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.
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