Curbivore 2024: Recent Wins in Curbs, Roads, Sidewalks and Transit Systems

Laura Bliss

Today, we’re going to be discussing the changing face of streets and curbs in cities around the country as municipalities work to meet the changing needs of residents. I’d like to start by introducing the work of the panelists to frame the conversation. Let’s begin with you, Jordan, as Automotus works in cities all over the country. You’re putting up cameras to automatically charge, force capture and share data around curbside events. Are cities bouncing back?

Jordan Justus

We work with cities to deploy automated curb management solutions including monitoring loading zones, bus stops, bike lanes, time limited parking, etc. We’ve seen changes as consumer behavior shifts. However, policy has been slow to adapt. For example, 90% of parking is for personal use, but in cities, we see more than half of demand coming from commercial actors such as Amazon, Uber, DoorDash. There's a lot more short-term use demand that is not being accounted for in existing policy and pricing models. Additionally, we also work with several cities on zero emission zones and we’re seeing upticks in EV adoption.

Laura Bliss

I want to ask Marcel about Los Angeles. Specifically, how have the mobility patterns altered here, and is that changing the work you're doing at LA Metro?

Marcel Porras

Clearly, we’re still recovering from post pandemic. There’s a more prevalent ‘work from home’ reality that's shaping the way people exist in their neighborhoods. Right now, a major focus for transit is trying to get people back on the system. The other thing the pandemic presented were opportunities to think about how we could re-envision space. Take Al Fresco and how it changed the look of sidewalk dining. That was also a unique time for us to partner with the City of Los Angeles to implement bus priority lanes. Just last week, we unveiled four miles in the valley of bus only lanes after having received federal funding from the $139 million Reconnecting Communities grant. We're also in the process of launching a pilot for bus lane enforcement.

Laura Bliss 

Downtowns are continuing to struggle with the decline of in-office work while we're seeing many residential neighborhoods doing well or even better than they were prior to COVID. Debs, you are working closely with the Biden administration to expand charging infrastructure and other future of mobility initiatives. Does your work bear in mind these trends or are you planning for a return to a pre-pandemic urban geography?

Debs Schrimmer

I'm with the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, a new federal office created through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law focused on electrifying the transportation network. For us, it's not just about private car ownership. It's about shared mobility services. It’s about scooters and other micro mobility devices. It's about electrifying transit. It's expensive to bring power to the curb, to build depots for buses. We want to dig once and then be able to plug in as many modes as possible. I think that's the best way to use these historic investments, not just build the transportation system for today but think about the future.

Laura Bliss 

Gene, Tranzito is working with public agencies around California to develop bike share networks, storage systems and rethink the transit experience. A particular focus of yours is integrating new forms of mobility here in Los Angeles, correct?

Gene Oh

It is often the rich who reap the benefits of new tech, whether it's on-demand package or food delivery or rideshare such as Uber. Those that suffer are then individuals who ride the bus now contending with clogged lanes. There exists an insatiable demand for curb space but a finite supply. As the supply and demand mismatch continues to grow, those who have the supply, the cities, are going to be able to exert more leverage. I believe there’s an opportunity for cities to focus on infrastructure and then allow private industry to stack their features on top with lowered operating expenses. It provides private companies a reason to opt into city-wide policy decisions.

Laura Bliss 

I want to pick up on something that you started to talk about, Marcel, and that is the massive strides in transit expansion happening in Los Angeles. In 2023 alone, there were 30 miles of bus only lanes added. Can you speak to the importance of that work?

Marcel Porras

While Metro is one of the first movers in the country around bus electrification, what's going to reduce the most emissions is more buses on the road. It’s one of the most effective climate strategies. This is something we're also very conscious of as part of our strategy for the Olympics. One of the biggest opportunities we have is to leverage the games to push out bus only lanes to accommodate the influx of people in the region.

Laura Bliss 

Can you talk about the enforcement pilot you are running?

Marcel Porras

You can enact bus only lanes, but they are only effective if there is enforcement. However, these infractions are not necessarily where we want to be deploying law enforcement. What we’d like to do is work with the city to alleviate those kinds of resources through leveraging technology. A proof-of-concept was run last year, and we’re looking to expand that implementation this spring.

Laura Bliss 

Jordan, how does the work that you do at Automotus fit into those challenges? What other kinds of hurdles are you seeing with the cities you partner?

Jordan Justus 

It's not about writing more tickets to generate revenue; it’s about changing behavior. We do a lot of fixed camera enforcement for things like street parking, bike lanes and bus stops. What we see is that people don't follow the rules. We’ve found your average bike lane is blocked for two and a half hours a day. We’ve also found that most people, once they receive a ticket, comply. In cities where we have deployed automated enforcement, there’s been reductions in double parking by over 75% and increases in turnover accessibility by more than 50%. While enforcement isn't always the sexiest topic, it's often what leads to changes in behavior.

Laura Bliss 

I’d like to hear more about mobility hubs. Gene, what work are you doing in this area?

