KerbFree in London

KerbFree is a kerbside decision-support platform developed to help local authorities plan and evaluate changes to street space in a transparent, evidence-based way.

The project addresses a common problem in urban planning: streets are dominated by car parking, yet councils face pressure to reallocate that space for walking, cycling, loading and greenery. Changing kerbside use is disruptive and difficult to reverse, so planners need a reliable way to understand the likely effect of a change before committing to it. Traditional approaches rely on static surveys or predictive models that are difficult for councils and residents to scrutinise.

KerbFree was inspired by the need for a rigorous, transparent planning tool that gives planners confidence without asking them to trust an unexplainable prediction. It combines smart cameras and environmental sensors, which use AI purely to classify street activity such as pedestrians, cyclists, vehicles and loading versus parking, with a parametric scenario model built entirely on published, real-world evidence from comparable UK and European schemes.

The main objective of KerbFree is to give Lambeth Council an interactive scenario sandbox for planners to test kerbside options, such as converting parking bays into seating, cycle parking or greenery. It provides a credible, source-backed range of effects on traffic, footfall, active travel and the balance of kerbside uses, before anything is dug up.

KerbFree tackles the problem by pairing continuous sensor data with an evidence-based model: every figure the tool produces can be traced to a published source, so results are auditable rather than asserted, directly answering the common concern that AI planning tools are unexplainable black boxes. The project is delivered by EYYA Group Ltd, working with Lambeth Council. It is live on Abbeville Road, Lambeth, London, from July 2026, with co-design workshops and on-street testing used to validate and refine the tool’s estimates.