Tag Archives: urban

Member News: Sidewalk Labs-backed Coord Selects Four Cities for Curb Management Pilots

Coord Selects Aspen, Nashville, Omaha and West Palm Beach for 2020 Digital Curb Challenge

The four cities partner with curb management platform Coord to pilot a Smart Zone program to better coordinate curbside loading, promoting safety, efficiency and local economic activity

 

NEW YORK— June 30, 2020 — Coord, the leading curb management company, today announced that the City of Aspen, Nashville, the City of Omaha and the City of West Palm Beach have been selected as Pilot Cities for the 2020 Digital Curb Challenge.  Each Pilot City will partner with Coord on a Smart Zone pilot program tailored to its unique mobility challenges, with the goals of reducing congestion, improving safety and supporting local economic activity. The programs come as cities increasingly look to curbs to meet communities’ changing needs, such as growing delivery, ride-hail and shared micromobility activity, promotion of sustainable transit like buses and bikes, and the need for more dedicated space for recreation and commercial activity.
Smart Zones, powered by Coord’s technology, enable commercial drivers to use the mobile devices they already use every day to locate nearby available loading zones and to hold, book, and pay for time in them. This creates opportunities for cities to better manage their curb space, while improving the loading experience for both delivery companies and local businesses.
By providing cities with information about when, where and how long drivers are loading, the Coord platform also supports data-driven operational changes. For example, cities can use this information to create more loading space where it’s most needed, or they can manage demand for it through pricing and time limits. Because Smart Zone availability, rules and prices are digitally communicated to drivers, cities can adjust rules for zones in response to policy changes, special events or emergencies without the hassle and expense of modifying signage on the street.

 

“We were delighted at the outpouring of interest in the Digital Curb Challenge from across the US and Canada,” said Stephen Smyth, Co-Founder and CEO of Coord. “We look forward to working closely with Aspen, Nashville, Omaha and West Palm Beach to develop and launch Smart Zone pilot programs that address critical mobility challenges in these cities and to demonstrate the power of the curb in creating significant, tangible impacts in their communities and local economies.”

 

Due to enormous interest in the Digital Curb Challenge, in addition to the Pilot Cities, Coord has selected nine other cities across North America – Vancouver, BC, Baltimore, MD, Sarasota, FL, Bend, OR, Norwalk, CT, Fort Smith, AK, Halifax, NS, Portland, ME and Walnut Creek, CA – as Cohort Cities. These cities will have a front row seat to the work that Pilot Cities are doing as part of the Digital Curb Challenge and will form a community for city leaders and staff to share best practices, learnings and resources across curb management.

 

About the Digital Curb Challenge Cities

 

The City of Aspen, an outdoor recreation mecca with a bustling downtown generating $1 billion in retail economic activity annually, is undertaking this pilot program to help streamline commercial deliveries serving the city’s many popular restaurants, retailers and other businesses.

 

“We are very excited that Coord has selected The City of Aspen to participate in their pilot program,” said Mitch Osur, Director of Parking at the City of Aspen. “This partnership will make it possible for us to discover in more granular detail how our loading zones are utilized. Our goal ultimately is to provide a more seamless, organized, and coordinated delivery experience for both our commercial vendors and our business owners.”

Nashville, one of the most visited downtowns in the United States, will undertake this pilot to better coordinate access to its curb space as an initial step toward rationalizing policies for commercial users of the curb in order to support broader city goals around safety and sustainability.

 

“With Nashville’s growth, the demands put on our extremely-limited curb space downtown have increased dramatically—from rideshare and transpotainment, to delivery services for freight, online shopping, and take-out dining,” said Faye DiMassimo, Mayor John Cooper’s Senior Advisor for Transportation and Infrastructure. “By partnering with Coord to pilot Smart Zones downtown, we hope to increase compliance with loading regulations, improve traffic flow and safety, accommodate rising curb-access needs, collect quality data, and ultimately capture the true cost of Metro-provided services to reframe and re-value private use of public space.”

