Kerbside Utopia to enable MaaS
Little is written on the impact of the changing mobility landscape on the urban landscape. Yet, in order to make Mobility-as-a-Service and shared mobility work, and to handle e-commerce growth, our streets have to adapt.
From parking management to kerbside management, from the classic division of street lanes into driving and parking zones into multiple purpose zones, this is what our future streets might look like. One thing's for sure: they must change to welcome the new mobility landscape.
1. Various mobility modes, various purposes
From scooter wars to bike bans. It is obvious how cities around the world are struggling to fit the new mobility modes in the current public space. Our modern streets are dominated by cars, even though roads were not always designed for that purpose. Historic city centres in particular were often created for pedestrian, cyclist or horse use only; leading to no surprise that the increase of cars made streets hyper congested, blocking any kind of transit.
To cope with traffic congestion and air pollution, and influenced by the shared economy, the exclusive use of the car is being complemented or in some cases even replaced by a variety of mobility modes. From Segways over scooters to shared bikes and shared cars, all these vehicles are requiring their slice of the street pie.
The issue lies in the harmonious and safe coming-together of all these vehicles on the same part of the road. The pavement resembled a war zone in some cities. However, that should not be the case. Streets should be redesigned in order to free up space from the car and turn it into space for the new mobility zones. We all accept designated pedestrian, cyclist and even bus lanes, why wouldn’t we accept separate scooter lanes, for instance?
2. Parking vs pick-up and drop-off zones
Another important part of the road that is taking up by cars today is car parks. An increasing number of cities is reducing the amount of parking spots on the streets, re-using the space for other mobility forms such as cycling lanes, or creating pick-up and drop-off zones.
This increasing shared mobility and mobility on demand does not require permanent parking spots. They require pick-up and drop-off zones. Moreover, specifically dedicated pick-up and drop-off zones can increase the traffic flow, since streets today often lack this kind of zones, forcing shared and on-demand vehicles to wait for their passengers on the driving zone and blocking transit.
3. Relocating parking
Additionally, docked shared vehicles have fixed parking spots – from scooters to cars – which can be located strategically as a part of the entire MaaS offer. For instance, locating them near transit hubs makes it more appealing to take public transit into the city centre and makes it possible to locate the car parks outside the city centre or outside more congested centres.
Dockless shared vehicles on the other hand, can be parked anywhere in theory. This causes a lot of criticism as they can be seen as obstacles by other users of the public road. However, more and more shared vehicle companies are creating designated zones in which the vehicles should be parked, even adding the risk of fines if the parking rules are not followed. These zones should obtain a dedicated space in the redesigned parking zones.
4. Fixed zones vs flexible zones
The previous example demonstrates how the kerbside is changing. Moreover, in order to align with the flexible new mobility landscape, the kerbside has to be managed in a flexible way as well.
The most efficient use of the kerbside and of the mobility system as a whole can be found in flexible zoning, rather than fixed zoning. For instance, rather than dividing the kerbside into loading zones, parking zones and others, various time slots of the day could open up the space for various purposes. If done right, efficient kerbside management enhances the traffic flow in a city throughout the day.
For instance, in the early morning, or during the night, the kerbside can be dedicated to loading and drop-off zones for traders and parcel deliveries. During rush hours they can be dedicated to drop-off and pick-up zones for shared mobility forms, from carpooling to ride hailing. During the day, when most people are at work, they can be converted into short-term parking spots, or station zones for little shared vehicles such as bikes and scooters. During the weekend they can be freed up entirely to provide ample pedestrian space and turn the street in a pleasant zone for active mobility forms such as walking, cycling and, why not, scootering.
5. Driving forces behind these evolutions
This kerbside utopia could be reality sooner than we would think, since various factors are driving the evolution, and some strategies or elements are already being implemented today in various smaller pilot projects.
Soon, this evolution could be pushed even further, creating the ideal environment for the deployment of our new mobility landscape.
- Environmental concerns and concerns about air pollution are driving cities to impose diesel bans, create low emission zones or even ban combustion engine driven traffic altogether.
- The upcoming shared economy and the push for services and experiences rather than goods is driving shared mobility and Mobility-as-a-Service as well, which will require a changing use of the public space.
- The growing global population, with a rapid increased urbanisation as a consequence, will increase demand for non-congesting transportation modes, and hence bring other mobility forms on the streets, while creating the need to tackle traffic congestion.
As a result, the mobility landscape will change, and so must the urban landscape, in order to provide the best conditions to deploy an efficient, sustainable, safe, reliable and non-congesting mobility system.
Image: La Défense business district, Paris
