An Analysis of Underused Urban Infrastructures: Usage Opportunities and Implementation Barriers for Sustainable Logistics

Motivated by the urgent need to discover innovative and sustainable approaches to address the strain on urban resources, this paper introduces a novel concept proposing the utilization of “sleeping assets”. These sleeping assets encompass three distinct categories of urban infrastructures: neglected routes, idle real estate, and underused resources. By harnessing these assets, cities can alleviate the intense competition for land, traffic infrastructure, and parking areas. The findings presented in this paper are derived from an extensive literature study and expert interviews conducted with relevant stakeholders from Hamburg, Paris, Stockholm, and Vienna. Building upon the most pertinent insights from the literature and a structured content analysis of the interviews, we outline the advantages of employing sleeping assets for urban logistics initiatives. Additionally, we identify seven main categories of implementation barriers that must be taken into account. The results of this study reveal political and legislative barriers as one of the major impeding factors in initiating the utilization of sleeping assets. To address these barriers, this paper points towards crucial leverage for cities and provides an outlook on possible forms of sustainable urban logistics implementation. Thus, this work can support researchers as well as practitioners from city administrations and urban logistics interested in using sleeping assets by encouraging the exploitation of unused potential and avoiding particular implementation pitfalls.