Transportation officials in Bellevue, Wash., are considering a plan to transition street parking from free to paid.
In Denver, the future of the curb will be digital. Last year the consolidated city-county was awarded a $250,000 grant to create a digital map of curb areas, to include signage, parking zones, and pricing, “so that we can better understand what was going on,” Alyssa Alt, manager of curbside and parking at the Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, said during a recent webinar discussion.
Meanwhile, Redwood City, Calif., is poised to begin the process of digitally managing and communicating curb regulations and other information with users. The city has partnered with Populus, a transportation data analytics tech firm involved in digital curb management projects, to use its Curb Manager and Curb Regulations technology to better manage and regulate the curb zone.
Cities want to see, in one place, their supply of parking, load zones and other curb assets, with the demand for these assets listed alongside, said Regina Clewlow, CEO and founder of Populus. City officials also want to see data from payment transactions, sensors or other data collection devices.
“Many of our micromobility management customers have been empowered by how much more easily they can manage the public right of way with access to better data,” she added, in an email to Government Technology. “As a result, they often will then expand their digital twin efforts from micromobility into curb management.”
The curb data collected in Bellevue has been revealing. For starters, street parking spaces — which are currently free — are consistently filled in downtown and nearby neighborhoods. At least 30 percent of motorists stay beyond the two-hour time limit, according to officials from Walker Consultants, which is monitoring parking for the city. And in a number of those same areas, parking is more than 100 percent utilized, meaning motorists are parking in non-parking areas like in crosswalks, blocking hydrants or other forms of illegal parking.
“The current environment that we see today shows that it’s overburdened. Meaning that the curb is generally really occupied for many, many hours during the day,” said Chris Iverson, a consultant with Iverson Mobility Solutions and the project manager for the Bellevue curb management plan, noting these parking issues have resulted in increased traffic congestion. Iverson, a former city staffer, presented his findings during a Feb. 14 community meeting.
In Denver, the city began drafting its Curbside Action Plan several years ago as a supplement to the region’s Denver Moves Everyone transportation plan, Alt explained.
“The access to the curb has just intensified. What people are wanting, and what people need to do at the curb, has just changed,” she said during the Feb. 26 webinar, noting the growth of micromobility, package delivery and other uses has prompted the city to take a fresh look at how to manage this essential space. “It was time for us to think about what was going to happen next, with our planning process, with our curb, and how people are going to gain access to it.”
The city’s plan, she said, recommends using data more effectively: “One of the things we want to do is think about how we are using that data to better utilize the curbside, and build upon it to finish out the rest of our recommendations within the plan.”
In Redwood City, in the San Francisco Bay Area, the city is using camera data to communicate curb availability through APIs to digital signs, as well as an app.
“Redwood City is committed to leveraging innovative tools to improve mobility, reduce congestion, and enhance road safety,” Malahat Owrang, its principal transportation planner, said in a statement.
A new report by the food delivery app DoorDash noted bikes are a growing delivery mode for its “dashers,” with a recent four-week period showing 40 million miles traveled on bikes in the United States and Canada. The report also urged cities to invest in micromobility infrastructure, which often includes curb policies that open the door to more microdeliveries and bike and scooter use.
Cities are using technology, Clewlow said, to reach the “holy grail,” which she described as “more dynamic management at the curb to improve safety and efficiency through a combination of technologies.”
