Controlling the Curb

Proper Curb Management Requires a Detailed Understanding of Parking Demand, Particularly Through Highly Accurate Real-Time Occupancy Data

 

By Dan Mathers

 

In recent years, use of the curb and curbside management has rapidly evolved and continues to change, becoming a major topic of conversation within many communities. From increasing delivery activities to the use of curb space for outdoor patios for restaurants and other businesses, demand for use of the curb has never been so dynamic.

 

These factors have made the curbside such a critical aspect of parking and mobility management. Cities cannot manage and improve their parking and mobility without having a clear understanding of the demand for the curb and its current uses.

 

This article will summarize the basics of curbside management and explain how understanding both supply and demand will enable communities to take control of the curb, yielding desirable outcomes and providing the highest return on investment.

 

Defining Curbside Management

The definition of curbside management is quite broad and can vary from location to location and organization to organization. However, the common denominator involves developing programs and policies to better understand supply, optimize usage, and manage the curb space for better mobility, safety, and access.

 

Curbside management can encompass multiple measures to drive successful outcomes:

 

• Digitizing the curb to get a detailed understanding of the curb inventory
• Defining curb use cases for paid or unpaid parking, loading zones, electric vehicle (EV) charging, 
 Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, quick stops, and other influencing factors
• Refining management approaches for policy and enforcement
• Understanding results versus desired outcomes to drive adjustments to policy

 

Because the physical curb is a limited resource, it is increasingly important for municipalities to embrace effective, flexible systems and strategies that optimize their use of the curb. Curbside management can play a critical role in meeting key outcomes specific to a community’s needs like reduced traffic congestion, greater safety, and improved access.

 

Understanding Supply

 

Many curb use cases compete for space, including delivery, rideshare, EV charging, accessibility, and streetscapes. However, most curb space is used for paid or unpaid parking stalls so people can get out of their vehicles to shop, dine, work, and play. A good place for parking managers to start their curbside management journey is to understand their parking inventory and the interests of their community.

 

For example, some communities may simply need to know the approximate number of stall types, like paid, short-term, and accessibility stalls. Once they collect this information, they simply enter it into a spreadsheet. Others may want a deeper understanding of their city’s existing curbside ecosystem, so they would need a full inventory of parking plus other curb uses, like safety zones for fire hydrants, loading areas, and the like, and then map this information into a geographic information system (GIS).

 

Newer technologies can be a valuable aid in curbside management by helping understand and maintain curbside inventory. Curbside management solutions can serve as the single source of truth for planning purposes, bridging the gap between basic spreadsheets and complex GIS systems. Curbside management solutions can often provide additional capabilities like data aggregation, reporting, and tools to help drivers find parking like digital signage, a website, or mobile application.

 

Understanding Demand

 

Understanding demand requires measuring curb utilization, including occupancy levels, dwell times, and turnover. To understand how the curb and available parking are being used, cities, universities, and institutions can leverage several different methods and technologies, including parking studies, license plate recognition (LPR) data, payment data, and stall occupancy data.

 

The most common method of understanding demand involves performing a parking study that comprises spot checks to measure occupancy and utilization. Based on the data collected during the spot checks, a report can be generated outlining strategy recommendations. Although parking studies can be useful, they can be expensive, and generally only offer a snapshot of occupancy since they are typically only done once every couple of years. Because communities are dynamic and circumstances constantly evolve, by the time the parking study is complete and the recommendations provided, they might not be as relevant for the current situation.

 

LPR data collected by enforcement vehicles is an existing data source that cities may tap into to understand curbside demand. Although it can provide more up-to-date data than a parking study, it too offers only a snapshot of demand. In many communities, significant privacy and usage concerns exist related to the use of LPR data beyond enforcement, so these must be considered too.

 

Parking payments is another source of data that some communities try to use to understand parking demand and guide drivers to available parking stalls. Although payment data can provide insight into general occupancy trends, this data has its limitations, as it is only available during the days and times that payments are required. For example, many communities do not require payments on weekends, holidays, or in the evenings. In addition, studies have shown that up to 50% of drivers don’t pay for parking even when required.

 

As such, utilization data based only on payments will likely be low quality and not suitable to drive effective curbside management policies. Furthermore, the absence of data for the days and times when payments are not required results in an incomplete data source for determining parking availability and guiding drivers to open parking spaces. So, a spot might seem “open” based on the payment data that is integrated with the guidance app, but it’s actually occupied, frustrating drivers and increasing traffic due to cruising.

 

Stall occupancy data collected via sensors, cameras, or other technology can provide a robust data set that will give a deeper understanding of occupancy. This approach provides real-time, accurate data on curbside usage, as data is obtained all day every day, including on days or times when payment is not required, resulting in complete parking usage visibility.

 

Accurate occupancy data is critical to help parking organizations achieve desired outcomes. Understanding “true occupancy” requires occupancy data having an accuracy greater than 99.5%.

 

With this accurate data, communities can develop a clear understanding of how existing curbside resources are being used and implement and monitor effective policies on an ongoing basis. The only way to gather this insight is by means of a reliable, accurate, external vehicle-detection system that collects data 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year long.

