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Transportation

Cities Seek Deliverance From the E-Commerce Boom

It’s the flip-side to the “retail apocalypse:” A siege of delivery trucks is threatening to choke cities with traffic. But not everyone agrees on what to do about it.
An increasingly common sight on American city streets: delivery vehicles
An increasingly common sight on American city streets: delivery vehicles Mark Lennihan/AP
By
Andrew Zaleski

This post is part of a CityLab series on open secrets—stories about what’s hiding in plain sight.

Just before 3 in the afternoon on a rainy spring day, Keith Greenleaf busts out his “bricklaying” skills. That’s delivery-driver parlance for balancing an inordinate amount of cardboard boxes on a metal handcart. As high as his collarbone he stacks them, packages labeled HP, J. Crew, Amazon Prime. “This is probably one of the first days I don’t have Pampers or dog food,” he says.