, offering an excellent environment for pilots and simulations focused on optimizing urban space and sustainable distribution.
The city’s efforts, including the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) and Sustainable Urban Logistics Plan (SULP), along with active citizen engagement via the Public Participation Network (PPN), create a solid platform for enhancing efficiency and community participation.
*Sources: Central Statistics Office (CSO) and PopulationStat.
How Dublin’s Pilot
Is Making an Impact
1. Improve the liveability of the city and benefit users of the city centre by dealing with some specific problems, which include
1. Traffic congestion due to commercial vehicles
2. Inefficient use of loading bays and enforcement difficulties in loading bays
3. Parking areas and inefficient use of commercial vehicles (e.g. half-full vans delivering around the city).
2. Increase awareness among the public (businesses and customers alike) regarding the environmental impact of delivery logistics in the city and the advantages of sustainable transport alternatives.
Current Pilots and Simulations
in Dublin
Dublin’s Urban Living Lab (ULL) will implement pilots and simulations to test new approaches for urban logistics, targeting both B2C and B2B services. The focus will be on last-mile transport innovations, urban consolidation centers (UCCs), virtual kerbside management, and smart management of parking and loading spaces.
Virtual Kerbside Management. The creation of a digital inventory of kerbside assets —such as geolocation data, regulations, and usage—aims to enable more efficient use of kerb space, improving safety, efficiency, and accessibility in cities.
Smart Loading Bay Management. Smart sensors in loading bays provide real-time parking updates to drivers via an app, reducing search time, lowering emissions, and improving delivery efficiency.
Urban Consolidation centres (UCC) Simulation and Innovative last mile transport modes. UCC simulations explore how optimizing cargo space and urban consolidation can reduce costs and improve efficiency, while also examining the effects of zero-emission zones, pedestrianization, and micro hubs on urban logistics.
Where
It is envisaged that the pilot will be trialled in several different city centre locations in a variety of activity zones (e.g. retail, residential and commercial). These locations include: the Docklands area, Temple Bar and Dame Street, Henry Street, Grafton Street.
