REAL ESTATE
Emerging Trends in Real Estate® United States and Canada
“We are on the cusp of the next upturn in the real estate cycle, and now is the time to be thinking about planning, laying the groundwork for the next two to three years of growth.”
https://americas.uli.org/research/centers-initiatives/center-for-capital-markets/emerging-trends-in-real-estate/2023-emerging-trends-americas/
Plans take shape for Colorado’s “last resort” property insurance for those with no other options
The state legislature in 2023 approved the Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plan, which gave Polis the authority to create the first new public property insurance program in the United States in 40 years. The Colorado FAIR Plan is expected to be in business in early 2025. It’s essentially building a new insurance company from scratch with new employees, fundraising and a business plan, said Kelly Campbell, the plan’s executive director.
https://www.denverpost.com/2024/12/22/colorado-fair-plan-last-resort-insurance-homeowners-commercial-property/
The US cities where central business district office vacancy rates are low
Central business district vacancy rates varied widely across the country in the quarter, Moody’s found. The highest were Dayton, Ohio, at 37.5%; Dallas at 34.4%; St. Louis at 33%; San Antonio at 31.4%; and Las Vegas at 30.7%. Among the primary office markets it tracks, just over half had CBD vacancy rates higher than their overall metro area vacancy average for the quarter. Looking at change in CBD vacancy rate since the pandemic began, the most-improved cities were Tucson, Arizona; Miami; San Bernadino-Riverside, California; Atlanta, and Rochester, New York, while those with the greatest declines were San Francisco; Austin, Texas; San Antonio; Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; and Denver. Cushman & Wakefield’s report looks at factors affecting downtown office occupancy. Crime has remained elevated in some downtown districts, increasing 10% to 15% between 2021 and 2023 in a set of 15 cities it tracked, while public transit ridership has only recovered to 79% of pre-pandemic levels. The daytime population of office workers in major cities remains below 60% of pre-pandemic norms, adding to challenges with transportation and safety, it states. Despite those challenges, downtowns are showing signs of resilience, the Cushman & Wakefield report states. “The nation’s downtown areas continue to be destinations for young, highly educated talent,” it says, for “lifestyle choices and access to a wider range of potential employers, public transit, affordable housing, and desirable social settings.” This provides CBD property owners and facility managers with opportunities to leverage talent pipelines, corporate ecosystems and employee experience strategies, it says.
https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/central-business-districts-show-employee-experience-opportunities/734855/
As office construction dries up, overall availability begins to contract
The national office availability rate peaked at 16.6% in the second quarter after rising an astonishing 460 basis points since the end of 2019. Though it remains above its previous peak recorded in the aftermath of the Great Recession, the availability rate pulled back to 16.4% as of the middle of the fourth quarter. However, the national office vacancy rate has continued to climb, reaching 14% this month. This phenomenon has caused the gap between office vacancy and availability to shrink rapidly.
https://www.costar.com/article/813628423/as-office-construction-dries-up-overall-availability-begins-to-contract
2024 was a record-setting year for office building conversions
The commercial real estate services firm CBRE finds that more than 70 office conversion projects have been completed so far this year, and 30 others should be done by the end of the year, for a total of 103. CBRE began tracking office conversions in 2016. That year 26 projects were completed, and the number has been growing slowly since then. The numbers began jumping up in the post-pandemic years and spiked in 2024. Compared to 2023, office conversions are up 63% in 2024.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91245596/2024-was-a-record-setting-year-for-office-building-conversions
Key Milestone in Expansion of Downtown Denver Development Authority Approved by Council
“The expansion and renewal of the Downtown Denver Development Authority represents a historic investment in our center city, one that the entire community should celebrate and rally around, and one that will be felt for generations to come,” said Kourtny Garrett, President & CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership. “City Council’s decision – which follows the overwhelming passage of Measure 6A, when nearly 80% of downtown voters said ‘yes’ to this bold investment – marks the beginning of what will be a true renaissance for our downtown. The DDDA brings unprecedented opportunity to build a more livable, connected, dynamic place for our city’s families, workers, businesses and visitors.” The Plan of Development approved by Council will guide the use of $570 million in funding for Downtown Denver.
