1. The challenges of urban logistics

1.1 City productivity

• Steady growth in trade flows

  The flow of goods is constantly increasing under the combined pressure of :

  • of the request ;

  • limited stocks leading to increased replenishment ;

  • the development of new forms of commerce (home deliveries, e-commerce);

  • the tyranny of immediacy, with Amazon going so far as to develop algorithms that deliver before we've even ordered.

  And, let's be clear, there's no reason for these volumes to fall; quite the contrary.

• Spatial stakes

  ...