How existing streetside tech can be reinvented for the future
Kerb appeal
One emerging asset class desperately crying out for reimagination now is the lowly kerb and sidewalk — a crumbling city expenditure where pedestrians trip and accessibility literally falls apart, requiring city lawyers and public works employees to collaborate on improvements. Like the obsolete pay phone structures, why can’t the kerb become something more?
Capturing, reimagining and unlocking the full value of this asset requires a bold local government environment open to challenging thoughts, combined with new technologies and data. New ideas about assets generally emerge when a city gathers insights that combine an understanding of broad changes with knowledge of potential new uses. A new conceptualization often originates outside of the city department tasked with the management of the asset because the use may be unrelated to that department’s day-to-day activities.
I recently interviewed Gabe Klein and Ahmed Darrat of Cityfi to see how they thought about the future of the kerb and sidewalk. As prior city employees, (Klein as Transportation Director in D.C. and Chicago and Darrat in senior management and advisory roles at the Seattle Department of Transportation) they bring both in-depth knowledge of government practices and insights from the cities and private vendors they now advise.
Klein predicted the large number of current disrupting factors such as COVID-19, increasingly ubiquitous delivery vehicles, scooters and bike shares will produce opportunities. Since proposed and current uses which compete for kerb or sidewalk space rely on devices that generate and capture data, one could both redefine the sidewalk itself as well as the data it powers as assets. For example, insights gathered from sidewalk usage and parking demand and turnover can assist transportation departments and health officials now working on reimagining streets for café tables or conversion to bike lanes.
To accomplish these data-driven enhancements, Darrat explains that cities need a platform that allows them to move from analogue to digital and in turn maintain a “two way relationship at the kerb and be exchanging information in real time because operations at the kerb require real time dynamic management.”
New value from old assets
Senior leaders in local government must be open to viewing a future where they can develop new revenue sources from old assets. Unlocking this value will require a few basic steps:
Changing lifestyles, new technologies and shrinking budgets should force city hall toward more creative ways to support residents. Reimagining public assets like the sidewalk and kerb through new, innovations-centered processes might be just the recipe to challenge old assumptions.
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Story byCities Today
Cities Today is the leading news platform on urban mobility and innovation, reaching an international audience of city leaders.Cities Today is the leading news platform on urban mobility and innovation, reaching an international audience of city leaders.
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