 

Metropolitan Omaha, home to nearly a million residents, four Fortune 500 companies and thriving food and cultural scenes, is undertaking this pilot program to better coordinate access to its curb space for vehicles performing commercial loading in order to reduce congestion and safety hazards caused by double-parking.

 

“We are excited to participate in the 2020 Digital Curb Challenge with Coord.  This will support our organizational goals to provide a positive experience for downtown visitors by actively managing our curb space,” said Ken Smith, Parking and Mobility Manager at the City of Omaha.    “The Parking and Mobility Division looks forward to working with Coord and the other pilot participants to create data driven policies that will help the citizens and visitors of our metropolitan area.”

 

West Palm Beach, a vibrant, growing waterfront city, is undertaking this pilot program to better coordinate access to its curb space for vehicles performing pickups and deliveries in order to reduce congestion and safety hazards in the Rosemary Square area.

 

“West Palm Beach is committed to utilizing the latest in technology and data to drive transportation policies that improve the overall quality of life of residents and visitors in our city,” said West Palm Beach Mayor Keith A. James. “We are excited and proud to participate in the Coord’s Digital Curb Challenge and look forward to identifying new ways to optimize curb space management.”

 

Coord announced the launch of the Digital Curb Challenge in January 2020, inviting cities of all sizes across North America to apply to partner with Coord to undertake a curb space management pilot program to meet their cities’ unique needs. The Digital Curb Challenge was inspired by Transportation for America’s Smart Cities Collaborative, which focused on curb space management this year and generated tremendous interest.

 

Read more here.

 

About Coord
Coord helps cities manage their streets, starting with the curb. The company was founded in 2016 with the belief that streets should serve people – not vehicles. Coord is the only comprehensive curb management platform, empowering cities with the necessary tools to digitally inventory, allocate, price and operate the curb. The platform supports over 4.9 million curb spaces across 15 cities, with the goal of serving over 100 cities across the globe by 2021. Coord is based in New York City, and backed by Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs, Alliance Ventures, Trucks, Urban.us and DB Digital Ventures. Learn more at Coord.com

Weathering the Storm

Weathering the Storm

Simply put, life on Earth exists because of the presence of water. However, water is also a force of nature that can have incredible destructive capabilities. For that reason alone, it’s important for us as parking managers to understand how our operations affect our water resources, actively take steps to protect water quality and availability, and work to mitigate the damage water can inflict. That means paying attention to stormwater management.

Natural Ecosystems
In natural ecosystems, rain falls onto woodlands, wetlands, grasslands, or forests and percolates through soil and plant material to charge underwater aquifers or flow into streams and rivers. By percolating through the natural, organic materials, water is slowly absorbed and purified.

Through this process, the water’s speed and flow is tempered, and it is gradually reabsorbed into the earth. The soil itself holds the water, which reduces flooding and erosion. The amount of water that soaks into the soil is determined by the amount of organic material.

Urban Environments
In urban settings, the process that happens in natural ecosystems is interrupted. Permeable soil is covered by impermeable concrete and asphalt. Rain that falls on these hard surfaces quickly runs off the surface, carrying with it any oils or pollutants to streams and rivers. Depending on the chemical, pollutants can have deadly short- and long-term consequences for the natural environment and humans.

Because stormwater runoff moves quickly and with some force, it causes extensive erosion. Artificially channeling water increases erosion because it increases both the speed and volume of runoff. Erosion itself is a problem as it destroys natural habitats in streams and rivers.

There are other costs as well. Erosion can undermine the structural integrity of roads, parking lots, and buildings. For the parking industry, water can have large economic effects on an organization as the water can very quickly wash away the adhesive and waterproofing properties of asphalt and get into the pavement structure, allowing it to dry out, crack, and ravel. Erosion not only increases the amount of sediments carried by stormwater runoff, but sediment running off asphalt surfaces also has large amounts of petroleum products, corrosive chemicals, and fine metals. This affects plants and animals living in our streams and rivers.

