When I visit the grocery store, I purchase 10, 20, or maybe 50 things – in a single roundtrip. When I order those same things online, how many trips are generated? Assuming the number of trips remains the same to get a product either to a supermarket or a warehouse, how many trips are needed to deliver those 10, 20, or 50 things? How many more when some type of expedited delivery is selected? (Hint: it’s a lot more than one.)

And when those multiple packages are delivered, what about the packaging? While cardboard boxes do grow on trees, isn’t that superfluous packaging a cause for concern?  What about the tape and packing materials?

Thin-skinned Dallas banned plastic bags in January 2015 only to rescind it six months later. Not to be out-dumbed, the Texas Supreme Court unanimously banned plastic bag bans statewide in 2018. They cited the Texas Solid Waste Disposal Act that bars municipalities from restricting packaging as a way to reduce overall waste (huh?). While many justices commented that their hands were tied and called for legislative action to enable bans, Attorney General Ken Paxton commended the court’s decision. “Drill baby, drill” has been replaced by “waste baby, waste.”

Returning to the grocery store, when I drive to the store, I am one person in one car making one trip. Were I using a ride-sharing service, how many drivers are nearby cruising around (polluting) waiting for a passenger? (Hint: it’s more than one.)

When I drive to the grocery store, I typically purchase the fixins for more than one meal. When I order a meal delivered, it’s single-use (barring leftovers). How many trips are generated by meal delivery services versus a trip to the supermarket?  (Hint: greater than one.)

We all complain about traffic, but it’s easy to see that convenience is clogging our streets and landfills. The irony is that these services are more heavily used by younger generations hell-bent on saving the planet from pollution and climate change. The same generation that snaps up $5 “fast fashion” bathing suits that they toss into a landfill after a few wearings. The most concerned generation also seems to be the most wasteful.

Back to traffic.

You might think that delivery services like FedEx and UPS don’t count as they’re in your neighborhood daily anyway. But it’s not like the trucks were empty in years past, they simply had longer routes.  The uptick in deliveries shrinks routes, thus adding trucks. It also demands increases in the efficiency of workers at every stage of the process to the point of exhaustion or death.

Last week, The New York Times reported that between 2009 and 2017 daily household deliveries tripled to 1.1 million shipments (on course for 1.5 million today) and that those delivery trucks generated nearly a half-million parking tickets in 2018, representing 34 percent growth in five years. Those tickets were written for street blockages resulting from ubiquitous double-parking. That’s a lot of traffic, congestion and pollution at a time when brick and mortar stores lay vacant.

In a bizarre way, think of this like a traditional restaurant closing down and instead opting to drive around the city hawking food – the exact opposite of a food truck’s dream. Better yet, think about retail becoming like the mechanical clothes racks at the dry cleaners where consumers sit and have the world whizz by as they pick and choose. Compare that to weekly visits to the grocery store or errand-runs that hit several stores on one outing.

Between ride-sharing and delivery services, The Times reported that it might literally be faster to jog than drive to a destination after traffic movement slowed 23 percent since 2010.  Sure, Dallas is no New York City, but it should be viewed as a cautionary tale.

The truth is that it’s more efficient for people to go to centralized distribution points (stores) to purchase multiple things than it is for every single thing to be delivered separately to our homes.

And please, don’t think this is a city problem and that somehow the burbs are immune. The suburbs generally house the enormous warehouses where semi-trailer trucks deliver to and delivery vans depart from. Those same trucks also clog highways.

Of course industry talks about electric vehicles reducing pollution (but not congestion) and the equally problematic thought of drone deliveries to curb congestion. I mean think about it. Hundreds of drones whizzing around a neighborhood daily creating a new kind of visual and noise pollution. While I’d never own a gun, I certainly fantasize about shooting them down like so many clay pigeons (as porch pirates move to the sky).

And like many problems, it’s set to get worse. Last year I wrote about meal delivery being just one percent of the food services market and growing quickly. New York reports that 15 percent of urban households get a package daily and that 75 percent had ordered groceries online.

What happens when populations age? In 10 years, the youngest Baby Boomers will reach retirement. In September, I wrote about how just 14 percent had downsized leaving huge numbers of senior citizens deciding to age in place. As mobility declines, delivery services will become more useful to a generation used to going to the store. In essence, deliveries and ride-sharing services are poised for huge growth at both ends of the human lifespan.

Sitting in City Hall for various zoning cases, the number one complaint by protesters is traffic. They say it’s terrible now and the new “X” will make it unbearably worse. And while new development will always increase traffic given Dallas’ poverty of public transportation, increases in traffic and congestion rest in no small degree to existing residents and the value placed on convenience.

So before you complain about traffic, check your garbage can for Amazon boxes.

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Remember:  High-rises, HOAs and renovation are my beat. But I also appreciate modern and historical architecture balanced against the YIMBY movement. In 2016, 2017 and 2018, the National Association of Real Estate Editors recognized my writing with three Bronze (2016, 2017, 2018) and two Silver (2016, 2017) awards.  Have a story to tell or a marriage proposal to make?  Shoot me an email [email protected]. Be sure to look for me on Facebook and Twitter. You won’t find me, but you’re welcome to look.