Curb the Chaos convening unites best practices, challenges from across country
Agencies, practitioners, tech leaders assembled to
share knowledge and solutions
NEW YORK, NY — Friday, as part of its broad effort to reimagine New York City’s use of the curb lane and in conjunction with the release of Curb the Chaos: Solutions for Cities at the Curb, Open Plans hosted a convening, facilitated by Cityfi, for dozens of stakeholders who work with the curb across the country. The attendees represented a diverse group of city agencies and transit professionals, technology leaders from the private sector, and everyday curb users.
The convening opened with a keynote from Ryan Russo, Principal at Together Projects, a specialty strategic advising and project management consultancy. Ryan most recently served as the first Director of the Oakland Department of Transportation (OakDOT), where he led the new agency through its inaugural five years of operation. Russo’s remarks focused on why curb management is an essential piece of an equitable, well-run city. He underscored that while transit advocates are often the ones calling for reform at the curb, these strategies benefit everyone; outreach should aim to show all types of users, even drivers, why curb reform cuts congestion, eases roadway chaos, and can even make curbside parking easier to find. Russo noted that current curb chaos is not an accident, and not natural; it’s the result of decades of policy choices or abdication. “What you’re not changing,” Russo said, “you’re choosing.” If cities are not reforming the curb, they are actively choosing the negative consequences that come with that status quo. Russo closed his keynote by highlighting cities’ civic responsibility to make expedient changes at the curb; governments are tasked with advancing policies that make lives better and our curbs are ripe with opportunities to do that. Every city in the country should be enthusiastically pursuing innovations that boost wellness, equity, and overall health.
Following the keynote, attendees participated in group discussions and activities around four topics. Each session began with a short presentation by a leader in the field:
Francesca Napolitan and Hank Willson of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency presented on creating a comprehensive curb management strategy. Through data collection and user interviews, the City found that 90% of San Francisco’s curb space was used for vehicle storage, despite high competition and demand for space. They realigned their approach, and built a curb hierarchy that now dictates how all the city’s curb space is allocated. Based on land use and local contexts, the strategy generally prioritizes people and active use before private vehicle storage. They also identified opportunities to tweak policies, i.e. allowing noncommercial vehicles, like Grubhub drivers or taxis, to use loading zones. This small change increased productivity, commerce, and user satisfaction.
Michael Sutherland of Open Plans, presented on the benefits of using digital tools to track, understand, and standardize curb metrics and uses. A digital curb inventory can be built for internal city use, or external advocacy or public use. The City of Omaha, a leader in digitization, started the process in just a small section of their downtown, but the initiative has since progressed to encompass the entire city. Once complete, Omaha agencies will have a bird’s eye view of every curb, how it’s designated, and how those designations change, through flex zones, throughout the day or week. Omaha, co-chair of the Open Mobility Foundation (OMF) Curb Working Group, uses OMF’s standardized Curb Data Specifications, which were designed in partnership with public and private organization members. Sutherland stressed that digital curbs could help New York City better understand its curbs (the City does not actually know how many parking spots there currently are, for example); Open Plans has collaborated with BetaNYC to create a sample digital curb for a residential and a commercial block to visualize that potential.
Josh Benson of NYC DOT began the session on curb enforcement with a look at DOT’s automated enforcement program, the largest in the country. DOT is continually pushing for more authority, from the city or state, to use cameras and other data to enforce lane violations. The department plans to add 100 fixed bus lane cameras in 2023 and has been newly authorized to expand violations impacting bus operations, including double parking and parking at bus stops.
To start the session on meeting curb users where they are, Seattle’s Department of Transportation stressed outreach and user interviews as essential to creating a successful curb management strategy. By centering diverse user experiences and prioritizing data management, Seattle was able to better plan for what they call Critical Access Needs. Their emphasis on policies that reflect the real-life experiences of curb users allows Seattle to strategically manage uses at this highly valuable yet limited public space.
Within the ensuing roundtable discussions, facilitated by Cityfi, some key takeaways, challenges, and best practices emerged:
Many participants noted the political challenges to beginning strategic and overarching curb reform and the impossibility of true consensus. Instead, they worked toward a solution that could please the largest percentage of stakeholders. Even then, local leaders sometimes made true progress impossible.
