Mapping the Law of the Land: Curbside Access

Andrew J. Hawkins shares news of a new tool released by Sidewalk Labs recently that makes visual sense of the way cities allow access to curb space lining busy streets.

According to Hawkins, "with the explosion of new mobility options like ride-hailing, car-sharing, and bike-sharing, and the looming specter of self-driving vehicles on the horizon, cities are starting to rethink how they allocate curb space." 

Sidewalk Labs response to these changing dynamics is called Coord, a new company "focused on helping cities and mobility companies better manage traffic congestion and parking problems on their streets through a cloud-based platform."

"After digitizing the city’s curbs, including parking meters, parking signs, and curb stripes, Coord condensed all that data into a map that’s searchable by date, time, vehicle type, and desired action," adds Hawkins.

Coord released a map of San Francisco's curbsides to demonstrate the power of the idea. Hawkins outlines some use cases and previews the new mapping tool at the source article.