Bellevue Curb Management Plan

The curb management plan includes a toolbox of 28 policy recommendations and an action-oriented pilot roadmap for quickly getting key initiatives off the paper and into practice.

With a growth trajectory outpacing most mid-sized cities, Bellevue is at a mobility crossroads. Booming growth, major investments in light rail, and new mobility services and travel patterns have increased pressure on Bellevue’s curb space, especially in the downtown core.

Nelson\Nygaard led a team of consultants to develop a comprehensive curb management plan (CMP) to rethink Bellevue’s curb management approach and identify opportunities to leverage the curb for more users. Our first phase of work included a holistic state of the curb assessment that inventoried key assets, policies, and processes. We convened a virtual Curb Summit, at which local stakeholders, regional partners, and national curb practitioners shared their experiences and best practices. These early efforts helped the team build momentum and generate buy-in from key decision makers, leading to the successful adoption of curb-supportive amendments to the City’s comprehensive plan in late 2022.

The CMP included an innovative curb typology framework that helped Bellevue visualize, describe, and categorize different curb uses and align them with existing modal plans and policies. The typology will help the City by supporting development review, managing day to day operations, and streamlining testing and deployment of new technologies and services. The CMP also includes a toolbox of 28 policy recommendations and an action-oriented pilot roadmap for quickly getting key initiatives off the paper and into practice.