Challenges to managing community input are different for each city. Community Boards are sometimes barriers to local change in New York City, but attendees from cities without Community Boards expressed frustration at their lack of organized interaction with community leaders. Both systems have pros and cons and there is no flawless way to structure community input.
Many attendees sought guidance on stakeholder outreach, like gaining support from the business owners whose storefronts sit on a curb slated for reform.
Instead of approaching a business owner with “this is what we want to do, and this is how it will positively impact you,” city agencies should begin with “How can we change the curb to help your business best?’”
Business owners often feel blindsided by plans for curb reform when they’re presented as a fait accompli; earlier outreach can ameliorate that.
Cities with more robust curb management strategies shared some of their most popular curb interventions, including stroller parking, public bathrooms, and offbeat public art.
In order to fully accommodate bridging the physical and digital divide at the curb, cities noted the importance of modernizing, unifying, and streamlining internal work systems.
Digitization felt overwhelming to many cities, but others advised that they needn’t implement a full digitization in one swoop – focusing on a few curb sections or uses to prioritize (ex: a commercial zone and a downtown zone) will move the project forward and prevent paralyzation.
A core challenge of digitization that participants identified is keeping the digital data up to date when changes in physical infrastructure and signage are made on the ground. Cities that had attempted digital curbs in the past found it hard to stay on top of keeping data updated. With new technology, some of this may become easier.
Digital curbs may require different interfaces: for the public, for app-based users (DoorDash, commercial trucking companies), and for planners. These must be truly accessible to be useful – not just to big companies or city staff but to grassroots users as well.
With recent SMART grants awarded by the federal government to eight cities, there is likely to be new data gathered on using digital curbs. Participants agreed that it’s important for all cities to use the OMF Curb Data Specification.
Data ownership is a key concern for both cities and technology companies: who owns the data, how it is managed, and how privacy is protected are all questions that must be answered.
Allocating needed space for curb users can be a way to address other issues, like problematic fine programs; if a freight company has the designated space they need to make deliveries, they won’t be incurring massive fines every year, and the fine program itself becomes obsolete. However, incentivizing behavior change will be difficult when many of these companies view parking violation fines as simply part of the cost of doing business, as they do currently.
Ultimately, better loading zones will most benefit smaller trucking companies and small businesses who cannot afford the cost of many parking tickets but have no designated space to park legally as needed for operating their businesses.
It is crucial to have all curb users represented in an agency. If a DOT does not have a freight expert, that use is not going to be accurately planned for.
When considering automated enforcement, many questions of equity and end goals were raised. Seasoned officials stressed that the goal of camera-based enforcement is to change behavior, not punish. Ideas were shared to make fines more equitable, including tying the size of the fee to the cost of the car in violation.
As the day drew to a close, Open Plans emphasized the importance of understanding the experience of various curb users and building empathy for other stakeholders’ needs and challenges. Too often cities and technology companies get wrapped up in technical details and many participants found it helpful to remember that this has real consequences for real people. The day concluded with a sense that shared knowledge and open communication was key to building upon past work. “It's helpful to have a better sense of how things work elsewhere,” said one participant reflecting on the nationwide list of attendees.
Saturday morning, a walking tour visited many of the curb innovations discussed the previous day. Guest guides at several stops along the route highlighted on-the-ground challenges and their solutions for NYC’s streets and quality of life. Ed Janoff from the Union Square Partnership highlighted ongoing pedestrianization and shared the vision for the future of Union Square that will connect the park even more fully with the surrounding neighborhood. Mikako Murphy of the Flatiron NoMad Partnership led the group from 20th Street to 33rd, where some of the most dramatic changes have been made including slow shared streets, public plazas, and two-way bike lanes. Emily Weidenhof, Director of Public Space at NYC DOT, added important context and DOT perspective along the way. Christine Berthet of pedestrian advocacy organization CHEKPEDS discussed the importance of advocacy, and highlighted efforts on 8th Avenue to widen the sidewalk and install curbside trash containerization. Key themes that emerged included the importance of public-private partnerships and community engagement, evolving best practices and design ideas over the last fifteen years, and the resiliency of these mixed use, residential/commercial neighborhoods during the pandemic and the new hybrid work environment.
Read more about Open Plans’ curb reform campaign and the Curb the Chaos report here.