Gene Oh

A mobility hub is not just a place. It's three things in one: it's physical, it's digital, it's policy. All three of these components must work together. Ultimately, the backbone of smart city mobility are buses. Digital then must be incorporated as that's how private industry interacts with physical spaces. We want governments to focus on the infrastructure and use that as leverage to help private industry fill in the mobility gaps. Policy is then needed to help with the framework. All these disparate locations may look different, may be differently sized, but they should all interact in the same manner. So, what is a mobility hub? It’s the combination of physical, digital, and policy. You start with the infrastructure, and then you build on top of that.

Laura Bliss 

As you're thinking about the target audience for these hubs, is it about ensuring existing riders stay in the system or attracting new users?

Gene Oh

It’s about taking what is already happening in mobility and layering incentives. For example, take the bus stop. That person taking the bus needs to have a last mile trip. A scooter company now wants to be there because they're getting free power, they can place their docks. Now, what if scooter companies give low-income fair transfer passes for bus riders? Currently, bus riders are vetted for low-income verification as part of the Low Income Fare Is Easy (LIFE) Program.

Laura Bliss 

Debs, your office is also working on mobility hubs. Can you give us your definition and what that looks like at the federal level?

Debs Schrimmer

As Gene articulated, when thinking about mobility hubs, there's the physical, the policy, and the digital. Many cities around the country are still in the nascent stages on the digital side. There's a fantastic program out of the Department of Transportation called the SMART program. This program is funding numerous technology programs, including helping cities code the curb and build databases which are foundational to creating mobility hubs. On the physical side, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is a historic investment in our nation's infrastructure and is helping fund many different programs. My office helps support the Federal Highway Administration’s National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program as well as the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) program.

Last year, we had our first round of CFI funding with awards announced earlier this year. I was excited to see that some of the projects that got funded are thinking about: How do ebikes fit into this ecosystem? How do we prioritize charging solutions for individuals that live in multifamily housing and can't charge at home? That's a huge barrier. About 80% of charging happens at home. What do you do if you live in an apartment building, and you don't have access to parking? Or if you're a renter and your landlord won't let you install a charger? A lot of the charging stations that we're helping deploy try to solve for individuals that can't charge at home. I think LA is thinking creatively about how to charge at the curb. They're doing cool work that plugs into streetlights, leverage existing infrastructure.

I want to bring it back to what Jordan was saying on the enforcement side. One use case that I think cities will need to look out for is the enforcement of what vehicles are using curbside charging. New York City DOT's curbside EV charging pilot has been facing issues where people are parking their internal combustion engine vehicles in EV charging spots. As premium parking spaces go to support curbside charging, people will try to game the system and enforcement will play an important role.

Laura Bliss 

Can you speak more about your office and your role at the intersection of transportation and energy? 

Debs Schrimmer

The Biden-Harris administration has ambitious goals to build a national EV charging network of over 500,000 charging stations by 2030 and to decarbonize the transportation sector by 2050. It's not just a transportation problem nor just an energy problem that we need to solve. We need to bring those disciplines together. Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation was created to be singularly focused on deploying billions of dollars towards this issue and keeping the agencies accountable. I believe it could be a model for other large, multidisciplinary initiatives and an exciting way to help the federal government move more quickly.

Laura Bliss 

Marcel, what can cities and public agencies do to support private operators that are promoting availability and functionality of EV infrastructure?

Marcel Porras

For one, ensuring standards are in place and interoperability across a region is critical. We’ve seen a first phase where the emphasis has been to just get infrastructure out there. Then questions around equity were introduced. We’re now at a stage where we’re thinking about points related to: Are people cutting cables? Are people stealing copper wire? Are people trying to game the system? This next phase will be about envisioning the future of implementation.

Debs Schrimmer

The challenge of vandalism and cutting cords is something we're seeing across multiple projects we’re supporting, and I think there's an opportunity to test new models for providing public curbside charging. The Joint Office is working with the company itselectric. They have an interesting hardware solution that utilized the concept of “bring your own cord” where the cord doesn't live on the street. We think it may help support some of these vandalism and theft issues while providing operators more financially sustainable operating costs. Itselectric will be rolling out a pilot program in four cities across the country this year.

Laura Bliss 

I want to touch on another important aspect of curb life, walking. We are still seeing pedestrian deaths at very high levels. Jordan, how does pedestrian safety factor into the enforcement work you do?

Jordan Justus 

It’s at the core. The number one priority of transportation is to make safe streets on which people can walk, bike, and drive. A key element of that is ensuring people adhere to the rules of the road. Part of what complicates the issue is having administrations that turnover every four years with differing priorities.

There are several policies that have proven effective for cities. Hoboken has had zero fatalities for the last seven years after making a few relatively simple changes including removing parking near intersections, additions of slow streets and instituting protected bike lanes.

Laura Bliss 

Anyone final thoughts before we close?

Gene Oh

I think with the new technology coming, we can utilize policy and digital means to alter physical structures. Take LA Express Park™ which encompasses 37,000 meters, 34,000 of which are connected to the internet. Imagine those parking meters, with one press of a button, becoming loading zones.

Marcel Porras

The Olympics are coming. But even before that, the World Cup is coming, the Super Bowl is coming. I would encourage everyone to think about what opportunities these events pose and how you can uplift your communities and networks.

Laura Bliss 

Thank you so much, everybody.