https://www.downtowndenver.com/newsroom/key-milestone-in-expansion-of-downtown-denver-development-authority-approved-by-council/
Nuclear Power Makes a Comeback as Data Centers Adapt to Rising Power Demands
The cause of the growth? Well, it starts with us—reading this article online before we log into a Microsoft Teams meeting or fire off an email. Whenever we use an app on our smartphones or ask ChatGPT a question, our virtual activity is processed or stored in data centers, buildings filled with supercomputer servers. The surge in online activity, which stems from shifts to hybrid and remote work, alongside the growing adoption of AI requiring high-density computing, is driving increased data center demand. We’re creating more data than we used to, and we’ll inevitably create even more—at a compound annual growth rate of 23 percent, through 2030, according to a report by JLL.
https://urbanland.uli.org/resilience-and-sustainability/nuclear-power-makes-a-comeback-as-data-centers-adapt-to-rising-power-demands
One of Denver’s largest office tenants to slash downtown footprint
Elevance Health, formerly known as Anthem, will dump about 70% of its space in the 700 Broadway property in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, according to a report by Trepp, a real estate data provider that tracks commercial mortgage-backed securities. The health insurance company has long occupied about 350,000 square feet of the property and will downsize to roughly 106,500 square feet, a move that is expected to push the Broadway building’s vacancy rate to more than 65%. Once realized, Elevance’s share of the nearly 460,000-square-foot property will fall to about a quarter, according to CoStar data.
https://www.costar.com/article/2007514323/one-of-denvers-largest-office-tenants-to-slash-downtown-footprint
Tuff Shed founder buys company HQ office complex at huge discount
Tom Saurey, who founded Tuff Shed in 1981, bought the Centerpoint I and II buildings at 3900 E. Mexico Ave. and 1777 S. Harrison St. for $23 million, his firm announced. The two office towers total 374,000 square feet, making the deal worth $61.50 a square foot. Saurey bought the buildings from his former landlord at a huge discount. The seller, Florida-based TerraCap Management, paid $77.5 million for them in late 2019. At the time, they were 89 percent leased. The towers were 70 percent leased as of last week.
https://businessden.com/2024/12/09/tuff-shed-founder-buys-company-hq-office-complex-at-huge-discount/
Louisville real estate firm buys Tech Center tower for $20 million
With over 200,000 square feet, 7887 East Belleview Ave. in Denver’s Tech Center, the office building is 75% leased and was acquired for less than 50% of its 2019 sale price. “Belleview Tower represents an exceptional opportunity to acquire a premier office property in a high-demand location at a fraction of its previous valuation,” said RCS Chairman, CEO and founder Marcel Arsenault.
https://www.denverpost.com/2025/01/02/belleview-tower-office-space-tech-center-rcs/
Seismic real estate commission settlement has barely registered in Colorado
The National Association of Realtors and several of the country’s largest brokerages settled with home sellers who contested the common practice of sellers covering the buyer agent’s commission. The settlement came after the industry was hit with a $1.78 billion jury verdict against them last year. Agents representing buyers were required to have a written agreement in place stating the terms of compensation, something Colorado has long required. Agents were no longer required to put their listings on the local multiple listing service. And listing agents could no longer post the commission a seller was willing to pay to the other side. In theory, sellers could refuse to pay less or not pay anything, leaving it on a buyer’s shoulders, but that hasn’t been happening.
https://www.denverpost.com/2024/12/30/colorado-real-estate-commissions-realtors-agent-settlement-home-buying/
US office conversions could be up 63% in 2024 as cities remove barriers, real estate company says
Since 2020, 42% of completed office conversions and 52% of those currently planned or in progress have been in business-centric districts, according to CBRE’s November conversion report. The growing conversion activity is anticipated to reshape business-centric districts into dynamic mixed-use neighborhoods, the firm says. Older office properties that are largely vacant and within or near existing active mixed-use districts also present strong conversion opportunities, CBRE notes. Since 2020, 5 million square feet of office space in such areas have been converted to other uses, with an additional 17 million square feet of conversions currently in planning or development stages. Successful conversions, particularly those to hotels and multifamily housing, have the potential to enhance the vitality of these districts, the report says.
https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/office-conversion-projects-increase-this-year-cbre/734183/
Renters were expected to abandon downtowns and other urban areas. That’s not what the data says.
