Managing curb space in smart cities: Opportunities and challenges for emerging urban mobility

Curb space is a scarce, multifunctional urban resource that supports parking, PUDO, commercial loading/unloading, public transit stops, and outdoor seating for certain businesses. The rise of on-demand mobility services, shared micromobility fleets, autonomous sidewalk delivery robots, and electric vehicle infrastructure has intensified competition for curb space, creating complex management challenges in smart cities. This study presents a systematic literature review of curb space management, synthesizing existing research on influential factors, management strategies, demand modeling approaches, and data collection techniques. The findings highlight key determinants of curb space utilization and the reported effectiveness of various strategies across different contexts. Key factors influencing curb space utilization, including user types, traveler behavior, land use, and temporal dynamics, are identified. Management strategies such as flex zones, dynamic pricing, automated enforcement, designated PUDO zones, and real-time digital platforms are evaluated for their potential to optimize curb allocation. Building on these insights, we propose an integrated framework that combines digital curb platforms, predictive demand models, and Pareto-efficient allocation mechanisms to enable real-time, equitable, and adaptive curb space management for both traditional and emerging users. The framework leverages heterogeneous data streams, from vehicle telematics to micromobility and delivery robot operations, to inform dynamic allocation and minimize conflicts. This study highlights gaps in current research, including limited evaluation of multi-user interactions, multifunctional curb usage, and challenges related to technical integration and privacy. The findings provide a foundation for future research on scalable, adaptive, and empirically validated curb management solutions that support efficient, sustainable, and inclusive smart cities.