Seattle Streamlines Parking with Digital Curbs

The city of Seattle is recognizing “the need to meet modern problems with modern solutions” by launching a digital curb management project to communicate the city’s parking rules to fleet operators in real time.

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has partnered with Populus to launch the Curb Data Specification (CDS) API – which was designed to communicate parking and curb regulations to connected fleet operators, such as delivery companies and autonomous vehicles.

“Seattle and Populus’ release of the Curb Data Specification (CDS) API represents a crucial step toward our vision of a safer, more sustainable urban experience,” shared Brian Hamlin, SDOT’s strategic advisor for curbside management.

“Seattle has a strong desire to improve curb access for users. Creating a standardized digital curb inventory in CDS now allows Seattle to communicate our curb regulations to connected vehicles and devices while also positioning us to better meet the future needs of urban mobility,” he added.

Populus noted that the CDS API will improve curbside efficiency and management and reflects a “new digital way of operating by cities to manage the future of mobility.”

“We are proud to be a partner in supporting the digital transformation of the City of Seattle’s parking and curb regulation data to support more efficient curbside management,” said Regina Clewlow, CEO and founder of Populus. “As the variety of use cases at curbs continues to expand, the need for tools to reduce conflicts, improve safety, and accelerate sustainability is as important as ever.”

Populus’ release of the CDS API is a key component of the technical infrastructure the company delivers to empower cities to digitally communicate new parking and mobility policies to connected fleet vehicles.

The Populus Curb Manager platform builds on this success, providing cities with new solutions to digitally inventory their curb regulations, publish them to curb users, and seamlessly collect revenue from connected fleets.

The curb rules key includes different colors that display whether the curb is loading, parking, no stopping, pick up or drop off, or no active rules.

CDS was initially released in January 2022 in Seattle, as an open data standard through city and private sector collaboration through the Open Mobility Foundation.

“The CDS standard is a two-way street for cities and operators to communicate digitally,” shared Andrew Glass Hasting, executive director of the Open Mobility Foundation, “We are thrilled to see how quickly cities are adopting this new standard to manage public space for the public good.”