Curb Management Plan

The curb typically is the border area that serves as a functional transition between the street and the sidewalk. Curbside areas serve many functions for the city’s transportation system, including vehicle and bicycle parking; vehicle, transit and bicycle lanes; passenger drop-off for taxis, shuttles, transit and ridehailing services (Lyft, Uber); loading zones for delivery vehicles; rental scooters; and on-street dining.

Curb management is the monitoring and regulating of different uses for curb areas. Curb management seeks to align curb uses with the city’s long-range transportation vision.

The CMP will be a holistic document highlighting existing practices, reflecting public feedback, identifying policy changes, providing recommendations to improve best practices and accounting for curb supply and demand. The CMP will also include a “pilot roadmap” and organizational recommendations for improved curb management practices.

Map depicting Urban Core neighborhoods. 

Today, most curb space is managed ad hoc, meaning that the city primarily addresses immediate challenges and citizen complaints. Additionally, the city lacks a consistent management framework that can be evenly applied across streets within the urban core neighborhoods of Bellevue. Currently, the city has limited resources for curbside enforcement. This can create less-than-ideal curbside conditions such as double-parked vehicles, vehicles blocking bike lanes or vehicles parked longer than the posted limits. Decisions on curb rules and designs are made across multiple departments, leading to inconsistent and inefficient outcomes.

Multiple public meetings with the Transportation Commission, Planning Commission and City Council have occurred throughout the project. In early 2022, the public provided robust feedback through various avenues, including an online questionnaire, focus groups and a Curb Summit event. The online questionnaire asked the public about their curb experiences and needs. The focus groups allowed the project team to hear from key stakeholders that interact with the curb. The virtual Curb Summit was open to the public and allowed practitioners to share findings, best practices and ideas for solutions. Throughout the project, city staff has met with stakeholders and organizations upon request.

Today, curb usage in Bellevue varies greatly across the urban core neighborhoods. In some areas, curb pressures create challenges for users, while curbs in some areas are underutilized. Generally, curb space use does not currently reflect city policies and transportation plans. Enforcement is limited, with few citations issued.

The CMP is setting the foundation for a regular data collection protocol to monitor curbside activities more effectively. Bellevue's curbs and users are always changing, and it will be important to evaluate those changes over time. The CMP will recommend adding ongoing data resources to track curb usage performance. Additionally, approaches within the CMP, including a “pilot roadmap,” will allow the city to test new ways of collecting curbside data and demonstrating curbside activities.

One role of the CMP is to ensure space at the curb is allocated equitably, reflects city priorities, and recognizes adjacent mobility investments and land use changes. First, it is helpful to know how the curb is used today and how that use compares to city policy. A curb “typology” is being developed to apply city policy to anticipated future curb uses across streets in the study area. There are many considerations for how curb space should be used in any corridor. The typology provides high-level guidance on usage so that decisions can be made consistently across Bellevue's core growth areas.

Demands for curb space are always changing, and demand management is a key pillar of a holistic curb management strategy. Every curb policy (i.e., the regulations and rules we see every time we approach the curbside) sends a signal to users about how they should behave. Curb demand management ensures rules and regulations are intentional and reflect city policy. Various demand management tools exist, and pricing is the most effective at balancing competing needs. Today, Bellevue employs curbside pricing primarily through permitted uses of the curb but does not have common standard curb pricing approaches such as paid on-street parking. The CMP includes demand management recommendations with details to be explored as a next step.

Supply and demand measures work together. Demand management tools help manage changing supply. Managing curb spaces has grown in importance as demands have increased over time. If curb supply is changed to accommodate a specific use (e.g., two parking spaces are removed to provide a loading zone), demand management tools can be used to reach key performance goals (like the utilization of parking spaces per block).

A curb pilot is a way of testing new curb designs, management, processes and technologies. A pilot intentionally trials an approach that could be scalable, if successful, and is informed by specific goals. The CMP includes a roadmap that identifies challenges, ideas and strategies for pilot concepts.

The CMP will include recommendations intended to improve curb-related practices and procedures. Early in the project, a policy framework from existing planning documents was identified and translated into project principles to serve as a north star during recommendation development. Quantitative and qualitative data have been collected to explore and confirm curb-related existing conditions that will inform recommendations. Feedback received from the public provides an important qualitative and values-based foundation for recommendations.

For policy deliberation and consistency, the Transportation Commission, Planning Commission and City Council have played an important role during key stages of the process. The Transportation Commission will primarily vet the CMP before City Council provides final input.

Curb / Curbside

The curb is typically the border area between streets and sidewalk spaces. The curb line often takes the form of a physical curb and gutter. Within dense areas of Bellevue like downtown, the curb line oftentimes acts as the official right-of-way line, delineating between public and private property.

In Bellevue’s CMP, “curb space” refers to areas within the public right-of-way closest to the curb line. Depending on the street, this curbside area can be used for various purposes, such as a travel lane, bike lane, on-street parking zone, loading zone or on-street dining area.

Urban Core

Urban Core refers to the four densest neighborhoods in Bellevue. These neighborhoods include Downtown, Wilburton, East Main and BelRed. The CMP study area focuses on the Urban Core.

Curb Demand

Curb demands include all competing uses of curb space within the transportation system. More traditional curb space demands include vehicle and transit traffic, on-street parking and bike lanes. In the last decade, newer demands have appeared and include rideshare pick-up and drop-off, small freight deliveries, e-scooters, bikeshare and curbside charging stations for electric vehicles.

Curb Supply

Curb supply is the inventory of all curb spaces and associated posted regulations for that curb space. The available curb supply is often reflected by posted signage (i.e., 2-hour parking, 15-minute loading, No Parking Anytime).

Curb Typology

Curb typology is a tool and language used to describe the general prioritization of curb spaces block by block. The typology is a high-level framework that will help the city and the public understand the long-range curb vision intended for any given block.

Curb Pilot Roadmap

The roadmap is a component within the CMP that will identify potential pilot projects to test new curbside technologies and strategies. It includes a schedule for potential pilots as mobility technology evolves. For example, the roadmap references autonomous (driverless) vehicles, but will see this as a longer-term outcome, recognizing that it will take many years before these vehicles are common on Bellevue streets.