Homes and flows in new urban neighbourhoods: logistics planning insights from three pioneering cities

As cities strive for compact and mixed-use development, the integration of urban logistics into newly developed neighbourhoods has become an important challenge for urban planning. The study asks in which ways logistics can be integrated into these developments, using three pioneering European cities: Copenhagen (Denmark), Mechelen (Belgium) and Utrecht (the Netherlands). Document analysis and expert interviews are used to examine policies and regulations, planning and design choices and stakeholder partnerships structured around the 4A framework of Macharis and Kin (2017): awareness, avoidance, act and shift, and anticipation. The findings show that urban logistics should not be treated as a separate transportation issue but as an essential component of sustainable urban development. Awareness and anticipation are particularly important in early planning stages, while avoidance and act and shift strategies are reflected in the spatial integration of logistics infrastructure. Across the three cases, compact urban design, early spatial integration, and public-private partnerships emerge as key enabling factors. The study further demonstrates that governance capacity and land ownership influence how logistics strategies are implemented across the three cases.