Miami-Dade County SMART Curbs Program

Miami-Dade County Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTPW) received funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s SMART (Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation) grant program to improve curbside management, bike lane safety, and zero-emission urban freight through technology, sustainability, and community input.

As research partner, the Urban Freight Lab’s role includes shaping the pilot design, ensuring grant compliance, advising on technology integration, informing policy development, and leading shared learning across cities.

Selected from 392 applications nationwide, this project is part of a broader multi-city effort to build safer, more equitable and more sustainable freight systems by leveraging innovative technology and data.

Background

The Miami-Dade County SMART Curbs Program aims to transform streets across Miami-Dade County, Florida, with safer, cleaner, and more connected delivery solutions. Led by Miami-Dade DTPW and funded through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s SMART (Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation) grant program, this project combines advanced technologies, sustainable logistics, and public engagement to reduce emissions, improve bike lane safety, and support zero-emissions deliveries.

As part of a national multi-city collaboration, the program addresses complex challenges such as e-delivery and micro-freight monitoring, secure curb access and parking, and shared data tools to support better freight planning, policy development, and the modernization of last-mile delivery infrastructure.

Goals

The SMART Curbs Program goals are:

Create Safer Streets: Minimize roadway risks and reduce congestion with better curbside management and the adoption of zero-emission vehicles
Protect the Climate: Support Miami-Dade County’s climate goals by reducing emissions, promoting clean air, and encouraging sustainable delivery practices
Boost the Local Economy: Increase delivery efficiency, create jobs in last-mile logistics, and support the management of MicroFreight hubs
Engage the Community: Ensure input from all residents to guide planning and implementation.

The program includes SMART Loading Zones throughout Downtown Miami and Brickell. These zones are dedicated spaces designed to:

Streamline freight deliveries
Reduce curbside congestion
Improve urban safety
Advance zero-emission transportation goals

By addressing high-traffic areas with innovative solutions, SMART Loading Zones will create a more organized and efficient curbside experience for residents, businesses, and delivery drivers.

Urban Freight Lab Scope of Work

Task 1 – Project Management and QA/QC

Task 2 – Grant compliance and project management capacity support

The Subcontractor will work with Cityfi to aid the Client in certain elements of grant reporting and compliance. These include support of DTPW in development of the required Evaluation and Measurement Plan, compilation of the findings of said plan, problem statement definition and research framing.

Task 3 — Best Practices and State of the Industry Research

The Subcontractor will provide technical advice and best practice research, in particular, on the urban freight industry and operations. Research will include collaboration with DTPW project manager to assess pilot design in line with freight industry and local community needs.

Task 4 — Conceptual Design Support

The Subcontractor will support Cityfi, the Client, and public engagement and technology partners to allow DTPW to craft a conceptual design for demonstration deployment. Design will include multiple demonstration sites, assessment of anticipated users, integration of multiple technology partners, and public interface of technologies.

Task 5 — Technology Partner Integration Support

Multiple technologies and public agencies are involved in the micro-freight and smart curb zone demonstration. These entities must work together for a successful integrated demonstration. This will likely include new product development to enable the necessary integration and deliver outcomes desired by the County.

Task 6 — Policy and Regulatory Support

As with any new technology, form factor or service model, there is a high likelihood that new or revised policies, procedures or even regulations will be necessary to facilitate their demonstration and ultimate deployment. The Subcontractor will support Cityfi and DTPW with necessary policy assessments.

Task 7 — Collaborative Learnings and Exchange

DTPW was selected for a grant award as a member of a multi-city collaborative. It is the expectation of USDOT that DTPW will engage in shared learnings and exchange with other members of the collaborative to accelerate innovation and improvement across the nine participating cities.

Task 8 — Phase I Summary and Phase II Grant Support

At the conclusion of Phase I, DTPW must submit an array of materials to USDOT to compete for Phase II funding for expansion and scaling. The Subcontractor will support Cityfi in preparing an evaluation and summary report of the Phase I demonstration documenting indicators, accomplishments and outcomes as necessary to inform Phase II application.

Technical Report

Interview Results: Carrier Perspectives on Delivery Operations and Zero-Emission Zones in Downtown Portland

Download PDF (0.28 MB)

Publication Date: 2024

Summary:

In 2023, Portland was awarded a U.S. Department of Transportation SMART grant to pilot a Zero-Emission Delivery Zone (ZEDZ). Funding for this Stage One SMART grant will allow PBOT to trial changing three to five truck loading zones into “Zero-Emission Delivery” loading zones in downtown Portland. The Urban Freight Lab (UFL) was approached by PBOT to assist in their SMART grant implementation by providing subject matter expertise on the topics of urban freight, curb management, and freight decarbonization. The UFL team created a questionnaire and interview guide to inquire about current carrier operations, current and future fleet composition, and loading activities of carriers operating in the City of Portland.

