From pilot to policy: Examining the transition towards institutionalized practices in freight curbside management

Streets are contested urban public spaces due to their limited availability. While they serve various functions, the needs of certain uses—such as freight—often have been overlooked in space allocation policies affecting urban livability. Recently, freight curbside management has emerged to address these conflicts, allowing service and delivery vehicles to better use street space, contributing to cities’ sustainability targets. Although pilots testing freight curbside interventions are a first step for policymakers to evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions, the transition from pilot to established practices remains underexplored. Therefore, the aim of this research is to understand the success and failure factors that influence the institutionalization process of interventions tested in freight curbside pilots. To achieve this, this paper analyses cases from various cities worldwide that have implemented such pilots, using the lens of institutional theory. Case selection criteria were based on the maturity level of freight curbside pilots. Specifically, the paper focused on those cases that had already implemented pilots, undergone monitoring, evaluation, and possible continuation processes. Data collection and analysis revealed coercive, normative, and mimetic forces driving change towards institutionalized practices. The data analysis identified 23 themes across four content domains, i.e., organizational, economic, technological, and regulatory. Successful institutionalization process relies on strategically selecting high demand loading zones and demonstrating public benefits. Enhancing user experience is also crucial. However, some interventions fail to become institutionalized due to regulatory constraints, business model issues, and land use regulations. This highlights the need for flexible, context-specific approaches. The analysis of institutional pressures revealed that coercive pressures influence transitions from themes related to the legal mandate of public agencies, pilot scope definition, and user experience, while normative pressures shape transition regarding public benefit, business models, stakeholder involvement, and data management themes. Mimetic forces guided early-stage pilots through lessons learned from cities with prior experience in curbside pilots. The findings provide recommendations and guidelines for the development of future pilots, useful for planners aiming at generating long-term curbside policies that solve freight-related street space conflicts. • Freight curbside pilots worldwide assessed through the lens of institutional theory. • Patterns for driving transitions towards established curbside practices after pilots. • Key coercive, normative, and mimetic forces driving practices institutionalization. • Learnings inform curbside space regulations for freight supported by digital tools.