The nation’s urban cores — reeling from empty offices and fleeing residents — seemed destined for a prolonged slump. Multifamily developers, it was assumed, would follow the exodus, pouring resources into sprawling suburban and exurban markets. Yet, almost five years after the pandemic hit the United States, the data tells a different story. Despite initial demand shocks, urban rental apartments have not just weathered the storm — they’ve come back even stronger. Major U.S. cities, including Denver, Chicago, Houston and Phoenix have added thousands of apartment units within high-density neighborhoods. Downtown Denver alone saw more than 15,900 new apartments completed, adding a remarkable 33% to the city’s existing apartment inventory.
https://www.costar.com/article/1227106939/renters-were-expected-to-abandon-downtowns-and-other-urban-areas-thats-not-what-the-data-says
Denver planning department to invest $1.3M in AI-powered review tools
The permitting wizard would guide applicants through the permitting process similarly to how TurboTax guides its users through filing taxes. The tool would ask a series of guiding questions to make sure applicants meet the appropriate criteria for a permit before it is submitted for review. The plan review tool would function as a junior plan reviewer, Peek said. The tool would augment the work of plan reviewers by assisting with code cross-references and finding compliance issues like missed signatures and stamps without replacing them entirely.
https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2024/12/30/denver-planning-department-ai-tools.html
Macy’s is in deep trouble. It could be sitting on a gold mine
The investors claim that Macy’s real estate, including its flagship store at Herald Square in New York City, is worth up to $9 billion on the open market, nearly double Macy’s closing market value Monday of $4.7 billion. They say Macy’s can squeeze more value out of its real estate by paying rent to a subsidiary controlling the property. The company could also sell space to developers to build on Macy’s real estate, like hotels, apartments or offices.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/10/business/macys-real-estate-investors/index.html
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Homelessness up 18% in 2024
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said federally required tallies taken across the country in January found that more than 770,000 people were counted as homeless — a number that misses some people and does not include those staying with friends or family because they do not have a place of their own. That increase comes on top of a 12% increase in 2023, which HUD blamed on soaring rents and the end of pandemic assistance. The 2023 increase also was driven by people experiencing homelessness for the first time.
https://edition.pagesuite.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx
A Little-Known Federal Program Is Keeping Senior Housing Affordable in Denver
Since GRRP was introduced in 2022 through President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the program has paid over $1.43 billion, supporting 225 properties and more than 26,000 rental homes, according to data from HUD. GRRP program works like this. HUD-supported affordable housing providers can apply for up to $80,000 per unit in funding. The money must be used on upgrades that make the properties more resilient to climate hazards and improve residents’ quality of life. That can include HVAC system upgrades, projects that improve water efficiency, and transitions to renewable energy sources. The grants are not required to be paid back if the property owner agrees to keep the property affordable for 25 years.
https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/a-little-known-federal-program-is-keeping-senior-housing-affordable-in-denv
DTC office conversion, nine other Colorado housing projects awarded tax credits
The four-story structure will be hollowed out and transformed into 143 income-restricted apartments. The units range from studios to four-bedrooms, and will serve those making between 30 and 70 percent of the area median income. It’s poised to be the first office-to-residential conversion to begin in the Denver area since the pandemic. The 10 projects awarded tax credits by CHFA combine for 1,169 units, and were chosen from 32 applications. All developments selected will receive a 4 percent federal tax credit, along with additional state tax credits.
https://businessden.com/2024/12/04/dtc-office-conversion-nine-other-colorado-housing-projects-awarded-tax-credits/
ULI Global Awards for Excellence: Pioneering Affordable Housing Preservation in Austin
Unlike traditional private workforce housing funds, which are closed-end and typically require that properties be sold within five years to provide investor returns—usually at market rate—the Conservancy’s open-end structure allows for continuous capital raising and property acquisition while offering investor liquidity without forcing property sales. The ownership structure focuses on long-term (75- to 99-year) affordability, which provides steady, low-risk returns. Rent increases are limited to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s annual regional median family income adjustments.
https://urbanland.uli.org/finance-investment/global-awards-for-excellence-pioneering-affordable-housing-preservation-in-austin
Amazon’s $2.2 billion commitment to housing comes in small bites
Amazon provided a $3 million grant to a community group to start the 160-unit income-restricted development beside the Pacific Tower, an art deco landmark built on top of Beacon Hill in 1932. The tower served as the company’s headquarters from 1999 until 2010, when Amazon moved to South Lake Union. The grant is just a sliver of the $2.2 billion Amazon has committed to projects across the country, and it makes up a small fraction of the $120 million cost to build the first phase of Beacon Pacific Village. However, it illustrates Amazon’s strategy in choosing partners and projects in cities where the company has big corporate operations.
