Background & Motivation
Bridging the Gap in Urban Freight Planning
The 15-Minute City Vision
The 15-minute city concept envisions neighborhoods where all basic services are accessible within a 15-minute walk or bike ride, emphasizing reduced trips and travel distances. This transformation means reallocating essential services into urban neighborhoods—and with them, freight traffic follows.
The Critical Challenge
As services relocate to residential areas, critical questions emerge: How and where will freight demand rise? How will user choices and behavior be influenced? These questions remain largely unanswered, leaving urban freight insufficiently integrated within the 15-minute city concept.
The Data Gap Problem
A lack of comprehensive data on urban freight prevents improvements that could reduce negative impacts such as:
- • Traffic congestion and reduced mobility
- • Air pollution and environmental degradation
- • Compromised accessibility for residents
- • Increased pressure on public space
The POTUS Approach
To address these challenges, POTUS involves relevant stakeholders—urban administrations, academia, logistics operators, and residents—to systematically address data gaps, standardize survey methods, and acquire comprehensive urban freight data.
Our learnings are transformed into actionable planning recommendations and a user-friendly urban freight survey handbook. This collaborative approach enables the transferability of urban freight data, tools, and knowledge from small-sized cities to metropolitan European regions, creating a foundation for evidence-based planning of holistic 15-minute neighborhoods.
Project Video
Watch our project introduction and latest updates
Project Partnership
Collaborative network of stakeholders driving urban freight innovation
Our interdisciplinary partnership framework
Objectives & Goals
Five Key Focus Areas
Stakeholder Integration
Identifying diverse stakeholder needs for evidence-based integration of urban freight into 15-minute city planning, including concepts, solutions, street design, operational modes, and transport alternatives.
Methodology Development
Investigating potentials for aligned survey, analysis, and modeling methods to improve data acquisition and ensure transferability across European cities.
Demand Analysis
Understanding urban freight trip demand patterns in different representative neighborhood typologies to identify trends and opportunities for optimization.
Impact Factors
Analyzing freight demand influencing factors including socio-spatial context, consumer behavior, accessibility, cooperation models, and policy frameworks.
Solution Assessment
Assessing impacts of tailored solutions for fostering alternative delivery and consolidation methods across different European neighborhood typologies.
Work Packages
Our Research Framework (2025–2027)
POTUS is structured into six work packages, each addressing a critical aspect of integrating urban freight into 15-minute city planning.
Knowledge-Needs & Planning Context
Led by TU Wien (TUW) · M1–M14
Identifying the status-quo in 15-minute neighbourhood planning, the role of urban freight, and developing a framework for better integration into urban planning.
Urban Freight Transport Data
Led by ENTPE (ENT) · M4–M20
Identifying necessary data, assessing existing data sources, and filling data and knowledge gaps through harmonised, transnational surveys of households, establishments, and construction.
Analysis & Neighbourhood Modelling
Led by Chalmers University (CHA) · M17–M34
GIS-based neighbourhood typologisation, computational accessibility analysis, and socio-spatial freight demand prediction models at the street and neighbourhood level.
Simulation & Impact Assessment
Led by University of Wuppertal (BUW) · M24–M36
Simulating the effects of 15-minute city scenarios on freight demand, deriving neighbourhood-specific recommendations, and producing a decision-support tool for sustainable urban logistics.
Dissemination & Stakeholder Engagement
Led by Roma Tre University (UR3) · M1–M36
Engaging stakeholders through storytelling formats and co-creation workshops, disseminating findings through journals, conferences, and handbooks, and contributing to the DUT Knowledge Hub.