#26: Curbs, Shade, and the Mobility-Productivity Paradox

Author

Journey
June 19, 2025

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A Journey insight. 💡

Lauren recently caught up with Peter Richards of Parkicity to pick each other’s brains about curbside management best practices and oddities, plus their favorite and least favorite things happening at the curb. Part I of their conversation is below.

When did you first become aware of curbside management?

Lauren: I was working more in city planning and urban design when I heard whispers of a large Donald Shoup experiment in San Francisco brewing. Something about the idea of taking academic ideas and wrestling them into reality was appealing. I hopped on board in 2009. The project really tested the whole dogma of the transportation industry at the time – they were policy purists, focusing relentlessly on Shoup’s research and tuning out years of industry “best practices” that had gotten us nowhere. I will say, the transition from ideas on paper vs on messy city streets is super interesting and requires a fidelity to a vision but a lot of study of human behavior and operational functions. The projects focused on pricing but opened the door to better curb management, with the ethos: if we better managed metered parking you can have more flexibility in how we use curb space. We also had sub-projects on accessible loading, color curb programs, car share spaces, and delivery loading – and one of my favorites, city employee permit abuse. The term curb management became popular a few years later.

Pete: I always thought SFpark looked super cool, and generated a ton of great insights and metrics. On my end, Toronto released a curbside management strategy RFP back in 2015 – sort of the dawn of the curbside era in terms of nomenclature. Without sounding dramatic, little did I know that this project and the word ‘curbside’ would completely change the course of my career. The scope contained many elements of items that I had contemplated before but then pushed into new but logical areas of exploration - the film and entertainment curb usage (which is a multi-billion dollar industry in Toronto), events, emergence of pick and drop offs due to Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) and eCommerce - all elements that aren't always covered in traditional parking master plans or transportation master plans.

As the study progressed, we couldn't find other studies to leverage or review for best practices except Seattle, which I believe was the first formal study completed in North America (or possibly Washington DC). However, funny enough, connecting it to SFpark, the Program Manager was an expert advisor on the Toronto curbside strategy, so I got to understand that a lot more and straight from the source, too.

Lauren: Is that project where CurbIQ was born?

Pete: Not directly, no. But it led me, and a few others who supported the project, to think that the way the industry was going was digital, and that foundational knowledge about the curbside was missing. You can’t go on Google Maps and see where a city’s loading zones or even parking spots are. Most cities don’t even know this information and can’t access it. I helped create a software (and am an inventor on a patent) around digitizing curbside regulations, keeping them up to date, and integrating with data sources to help plan and optimize the curbside.

What are some of the differences you've noticed in curbside management as you move geographically across North America and beyond?

Lauren: Ten months back from the UK I’m still occasionally struggling to switch back to curb from kerb...

Pete: Yes, curb is spelled 'curb' in North America, and 'kerb' in the UK and Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, for example. My colleagues in Canada didn’t believe me when I told them this! And then, generally, some folks call it curbside management, while others call it curb management or curb space. A subtle difference and doesn’t seem to be consistent across specific geographies from what I can tell.

Lauren: I find what a curb study is really depends on how that lane is used now, how wide the roadway is, and what we know what functions the street needs to accomplish – role of transit prioritization, freight corridor, or bike network.

Pete: That’s true. Another nugget that I'll share that I've observed is that there isn't a word for curb in languages such as French, Spanish, and German. This makes the common understanding, the growth, and the discussion around this topic a little cumbersome and confusing at times. Outside of nomenclature, I would say one difference that I have observed is that large parts of America use curb paint to denote the curbside regulations. For example, red is no stopping, blue is accessible parking, yellow is loading, etc. Due to Canada being a real-life snow globe for a lot of the year, any curb paint would simply be covered in snow, rendering the paint useless. This is where signage is important.

Lauren: Ah yes, there are big east coast vs west coast differences there. I will say I learned in California that it’s a huge amount of work to keep the curb paint fresh and legible. Really interestingly – in the UK the digital atlas of curb use is the “source of truth” about what the curb rules are (and if you’ve broken them!). In the US, the signs or paint need to be clear to make a rule enforceable - user experience matters. UK government's requirements for digital mapping have put UK cities ahead on that front.