https://www.costar.com/article/2049364849/amazons-22-billion-commitment-to-housing-comes-in-small-bites
The Real Reason For America’s Housing Crisis
“The nature of housing demand has changed significantly in the last half century. The national shrinking of the typical household size means demand has dropped dramatically since the peak Baby Boom years of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Average household size in the U.S. in 1960 was 3.38 persons. By 2023 that number fell to 2.55 – a 25% drop. With smaller household sizes, the demand for housing has increased relative to our overall population gains. This has led to a two-fold problem: 1) the housing industry has continued building the kinds of large single-family homes that were most in demand for decades, and 2) the housing industry has been late to respond to rising demand for multifamily rental properties (which lagged in construction until the last 3-5 years or so). They’ve begun to fill the void but haven’t yet succeeded.”
https://petesaunders.substack.com/p/the-real-reason-for-americas-housing
Make it count: Measuring our housing supply shortage
Recent estimates range from 1.5 to 5.5 million units, with variation driven by a combination of methodological differences in calculating the shortage and different characterizations about what constitutes equilibrium in the housing market. In this brief, we examine the assumptions underlying existing shortage estimates and offer an updated estimate based on our preferred methodology. Our calculations show that the U.S. housing market was short 4.9 million housing units in 2023 relative to mid-2000s.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/make-it-count-measuring-our-housing-supply-shortage/
The Thanksgiving Effect – The national spare-bedroom supply could be put to better use
Consider: In 1970, the share of U.S. households with three or more people and the share of U.S. households with three or more bedrooms was about the same. Now, nearly two-thirds of houses have three or more bedrooms, but just 38 percent of households have three or more people. In part, this is the result of two long-standing trends: Houses keep getting bigger, while households keep getting smaller.
https://slate.com/business/2024/11/housing-market-affordability-real-estate-shortage-solution-vacant-bedrooms.html
New Report Explores How City-CLT Partnerships Preserve Affordable Homeownership
“Public resources invested in helping to expand homeownership were once routinely allowed to leak away when assisted homes resold. Today, a growing number of public officials are prudently committed to preserving those subsidies—and the hard-won affordability of the homes themselves—for many years. Municipalities are partnering with CLTs because they have proven their effectiveness in making that happen. CLTs remain in the picture long after a home is purchased, ensuring that affordability lasts, homes are maintained, and newly minted homeowners succeed.
https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/land-lines-magazine/articles/new-report-explores-how-city-clt-partnerships-preserve-affordable-homeownership/
Wall Street Landlords Loved These D.C. Suburbs. Rent Control Ended That
In July, Montgomery County and Prince George’s County enacted laws that limit rent increases to either 6%, or 3% plus the inflation rate, whichever is lower. Because the new laws restrict rent increases not just on apartments where tenants are living but also on vacant units, they are considered among the strictest in the country. Multifamily transaction volume in both counties was down 13% in the first three quarters of 2024 compared with the same period in 2023, according to data from MSCI Real Assets.
https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/wall-street-landlords-loved-these-d-c-suburbs-rent-control-ended-that-a8f166cb?st=5agp6q
Federally assisted affordable housing faces preservation risks, report warns
The report highlights threats to this type of housing: Although the U.S. added more than 104,000 homes to its federally assisted housing stock in recent years, it lost more than 71,000 such homes. Affordability restrictions are set to expire for more than 374,000 federally assisted homes in the next five years, and about 267,000 public housing homes failed recent inspections, meaning they likely require immediate investment. The consequences of not preserving this housing stock are higher rents and potential tenant displacement, the report says.
https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/federally-assisted-affordable-housing-preservation-risks-report/734971/
MOBILITY AND REAL ESTATE
The Great Migration lost its steam. Here’s what killed it.
