Cities move beyond surveys with live kerb data
23 January 2026
by William Thorpe
Cities including Los Angeles, Miami and Atlanta are using camera-verified, real-time kerb data to inform how parking, loading and passenger pick-up space is allocated and priced, as transport teams look to move away from static kerb rules based on infrequent surveys.
The cities are among 13 where block-level kerb occupancy data is now live through an integration between INRIX and Automotus, covering nearly 400 continuously monitored kerb segments. The data provides minute-by-minute visibility into how individual kerb spaces are used, including turnover, duration and violations such as double parking.
Michael Schwartz, General Manager for City Software Solutions at INRIX, told Cities Today that traditional kerb surveys often leave cities making long-term policy decisions based on limited snapshots of behaviour.
“The traditional method of surveys only gives you a point-in-time analysis and cannot provide any certainty on how the spaces behave more thoroughly,” he said. “Cities are essentially making all their policy decisions with limited information and assuming that what they collect on a given day makes sense.”
Schwartz said surveys remain the best option available to many cities, but are labour-intensive, costly and poorly suited to capturing how kerb demand fluctuates by time of day or day of week. By contrast, combining predicted occupancy data with camera-verified observations allows cities to see patterns continuously across the network.
“With the cameras, cities can understand minute-by-minute use of specific spaces, including things like turnover, duration and violations,” he said. “It essentially does the work of an always-on survey.”
According to Schwartz, this level of visibility allows cities to test different kerb allocations more quickly, shifting space between general parking, commercial loading and passenger loading in response to observed demand. Pricing changes can also be evaluated in near real time.
“They can quickly make decisions about the right mix of kerb by time of day and day of week, and then get immediate feedback on the effectiveness of those changes,” he said. “That makes it possible to evaluate and iterate, rather than waiting months to see if something worked.”
Schwartz said the longer-term aim is to support a shift from static kerb rules toward more dynamic, demand-led management, underpinned by a shared digital view of the kerb that cities and third-party services can rely on in real time.
“We are building the ecosystem where there is a digital source of truth that can be relied upon the way people rely on signs and meters today,” he said.
Main image: Radu Razvan Gheorghe | Dreamstime.com
