This paper discusses how to integrate urban commercial transport into urban planning, with special reference to transport in Germany. Urban commercial traffic must play a more important part in urban planning, traffic engineering and management. A special knowledge is required of production and delivery processes, and special surveys are needed. Planning for urban commercial traffic requires the definition of a highly flexible spatial framework, related to changing production processes. Two secnarios are presented: (1) a trend scenario, extrapolating from current trends; and (2) a compatibility scenario, assuming that all people involved will manage economic and environmental processes. Various solutions for the compatibility scenario are presented, that can be applied by: (1) the freight transport industry; (2) urban and transport planning; (3) vehicle manufacturers; and (4) logistics and communication technology. The concepts of logistics are outlined for one, two, three and four dimensions. A city logistics system is described, which consists of: (1) a freight traffic centre; (2) freight distribution centres; and (3) various types of logistics centres. These ideas are applied to the city of Berlin.
Abstract