The holiday shipping rush is around the corner, and with it, a record volume of package deliveries arriving at city streets across the nation. In New York City alone, tens of millions of deliveries will move through neighborhoods in the coming weeks, crowding curbs, blocking traffic, and testing package delivery systems that already strain under everyday demand. Yet this seasonal surge offers a revealing test case for what it really means to build a “smart city,” not in theory, but in practice, starting where deliveries, residents, and infrastructure intersect: at the curb.
From food delivery to e-commerce, the curb has become one of the most congested and contested spaces in every major city. Trucks idle, couriers double-park, and residents weave between vehicles just to cross the street. Every day, millions of packages move through package management systems that were never designed for this kind of volume. Every one of those moments adds friction to the logistics chain.
The Delivery Dilemma: Cities Weren’t Built for This
Last-mile delivery is one of the fastest-growing sources of urban disruption. Couriers make multiple trips to the same buildings, circling for parking and idling curbside.
This isn’t just an inconvenience. It’s a strain on city infrastructure, a driver of emissions, and a daily frustration for residents who spend valuable time waiting for deliveries and searching through their apartment’s lobby and in other unsecure spaces to locate their items.
According to Position Imaging’s Harris Poll, 60% of Americans worry about package theft. The surge in online shopping has turned multifamily communities into mini-distribution hubs with buildings, staff, and neighborhoods bearing the load of an outdated system.
The Opportunity: Designing Deliveries into Urban Planning
Smart cities are built on the principle of efficiency by using data, technology, and design to make everyday systems work better for people. Yet the everyday system of deliveries remains largely ignored.
That’s where centralized delivery management comes in. The Smart Package Room® system consolidates package drop-offs into a single, secure location, cutting trips, dwell time, and disruption while giving residents the convenience of 24/7 access.
The Dime, a luxury rental property in Brooklyn, NY demonstrated what that looks like in practice when they installed their Smart Package Room system five years ago. The system allowed deliveries to be completed in seconds rather than minutes, reducing courier vehicle idling and congestion at the curb. Residents can now enjoy quick, guided pickup through the computer vision enabled laser guidance technology, and property staff gained back hours they once spent managing packages manually.
The result: streets with less traffic, safer buildings, and a more seamless flow of urban life.
Policy Alignment: Where Smart Deliveries Meet Smart Cities
Cities across the country, and especially the New York metro area, are rethinking how they manage curb space. The NYC Department of Transportation’s Curb Management Action Plan calls for reducing double-parking and optimizing curb use to improve safety and reduce emissions.
The Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice has also recognized that last-mile delivery is an overlooked contributor to congestion and pollution.
The Smart Package Room system aligns with these goals by making deliveries more efficient by designing smarter package management systems that work within the city’s existing framework. This, in turn, positively influences consumer behavior, leading recipients to make fewer, faster trips to the package room. Deliveries must be part of every city’s blueprint for climate action and livability. Package logistics touch nearly every resident, every building, and every block. The smarter we make that system, the better our cities function.
Real-World Proof Points: Smarter Deliveries, Better Cities
Across properties like The Dime, Smart Package Room systems demonstrate what happens when delivery logistics are designed into the urban fabric rather than tacked on as an afterthought.
Each installation demonstrates how:
- Average delivery dwell time drops from 3–5 minutes to under 30 seconds
- Deliveries can be completed at a single, centralized stop for resident convenience
- Resident satisfaction improves thanks to secure, convenient 24/7 access
Together, these results show how the most overlooked “last 50 feet” of delivery can deliver meaningful progress toward a city’s sustainability, safety, and livability goals.
The Bigger Picture: Smart Cities Start Small
Smart cities aren’t built overnight. They evolve through thousands of small, smart decisions that make everyday life work better. Delivery logistics may not make headlines, but its impact is felt in every neighborhood, lobby, and curb.
The holiday rush may be temporary, but its effect on our cities is a year-round reminder: we need smarter ways to manage the last mile.
By rethinking how we design for the movement of goods, we can reduce congestion, improve safety, and create cities that truly work for the people who live in them.
The path to smarter cities starts right where we live, at the curb.