Newly available research from Bank of America Corp. shows that fewer households made moves between cities over the past year. The analysis by BoA, using aggregated deposit data, says that inter-city moves fell 4% in the second quarter compared to the same period last year. The decline follows a 15% drop from Q2 2022 to last year’s second quarter 2023. The people who are still moving skew younger, Bank of America found, making it more likely they are moving out of necessity. Bank of America researchers said others are likely deferring their moves because of increased “hidden” costs of homeownership, including insurance and property taxes. The places that are drawing people on the move are different than the pandemic-era hot spots, as well. Columbus, Ohio, posted large gains in the second quarter, Bank of America found. The southern cities that drew in new residents during the height of the pandemic scored more mixed results. Gains were posted in Austin, Texas, but losses were recorded in Miami and Orlando, Florida. Coastal cities that saw declines early in the pandemic — New York, Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles, among them — continued to see declines in the second quarter of this year, according to Bank of America’s research.
https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2024/08/08/covid-pandemic-great-migration-over-housing.html
Colorado bought a Denver railyard for $50 million. 3 years later, it could be sold
The state originally bought the site, which is shaped like a banana and dotted with aging historic railroad buildings, from the Union Pacific Railroad. Selling it again would take many months. Eventually, the city of Denver would like to see the property redeveloped into a neighborhood, a process that would take years. The state still has some transportation-related plans for the area, too. Even if it sells the land, the government could still get permission to use parts of the yard in the future.
https://denverite.com/2024/11/25/denver-burnham-yard-sale/
Deprioritising cars beyond rerouting: Future research directions of the Barcelona Superblock
A critical perspective reveals challenges and research needs for a future research agenda along five domains: to quantify sustainability impacts, to perform integrated analysis, to determine optimal locations for implementation, to explore costs and to establish ways for their rapid realisation. Research along these domains is put forward to inform and guide the transformation of public street space to tackle liveability, urbanisation, climate adaptation and climate mitigation. The Superblock is an urban design concept that seeks to bring about a sustainability transition not only in re-arranging routes for cars but also in assigning space to alternative uses.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0264275124008230
16th Street Mall Project
The new 16th Street Mall features elements designed to help make 16th Street a desirable, engaging destination for all. Site furnishings, play features and moments of joy are being distributed up and down 16th Street in relationship to activity areas and adjacent land uses. Reconstruction is complete between Market and Curtis streets! Crews are on site at various locations along 16th Street. Businesses are open. A full closure at California and 16th Street began Jan. 2 and will remain closed through mid-January. The full closure at Cleveland and 16th began Sept. 30 and will remain closed through April 2025. The project is planned for completion in the fall of 2025.
https://denvergov.org/Government/Agencies-Departments-Offices/Agencies-Departments-Offices-Directory/Department-of-Transportation-and-Infrastructure/Programs-Services/Projects/16th-Street-Mall#section-3
There’s a new wrinkle in the return-to-office equation
“In 2025, we are likely to see an increase of RTO policies, but it is likely to be coupled with flexible remote options,” said Evans, adding that could mean more hybrid options, in which employees work part-time out of the office. “Remote work will continue to be available, but organizations and their leaders have lost faith in the productivity enhancement promises of remote work.” Return-to-office mandates have already impacted millions of workers, according to a study by on-demand space firm Gable and a team of economists. More than half of workers surveyed — about 57% — said their company has announced at least one round of return-to-office mandates since 2020. But 38% said their company has done more than one round while 6% said their company had been through five or more rounds of return-to-office mandates and policy changes.
https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2024/11/26/elon-musk-donald-trump-remote-work-return-rfo.html
More Americans are living in malls, as developers get creative to help ease the housing crisis
Some U.S. developers are knocking down department stores like Macy’s or JCPenney and using the spaces and their parking lots to put up apartment buildings next to the mall or connected to it via walkways and green spaces. In other cases, they’ve built apartments inside of shuttered storefronts and other shopping center properties or gutted them altogether to make way for a mix of housing, retail, restaurants, outdoor spaces and experiences.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/05/why-developers-are-building-housing-at-shopping-malls.html
MOBILITY
A $0 EV deal skips cash for valuable credits
A Fiat dealership in Colorado is turning heads by offering a 27-month lease on a 2024 Fiat 500e for $0 per month and no down payment. The lessee gets 10,000 miles a year before extra-mile fees kick in. The lessee has to pay taxes totaling about $1,300, plus registration fees and a $395 “disposition fee” at the end of the 27 months. Between the lines: Stellantis, Fiat’s corporate parent, doesn’t have many electric vehicles and likely needs to sell the vehicle to accumulate zero-emission vehicle credits, iSeeCars.com analyst Karl Brauer tells Axios.
