In less than a year, one microscopic virus has brought upheavals large and small in the way people and goods move around. Transit ridership is way down; automobile traffic is increasing. People are ordering goods online rather than shopping in stores—UPS deliveries in the second quarter of this year were up nearly 23% from the same time last year.Ninety percent of consumers now prefer delivery over a store visit.
The consequence? Shopping mall parking lots are empty, while delivery vehicles fill up our streets. Around the country, there is more road congestion, double-parking, and idling time at the curb as companies increasingly bring their goods to us.
Pandemics, despite (or perhaps because of) their devastation, are known to lead to periods of great creativity. Upheaval has given us the gift of thinking, on many fronts, “Why weren’t we doing this all along?”
Here’s one of those ideas: For nearly 100 years, we have charged drivers of personal cars for parking at the curb. It’s time to start charging delivery companies for stopping there too. To create new revenue streams for cities and towns and finally make order out of the chaos of curb congestion, have the Ubers, Amazons, and DoorDashes of the world pay for the right to stop and deliver.