Innovating digital curbside management mindfully with IoT technologies

Cities worldwide are rethinking the use of curbside space to balance accessibility, sustainability, and urban liveability. Yet, increasingly complex curbside regulations face low enforcement capacities and high misuse. This undermines policy objectives for efficient goods movement, sustainable urban mobility, and equitable access to the curbside. In response, municipalities explore static Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to digitalize curbside management. However, past implementations of static IoT technologies, such as in-ground sensors and cameras, have often failed to achieve long-term operation. This study investigates how static IoT technologies can support digital curbside management while recognizing local contexts. We examine this question through the lens of innovating mindfully, which conceptualizes innovating as a context-sensitive process that balances outside experience with decision-making grounded in local facts and specifics. Combining this lens with expert interviews and Design Science Research, we derive 16 principles and testable propositions for innovation adoption in the three phases that entertain outside experience: comprehension, adoption, and implementation. Our results show that IoT technologies are initially most suitable for enforcement challenges in no-parking, time-limited, and permitted parking. These lay the foundation for future user-oriented services. We thus propose an iterative process for innovating mindfully with IoT technologies. It allows cities to assess feasibility and avoid premature commitment, while iteratively building internal sensitivity and external legitimacy. The study advances transport policy research by offering a transferable framework for evidence-based policy designs and actionable guidance to enhance parking compliance, operational efficiency, and the integration of IoT technologies into urban mobility strategies. • Innovating mindfully as lens for IoT innovations in curbside management • 16 principles and propositions guide mindful IoT sensor adoption • Enforcement use cases as entry point for digital curbside management • User services follow as technical and institutional maturity grows