https://www.axios.com/2024/12/17/fiat-taxes-colorado-electric-vehicle
China Is Building 30,000 Miles of High-Speed Rail—That It Might Not Need
The plan sticks to a well-worn economic model built on maintaining growth through infrastructure spending—even though China already has much of what it needs. It’s becoming a giant money pit. China has spent more than $500 billion on new tracks, trains and stations in the past five years, while the country’s national railway operator, China State Railway Group, is nearing $1 trillion of debt and other liabilities. Just keeping up with its debt requires $25 billion annually. While passenger numbers have rebounded following the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, raising ridership will be especially challenging in the years to come as China’s population is projected to shrink by around 200 million people in the next three decades. Some of the newest lines are in effect duplicating older ones.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/china-is-building-30-000-miles-of-high-speed-rail-that-it-might-not-need/ar-AA1ut4Pf
This unsung form of public transportation is finally getting its due
Gondolas may seem like an odd idea for urban transit, but they are uniquely strong in meeting these criteria. They provide transportation that is extremely frequent (a cabin leaves as often as every 12 seconds), fast (they don’t have to stop for any traffic signals or traffic), and reliable—three of the primary factors that researchers have found determine people’s choices to use transit over driving. Because gondolas run on electricity and do not use batteries, they can use 100% renewable energy.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91236860/gondola-public-transportation
Trends to Watch Shaping the Future of Mobility and Transportation
Some of the most successful transportation providers are actually in the private sector. Brightline has been hugely successful in Florida and has now broken ground on Brightline West, which is going to connect LA and Las Vegas. They’re providing a high-quality experience from the time you get to the station to the amenities and service on board, so that even if the time is comparable to driving or flying, it’s a much better experience. And they’re having a ton of success with that model, and they’re delivering it much faster than other high-speed rail efforts. Additionally, the federal government has investments that are coming from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and that’s a big growth sector over the next 10 years.
https://www.gensler.com/blog/trends-shaping-future-mobility-transportation
Colorado’s train dreams are shunted aside for a major bus expansion
RTD built a first-class light rail system radiating spokes out from the assumed downtown Denver core of economic and social life. CDOT has built out the Bustang intercity network throughout the state. Local governments are filling in neighborhood buses and “last mile” transit options like biking and walking. BRT will get more people, faster, across town, between rail stops, and to major employers dug in next to the busiest streets.
https://coloradosun.com/2024/12/08/colorado-bus-rapid-transit-expansion/
Report: 18 of the nation’s significant bridges are being repaired or rebuilt
In 2021, President Joe Biden said his goal was for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to fix up to 10 of the country’s most economically significant bridges. Monday’s announcement outlined 18 bridges that were awarded grants of $100 million or more to go toward an estimated project cost of more than $250 million. Collectively, these bridges are crossed by more than 1.2 million vehicles a day, and an estimated 57.2 million trucks annually.
https://transportationtodaynews.com/news/34511-report-18-of-the-nations-significant-bridges-are-being-repaired-or-rebuilt/
Congestion Pricing Has Begun! Here is the ONLY Explainer You Need
New York City entered the age of congestion pricing at 12:00:01 a.m. on Sunday. Here are the answers to all your questions. A lot of this traffic in Midtown won’t be there anymore (unless President Trump, hovering in the background) does something. Well here we are — the beginning of the age of congestion pricing. It finally happened after literal decades as a mere idea: One failed push in the aughts by then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg then a successful push in the 2010s by environmental and transit advocates with an eventual assist from former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who now more than anything wants you to forget that he was the guy who twisted arms in Albany to get it done.
