The Urban Freight Data Hub is a platform that centralizes urban freight data from across Canada
It’s an increasingly familiar sight — delivery trucks pulling up to the curb, packages and parcels arriving on the doorsteps of homes across Canadian cities. This has resulted in a sharp rise in freight-related emissions. Yet data on freight activity remains scarce, making it difficult to design freight-decarbonization policies that address the increased output of greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. The Urban Freight Data Hub is out to change that.
The Pembina Institute’s Urban Freight Data Hub is a publicly accessible digital hub, which amalgamates existing urban freight data from Canada’s largest cities and makes it easily available to city planners, policy practitioners, and researchers. Over a three-year period, the Pembina Institute will centralize many sources of Canadian data into a single place: the Urban Freight Data Hub. The Hub's purpose is to improve the ability of cities to identify growth trends in freight activity and to develop policy opportunities that will help mitigate the impacts of urban freight.
The Urban Freight Data Hub paints a picture of freight activity in cities and the ways policy can move the needle for change, including how we can:
- Avoid unnecessary freight trips
- Shift to less emitting modes of transportation
- Improve the management of urban freight
Increasing access to urban-freight data can strengthen the development of low-carbon policy solutions
By providing cities with better information on urban-freight activities, we aim to create a clearer understanding of freight emission sources that will lead to the implementation of evidence-based solutions to meet climate targets.
The hub features:
- Data visualized in interactive maps
- Guidance on how to develop data-informed policies
- Sources of all data collected
Support the Hub
The creation of this site — Canada’s first digital open-data platform for urban freight — is supported in part by RBC Tech for Nature. RBC Tech for Nature is a commitment to preserve the world’s greatest wealth: our natural ecosystem. The Pembina Institute and RBC Tech for Nature are committed to leveraging technology and innovation capabilities to solve urgent environmental challenges.
If you share our interest in advancing data-driven urban freight solutions to create more livable and sustainable cities, you can connect with us at info@pembina.org. There are many ways to get involved.
Share data — If you have access to, or are a provider of, data that isn't yet found on the Hub.
Share your policy needs — If you are a city planner or policymaker and want further guidance from our policy team.
Support this project — If you'd like to donate or contribute, we welcome your partnership to enhance and expand the Urban Freight Data Hub.