Kerbside management The right balance Data capture, digital TROs, real-time availability, demand-based pricing these are all buzzwords of the 2020s. But what impact do they have on residents and businesses, and are there any socio-economic effects of which we need to be aware? Louise Parfitt asks Matt Darst, senior director, parking and mobility solutions at Conduent, what lessons they have learned in the US ll traffic offences have different levels of social harm. If you are double parking downtown, the social harm congestion, dangerous conditions for other road users, increased emissions that youre causing is much greater than someone who has an innocuous registration issue out in a neighbourhood area. Matt Darst has worked for Conduent for the past six years. His team looks at data analytics to help local authorities manage parking and traffic flow, and improve sustainability. But as well as the goal of less congested roads and happier motorists, he is also aware of the wider impact of parking policies. In Chicago, we are helping the council to rethink the deployment of parking enforcement officers to try to improve equity, he says. Enforcement officers used to patrol areas every day, regardless of the need. And that unfortunately led to some unintended consequences such as over ticketing. He gives the example of a motorist parked on a residential street with an expired permit who receives a parking charge every single day. That created an unfair and onerous burden on disadvantaged communities. We worked with the city to rethink their enforcement zones based on enforceable miles and the likelihood of citations [tickets], and then better allocated the enforcement teams. Now officers may be assigned to A work a zone downtown every day, but those neighbourhood areas that dont have parking meters may only be visited twice a month. Prioritising schedules has been beneficial: disadvantaged communities are being issued fewer licensing violations, and by moving more enforcement downtown and into business districts, we are targeting people who are more likely creating congestion or dangerous conditions through illegal parking. Equitable access Darst is well aware that such targeted enforcement is no panacea for issues of high demand and not enough capacity. The American love affair with the car means there is perhaps more resistance to getting people to use other modes of transport than here in the UK. But Darst also points out that the car can be essential for disadvantaged communities, which are often further away from town centres and not well served by public transport. People rely on a car to get to work, school, healthcare facilities and even to the shops in areas that have become food deserts. The right answer lies in reducing car use where we can but also making parking and transportation part of the solution to creating a cleaner, more equitable society, he says. Los Angeles was one of the first cities in the US to employ demand pricing. Using sensors to collect data, Darst and his team were able to 24 PN Nov 2022 pp24-25 Conduent Kerbside.indd 24 26/10/2022 16:35