https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/01/05/congestion-pricing-has-begun-here-is-the-only-explainer-you-need
Mobility chameleons: The current and potential users of shared micromobility
Although mobility chameleons are present in all study areas, their share in the population varies. Regarding potential future usage, people’s willingness to travel by shared micromobility in the future is much higher than the present usage levels captured. Modelling the potential demand revealed that while many factors similarly influence the likelihood of travelling by bike and e-scooter sharing, the significance and strength of the effects vary for the two modes.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214367X24002308
Cruise’s robotaxi service will likely shut down as GM pulls its funding
Ultimately, the project became too expensive for GM to justify the huge amounts of money spent to prop it up. And the automaker found it increasingly difficult to convince its shareholders that the money-losing operation would eventually pay off. The robotaxi subsidiary lost a staggering $3.48 billion in 2023 and has been seen by some as an albatross for the automaker, sucking up cash and lacking a clear path to profits. “Given the considerable time and expense required to scale a robotaxi business in an increasingly competitive market, combining forces would be more efficient and therefore consistent with our capital allocation priorities,” GM CEO Mary Barra said in a call with investors Tuesday evening.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/10/24318259/gm-cruise-shutdown-robotaxi-super-cruise
From 9-to-5 to Anytime: How Telecommuting Changes the Traffic Game
As we look across these 83 cities, it’s clear that remote work has brought relief to some areas while leaving others just as crowded as before. The cities seeing the most benefit from WFH were those with a flexible, remote-friendly workforce and a supportive economic structure. For fast-growing cities, or those with heavy industry or logistics, WFH alone wasn’t enough to solve congestion. Telecommuting has no doubt reshaped our roadways, but it’s clear that tackling urban congestion will require more than just a remote work policy. As cities continue to grow and evolve, the future of urban mobility will rely on creative solutions, from smarter infrastructure to updated transit options, to keep America’s cities moving in this new, work-from-anywhere world.
https://www.planetizen.com/features/133110-9-5-anytime-how-telecommuting-changes-traffic-game
Drone delivery has last-mile potential. This CEO explains how it actually works
The average package that’s delivered into neighborhoods every day weighs 8 pounds or less. In fact, most of those packages that are delivered into neighborhoods weigh 3 pounds, and 90% of those packages sit on a shelf within five miles of the home. But how do we deliver it? We take multi-ton, carbon-emitting trucks, [and] we drive them 17 to 20 miles to distribution centers. We load them up with all these 3-pound packages, and then we drive through neighborhoods, clogging roads and clogging our air. So if you look at it from a cost standpoint, if you look at it from an environmental standpoint, if you look at it from a safety standpoint, if you add all those things together, that all equals one thing: With e-commerce going up 2% to 3% per year, it’s simply not sustainable. We’re talking about replacing it with a quieter, safer device.
https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/drone-delivery-last-mile-droneup-ceo/735177/
How Uber and Lyft Are Gearing Up for the Robotaxi Revolution
The ride-hailing leaders are preparing to bring driverless taxis to your door with new app features that allow customers to use their phones to open trunks and honk horns. They are building infrastructure to maintain the high-tech taxis and training human support staff to handle riders without drivers. Both companies will have driverless cars—from Alphabet’s GOOGL 2.85%increase; green up pointing triangle Waymo and others—on their apps this year. In the coming months, riders in Austin, Texas, and Atlanta will be able to hail a Waymo through the Uber app. Lyft plans to offer May Mobility’s driverless taxis in Atlanta. Uber and Lyft have agreed to maintain these driverless fleets. They are finding locations to store the cars, equipping them with chargers and high-speed internet, and training workers to maintain the cameras, lidar and other gadgets that driverless vehicles depend on. “This level of nitty-gritty, it takes years to build,” said Andrew Macdonald, Uber’s senior vice president of mobility. “It’s not something you can do by flipping a switch.” The ride-hailing giants are reacting to growing signs that driverless technology may finally be ready to spread beyond a few experimental markets.
https://www.wsj.com/tech/uber-lyft-self-driving-taxis-a3659c9c?st=pegdUL
Denver drivers hit with nation’s biggest surge in traffic delays
Drivers here over the past year faced the fastest increasing traffic delays in the nation, according to a global transportation data firm’s latest analysis. While Denver ranks 15th among the most congested U.S. cities (New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles top the list), the delays increased by 19% between 2023 and 2024. Drivers on metro Denver roads during 2024 lost an average of 44 hours to traffic jams, up from 37 hours in 2023, the analysis by the Seattle-based company INRIX found. In New York and Chicago, residents lost an average of 102 hours in traffic. In Los Angeles, they lost 88 hours. The average speed of a vehicle moving toward downtown Denver decreased by about 7% to 13 miles per hour, said Bob Pishue, senior analyst for INRIX and author of a report released Monday morning.
https://www.denverpost.com/2025/01/06/denver-traffic-delays-increase-drivers-vehicles/#:~:text=Drivers%20here%20over%20the%20past,19%25%20between%202023%20and%202024.