Sediment also affects the surrounding water ecosystem in several ways by absorbing heat, blocking sunlight, and polluting the water. Sediments absorb heat, so a sediment-laden river will have a higher temperature than a clear river. Warmer waters hold less oxygen, which means fewer animals are able to survive.

Sediments in the water column block sunlight. Less light means less photosynthesis by algae and aquatic plants living on the streambed. This not only reduces the amount of oxygen in the water column, but also reduces the amount of food available to support the herbivores at the base of the food chain. This, in turn, means less food is available to their predators, such as fish, birds, and mammals.

Sediments sink to the floor of streams and rivers. This eliminates homes for aquatic invertebrates, an important food source for predatory fish. The sediments also smother algae and smaller aquatic plants.

Protecting the Water Supply
As discussed, impermeable concrete and asphalt alter the natural flow and quality of water in urban environments. Fortunately, there are steps that we in the parking industry can take to protect our water supply and our parking assets.

To begin with, we can address water quality issues by simply keeping our parking lots clean and asphalt assets well-maintained. Regularly sweeping our parking lots to remove trash and debris improves the quality of any stormwater running off the pavement. Promptly treating and cleaning fluids, such as oils and coolants, that leak from vehicles also reduces water pollution.

Parking lots and roads that are well-maintained at regular intervals can last for many years; maintenance offers significant cost savings as it is more cost efficient to maintain the asphalt than it is to build and rebuild. With a strong, durable surface, water will naturally flow off the surface as designed. However, damage to an asphalt surface will allow water to seep through, deteriorate the sub-structure, and compromise its ability to sustain the pressure of traffic loads. When the foundation beneath the asphalt is damaged, the surface is more susceptible to potholes, alligator cracking, and further water erosion.

In parking lot and roadway designs, we can funnel polluted stormwater into sewer systems so runoff is treated by the municipal water treatment plant. While this may be a convenient solution, it may not always be the most feasible one, especially if there is a large body of water such as a river or lake nearby. In several coastal states where sewers drain directly into the ocean, there are significant rules and regulations regarding stormwater management that mandate onsite mitigation and treatment of runoff.

Several landscaping and surface treatments can be used to reduce stormwater runoff, including incorporating the use of bioswales and permeable surfaces. Bioswales, such as rain gardens, are landscaping treatments used to slow, collect, infiltrate, filter, and store stormwater until it is reabsorbed into the ground. These drainage areas are often filled with native, water-loving plants that can tolerate being under water for short periods of time, but they can also simply be filled with rock.

In flatter areas, permeable surfaces, such as areas covered with pavers or permeable concrete, can be a good solution for stormwater. They allow water to penetrate below the surface and percolate through the soil below to recharge natural aquifers. However, permeable surfaces are susceptible to erosion as the speed of the water flow still plays a big role in runoff. Depending upon your water flow needs or landscaping plan design, you can slow down water and erosion damage by having it crash into larger rocks that are in the drainage channel where the water flows. The water expends some of its energy on the rocks instead of the surface treatment in the channel. If you slow down the water, it has less force, and with less force, there is less erosion and sediment.

While organizations can invest in alternative transportation programs and advances in technology that reduce parking demand, asphalt facilities to accommodate vehicle parking and travel will always exist. However, the need to address the political, environmental, and economic conditions created by stormwater will also continue to exist as the natural progression of the planet’s weather patterns continue. As parking operators, land developers, and planners, it is our obligation to ensure that we are aware of all of the options that exist to be able to understand what is at stake and appropriately allocate our limited resources and make the hard decisions for the future.

Irma Henderson, CAPP, is director of transportation services at the University of California Riverside. She can be reached at irma.henderson@ucr.edu.

Jennifer Tougas, CAPP, PhD, is director of parking and transportation services at Western Kentucky University. She can be reached at jennifer.tougas@wku.edu.

TPP 2016-12 WEATHERING THE STORM