What is your perhaps unpopular opinion on curb as a revenue source?

Pete: I think every curb use should be charged. Parking has been charged for almost a century. The last few years, cities and curb technology vendors have tried to charge for loading zones and deliveries, to mixed success in my opinion. But I think all curb usage should be charged - including pick up and drop offs. The incentive can be premium, safe zones in key locations. But why should some users pay and others do not?

Lauren: You’ll find no bigger fan of pricing – but I was frustrated with the dominant messaging a couple of years ago in the industry: “unlock the value of the curb.” That’s because during the SFpark days, we invested so much effort into separating conversations about revenue and the curb. For too long, meters had been used to fill budget gaps – the discussion about rates wasn’t policy driven. So, I don’t like that base framing and prefer a policy lens – and then within it using pricing as a tool where it makes sense and can truly control demand. I think also after watching so many start-ups attempt to monetize mobility and fail, I have just somewhat accepted it has to be managed as a public good. If pricing deliveries and pick-up/drop-off can help manage demand/usage trends toward better outcomes, I’m all for it – but I still think there is a lot to learn there about the nature of the demand and what drives better outcomes - and some huge feasibility challenges there too.

Pete: That is a great point – I have also seen many startups try and monetize the “trillions” of commerce dollars and parking citations that are happening at the curb side, that perhaps the realities of the ecosystem such as enforcement, privacy, and dynamic timing, just may not be realized the way people theorize, despite my desires.

Lauren: It’s funny – during one project we got massive pushback from adding carshare spaces on-street at a reasonable fee – neighbors demanded they pay a massive meter recovery fee – citing that private companies should pay full price. Never mind that a personal vehicle is also private, has no public good value, and was getting a low rate. Of course, you and I know that shared mobility companies don’t exactly rake in billions. So I’m a big fan of monetizing pick-up/drop-off and deliveries when the technology allows in upcoming years (a huge if) and where we understand how it will impact demand (seems like a massive research need – are you seeing a research boon there?) – and of course the pricing signals for parking couldn’t be more important to healthy curb and street functioning. But I do bring a TDM lens to allocation – lots of things just won’t make money but still need space and I’m okay with that.

Pete: Another great point. Some transportation systems – I’m looking at you, transit and bikeshare – save money in other ways and are basically designed to run at a loss. I’ve heard cities complain that implementing (insert helpful mobility feature here) will decrease money made from parking citations, and therefore is not a good idea. Congestion is one of those intangible costs that may not directly show up as a line up on a budget but is an inherit betterment of the system that we aim to improve.

Check out the full conversation on the Journey Insights page and a quick intro video on LinkedIn.

A few interesting things. 🧠

🌳 Trees: The Tree Equity Score National Explorer Map now includes shade data for over 360 cities in the United States. Check out their feature on shade along school routes in Austin.

📊 Mobility-Productivity Paradox: The latest from Todd Litman at VTPI focuses on the inverse relationship between car-oriented development and economic productivity (PDF).

🪙 Fare Policy: Cal-ITP recently published a great guide (PDF) to setting transit fares and developing fare policies. Make sure to check out their full resource library.

🏃‍♂️‍➡️ Congestion Pricing: Rachel Weinberger & Will Cao present their latest findings on New York’s congestion pricing program. Short story: it’s working (even beyond Manhattan).

💼 Jobs: Sound Transit is looking for a Senior Urban Designer for their Station Area Planning team.

A quick Journey update. 🏗️

👩‍🏫 Upcoming Events:

📚 Book Clubs:

  • ACT Book Club: Journey founder Lauren Mattern hosts the monthly Association for Commuter Transportation Book Club. Join us for an upcoming discussion of Killed by a Traffic Engineer on on July 9th at 3:00 PM Eastern, with a special appearance by author Wes Marshall. Sign up here and earn 1 TDM-CP credit for attending.

  • Chicago City Builders Book Club: Lauren co-hosts the monthly Chicago City Builders Book Club with Marla Westervelt of CityFi the fourth Wednesday of each month at a location in The Loop. Next Wednesday, June 25, at 5 pm at CocoBar, they’ll be joined by Gregory Royal Pratt, author of The City is Up for Grabs: How Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Led and Lost a City in Crisis. Sign up here.

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