 

Any solution for assessing real-time parking demand must be thoughtfully designed, with the desired outcomes in mind. In the end, the success of a community’s curbside management and parking program depends on aggregating multiple data sources, including real-time true occupancy data, payments data, and data from other sources, into a single platform to influence driver behavior through parking policy.

 

Achieving Outcomes

 

Each organization seeks unique outcomes when starting its curbside management journey. Commonly desired outcomes include reduced congestion, fewer emissions, and increased safety and access for drivers and pedestrians. How to achieve these goals?

 

Ultimately, outcomes are achieved by influencing driver behavior. Armed with real-time occupancy data, entities can shape behavior through curbside policies, by sharing real-time parking information with drivers, and through ensuring compliance with the policies they set.

 

On the inventory side, planning and policy decisions will affect how curb space is allocated and the curbside regulations — like parking time limits and fee structures — that can influence parking behavior. However, the quality of those decisions largely depends on the caliber of the demand information. In addition, continuously monitoring the demand side is the only way to know if an entity’s decisions are having the desired effect or if adjustments should be made.

 

The best way to monitor demand is to have a reliable, accurate, real-time system for detecting stall occupancy and monitoring parking events continuously. Implementing this type of solution helps better manage inventory. It also unlocks additional methods to help influence parking behavior. Specifically, the real-time availability information can be shared with the public to help them find parking through a website, mobile applications, and digital signage.

 

One area sometimes overlooked when discussing curbside management is the role of enforcement. If the occupancy data meets the “true occupancy” accuracy standard, this data can be combined with payment transaction data to measure payment compliance. It can also be used to measure, detect, and send alerts for overstays. Because the information is real-time, it can be leveraged to intelligently direct enforcement activities, providing a cost-effective tactic to ensure compliance.

 

Arlington County: Curbside Management in Action

 

In 2023, Arlington County, Virginia, initiated its comprehensive, award-winning Performance Parking Program to better manage its curbside and improve the driver experience. The program substantiates a key element of the county’s Master Transportation Plan calling for the use of “parking meter pricing strategies that vary by hour and location to better match parking availability and demand.”

 

The county sought to improve the user experience by:

 

• Making metered parking spaces more available, more often
• Sharing useful information about parking options in real time
• Reducing the negative effects associated with the search for metered parking (cruising, double parking, and the like)

 

The county selected eleven-x’s eXactpark smart parking and curbside platform to accurately monitor 4,500 metered parking spaces, most of which are on-street and along the curb. With this platform in place, the county was able to continuously collect data on its curbside stalls and surface lots.

 

This true occupancy data gave parking managers a rich understanding of the uses of their curbside. For example, in some areas, Sunday has the highest average occupancy with unique parking patterns. Because parking is currently free on Sundays, introducing paid parking then may help reduce traffic congestion on the busiest day of the week.

 

The data also revealed that peak occupancy hours often extend well into the evening past the 8:00 p.m. end time for paid parking. The end time could be extended to help balance utilization in the evenings. Conversely, parking use is quite low in the early hours of the paid parking period that begins at 8:00 a.m. Starting the paid parking period later in the day to better align with peak times may make sense in some areas.

 

The county also found that parking behavior is hyper-localized, reinforcing the need for real-time continuous occupancy detection at the stall-level to make effective demand-based pricing adjustments.

 

The data also showed that dwell times and occupancy levels — two metrics critical to understanding parking behavior — are uncorrelated. Compliance rates vary significantly across the community and are much lower than expected. This rate is important when considering how price changes will affect parking behavior. If people are unlikely to pay, changing the price will have little effect.

 

The county has already begun leveraging its insights to update curbside regulations and adjust parking fees. Now that it has data based on actual demand for specific days and times, it has updated the parking rates for select spaces on a quarterly basis, decreasing or increasing prices, to influence driver behavior.

 

Developing Lasting Strategies

 

Communities across North America face similar core problems: parking seems insufficient and the curbside remains a scarce resource. This concern will grow as municipalities reduce the requirements for adding additional parking as a condition of new construction development.

 

The solution to the problem is complex. The perception of inadequate available parking occurs largely because parking is not available at peak times in areas where people seek it. Ample parking may be a block or two away, and availability can change significantly within a matter of hours. To solve the problem, communities must ensure that parking is available anytime, anywhere a driver wants to park.

 

Fortunately, this goal can be achieved by deploying solutions that provide live, accurate data. Having real-time occupancy data not only enables the development of policies that help effectively manage the curb, but facilitates the communication of the information to drivers through digital signs, a website, and mobile app. Correctly guiding drivers helps to balance occupancy across all block faces, ensuring the efficient distribution of parking occupancy and usage across all parking assets and the curbside.

 

Although gaining an accurate understanding of curbside supply and demand may seem daunting at first, communities that do so can begin to develop lasting strategies that benefit all members of a community. Communities and organizations big and small throughout North America are already deploying curbside management solutions that provide true occupancy and accurate continuous data. As a result, they have been able to implement programs and policies that have improved curbside management in their areas, and their community members are already reaping the long-term benefits.

 

Dan Mathers is the co-founder and chief executive officer of eleven-x. He can be reached at dan.mathers@eleven-x.com.