The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) conducted the six-month pilot last year to explore the use of zero-emission deliveries across a 17-block area of downtown. The project tested the use of electric cargo bikes, e-trucks, curb management technology and other digital assets.
“We didn’t really have a good idea of what was happening on our curb, and what our utilization really looked like,” Russ Brooks, PBOT urban freight and logistics coordinator, said, noting video monitoring installed in the zone showed 75 percent of the time when a vehicle was in a loading zone, it was an unauthorized vehicle.
Brooks spoke on a panel discussion Tuesday organized by the Open Mobility Foundation (OMF) to hear from cities in its SMART Curb Collaborative, a collection of about 10 cities which received U.S. Department of Transportation Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) grants. The cities used curb data specifications to help support a variety of projects. The SMART program was created as part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The U.S. DOT has not yet announced a new round of grant funding for new projects.
Portland partnered with transportation technology company INRIX to digitize its curbs. Other technology partners included Automotus and Cleverciti who deployed cameras and sensors to help manage the zones, and the city developed a permitting process to register vehicles to use the zero-emission delivery zone.
“One of the big pieces out of the data collection and camera system was really a shared understanding of what was happening at our curb,” Brooks said.
Some 65 zero-emission vehicles were permitted to use the zone during the pilot. These included Amazon deploying its electric Rivian delivery trucks to the area. The carrier DHL purchased new EVs, and other local businesses “engaged in the zone as well,” Brooks said. Even the city purchased an electric delivery van.
Historically, Portland has taken a light touch to managing deliveries and other activity at the curb, officials said.
“The way the city works is, if it walks like a truck and quacks like a truck it’s allowed to park in those zones,” Brooks said.
Other vehicles, like those of couriers or DoorDash drivers, need a special permit to park in loading zones. Only about 120 of these permits have been applied for and issued, out of some 50,000 to 75,000 commercial vehicles in Portland.
“So that gives you a sense of how little we actually permit those,” Brooks said.
The project in Portland underscores the complexity of curb management, and the broader goals around electrified mobility.
“Technology alone is not enough,” Leo Burnett, OMF SMART Grant Collaborative program manager, said. “Operationalizing this, making sure you have support from your city’s leadership, from the top all the way on down, figuring out how to get the most out of your curb data. There are a whole host of items related to digital curbs that have really very little to do with your technology decisions.”
The collaborative process with cities working through their curb management strategies together will continue with the 2026 Smart Curb Collaborative at OMF, and municipalities including Omaha, Neb.; Arlington County, Va.; and Tacoma, Wash. They will continue to explore the use of curb data specifications, curb mapping and use cases particular to each city.
For Portland, Brooks said next steps include expanding a project to digitize city curbs.
“We see a new curb management strategy is the biggest sort of learning that came out of this grant. A much more ‘freight forward’ curb management strategy,” he said. “And so we’re still trying to figure out how we can put in a stronger digital infrastructure in the city, as well as a team to manage it.”
