The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) conducted the six-month pilot last year to explore the use of zero-emission deliveries across a 17-block area of downtown. The project tested the use of electric cargo bikes, e-trucks, curb management technology and other digital assets. “We didn’t really have a good idea of what was happening on our curb, and what our utilization really looked like,” Russ Brooks, PBOT urban freight and logistics coordinator, said, noting video monitoring installed in the zone showed 75 percent of the time when a vehicle was in a loading zone, it was an unauthorized vehicle. Brooks spoke on a panel discussion Tuesday organized by the Open Mobility Foundation (OMF) to hear from cities in its SMART Curb Collaborative, a collection of about 10 cities which received U.S. Department of Transportation Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) grants. The cities used curb data specifications to help support a variety of projects. The SMART program was created as part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The U.S. DOT has not yet announced a new round of grant funding for new projects. Portland partnered with transportation technology company INRIX to digitize its curbs. Other technology partners included Automotus and Cleverciti who deployed cameras and sensors to help manage the zones, and the city developed a permitting process to register vehicles to use the zero-emission delivery zone. “One of the big pieces out of the data collection and camera system was really a shared understanding of what was happening at our curb,” Brooks said. Some 65 zero-emission vehicles were permitted to use the zone during the pilot. These included Amazon deploying its electric Rivian delivery trucks to the area. The carrier DHL purchased new EVs, and other local businesses “engaged in the zone as well,” Brooks said. Even