Critical
Organizational Structure
An organization’s structure reflects an entity’s approach to managing curb space either traditionally, as a parking authority /program, or forward-thinking, by integrating planning, design, operations, and maintenance of this public space. Progressive organizations coordinate these responsibilities, encourage collaboration, and assign decision-makers that understand and balance the competing demands.
To move from a traditional parking program to a progressive curbside management program, an organization must begin to assemble all the demands at the curb under one umbrella division, department, or authority to enable prioritization / decision-making, manage assets, and allocate funding resources.
A world class organization possesses a curbside management program that includes: (1) planning (prioritizing curb use, development review, integration with environmental goals); (2) a street design team including traditional parking, shared mobility, and Complete Streets expertise; (3) operations for all modes of transportation; (4) maintenance for all curb uses including stormwater management; and (5) authority to price the users of curb space. The program understands the importance of balancing the use of the sidewalk furnishing zone, curbspace, and curb-running lane based on input from internal and external stakeholders. World class programs engage with the curb space users (tenants and service providers) to make informed decisions on optimizing this valuable resource.
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DEFINE & measurE
success
To successfully transform from a traditional parking program to a progressive curbside management program, entities need to define a vision for the program that manages the competing demands for curb space and aligns with their culture and values. With that vision in place, it is critical that progressive programs set goals, objectives, and performance measures to track progress in achieving the vision.
World class programs broaden parking focused performance measures such as revenue generation, parking space occupancy and turnover. These measures (1) optimize person movement at the curb; (2) ensure access for all; (3) reserve the highest priority space for safety / emergency access; and (4) align curbside management practices with the entity’s broader goals and performance measures such as sustainability.
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Leadership
This critical element assesses support from elected officials and senior officials. Regardless of the passion and desire of curb space managers to implement progressive programs, entity leadership support is critical to the success of the transition and sustainability of a progressive curbside management program. Further, entity managers can be greatly influenced by effective leadership, either by being enlightened by the vision of leaders or supported (sufficient resources and consensus building) by leadership to implement progressive programs.
World class leadership includes officials that not only support new policies for progressive curbside management, but also champion resources and policies for a new curbside management approach. Understanding emerging trends, listening to internal and external stakeholders, and delivering budget and CIP resources for entities to implement progressive initiatives are vital sub-elements to this assessment that must be proactively collaborated between curbside managers and entity leadership.
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curbside inventory
Understanding curbside assets as a foundation to make informed decisions:
To effectively plan, manage, optimize, prioritize, regulate, and price the curb space portion of an entity’s street right-of-way, it is critical to possess an accurate and up to date inventory of this space. A basic, traditional on-street inventory includes vehicle parking assets such as spaces with dimensions, regulations / restrictions by day of the week and time of day, meter locations and technology, and other pertinent information such as parking district / pay-by-cell zone. A traditional asset management foundation for curb space includes all linear uses of the space such as fire hydrant locations and buffers, transit stops / shelters / stations, commercial loading, taxi and food truck reserved space, and many other traditional uses.
Progressive programs include the traditional inventory but also overlay shared mobility facilities, curb running priority bike and transit lanes, and ecommerce docking areas.
World class entities expand the inventory to detail the use of the sidewalk frontage area, curb space, and curbside travel lane modal priority. These entities also subdivide the designation by time of day / day of the week to enable a dynamic assessment / optimization. These entities are creating a foundation for a CAV ready approach (granular to CAV needs) to inventory and manage allocation of curbside based on time of day / day of week / pricing changes.
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