The selected organizations were identified as carriers or organizations that make deliveries into the proposed Zero-Emission Delivery Zone (ZEDZ) in downtown Portland. The UFL reached out to over 20 different organizations spanning different business sectors and company sizes, from large national parcel carriers to regional wholesale distributors to small delivery companies. Ultimately, only four organizations responded to requests for interviews. Between June and August 2024, the UFL conducted these interviews. Table 1 provides an overview of the companies interviewed and their main business activities. Company and organization names are omitted from this report to anonymize the respondents.

The goal of the interviews was to understand the parking behaviors and fleets of individual companies. In particular, the interviewers focused on understanding the current delivery operations in the Portland area, the related parking and routing behaviors of their delivery drivers, fleet composition, and the challenges they face in performing deliveries in the study area.

Each interview was 1-hour long and was guided on a questionnaire reported in the appendix. The questionnaire was developed into three sections:

Organization – Describe their main business activities, logistics network and fleet composition.
Routing, parking, and payment behaviors – Description of typical drivers’ operations in the City of Portland and specifically downtown, including routing and parking behaviors, as well as use of paid parking and citations.
Future scenarios – Companies were asked about zero-emission vehicles and implications of the ZEDZ on operations.

This report contains the main results of the interviews, including a description of the logistics network infrastructure, delivery operations, and curb use behaviors. The final section provides the key lessons learned.

Zero-Emission Delivery Zone: City of Portland SMART Grant

The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) was awarded a nearly $2 million Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Grant by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) in Fall 2023 to pilot the country’s first regulated Zero-Emission Delivery Zone in downtown Portland and test digital infrastructure tools. This project will test an innovative set of incentives and regulations to better understand what technology and strategies municipalities can use to support and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the freight sector.

While other cities in the United States have piloted voluntary Zero-Emission Delivery Zones (ZEDZs) to encourage the transition of commercial fleets to zero-emission modes, Portland will be the first U.S. city to pilot a regulated ZEDZ. The regulated ZEDZ will be active during a demonstration period of approximately six months beginning in late summer/early fall of 2024. During this temporary demonstration period, the parking rules for all truck loading zones within the project area will be changed to prioritize access for zero-emission vehicles only (see Figure 1). Loading zones within the ZEDZ will be monitored by parking sensors, both before and after the approximately six-month long demonstration period, so that project staff can better understand the impact of this regulation. These loading zones will be referred to as Zero-Emission Loading Zones.

This pilot project will also test a variety of partnerships and incentives to accelerate the movement of “clean goods,” or goods with fewer negative impacts to health and the environment. This could include diverting existing deliveries into the ZEDZ to local fleets of electric-assist cargo trikes and electric vehicles, vans and trucks, or supporting local delivery companies in transitioning their own fleets to zero-emission modes.

This project is enabled by a nearly $2 million USDOT SMART Stage 1 pilot and prototyping grant. Depending on outcomes from this pilot project, PBOT will have the opportunity to apply for a Stage 2 implementation grant for up to $15 million to refine or scale promising strategies identified in the initial pilot project. The two stages of the SMART grant program are unique in that they allow the City of Portland to test several strategies on a small scale before exploring any larger-scale implementation. All of this work is in service to Portland’s values around climate and transportation justice: a safer, cleaner, and more equitable system for delivering goods and services.

Draft map of project area showing proposed zero-emission load zones updated in March 2024. Loading zone site selection will be refined with stakeholder input in late Spring 2024.

Scope of Work

The Urban Freight Lab (UFL) was approached by PBOT to assist in their Phase 1 SMART grant implementation. The UFL will provide subject matter expertise on the topics of urban freight, curb management, and freight decarbonization. They will support PBOT in the form of interviews and/or surveys to summarize current carrier operations, current and future fleet composition, and loading activities.

Task 1. Project management and subject matter expertise support
- Deliverables: Attend meetings and provide subject matter expert consultation as needed.
Task 2. Document how some carriers and delivery operators would be impacted by a zero-emission delivery zone (ZEDZ) in Portland, including understanding current and planned fleet composition, interactions with the curb, and barriers and opportunities for the City to support.
- Deliverables: Interview questionnaire and summaries of answers (we will aggregate and anonymize results). Draft and final technical memo, with one PBOT review of the draft