REAL ESTATE
The New AI Corridor: How the US, Europe, and Middle East Are Rewiring the Future of Digital Infrastructure
For decades, global infrastructure strategy revolved around oil pipelines, shipping lanes, and manufacturing hubs. Today, a new geopolitical network built on fiber networks, power grids, semiconductors, hyperscale campuses, and artificial intelligence (AI) compute is emerging. What began as a race to build cloud regions and hyperscale data centers has grown into a contest over AI sovereignty, energy security, real estate strategy, and economic influence. The next decade of AI development will be determined not only by those who build the best models—but also those who control the underlying digital infrastructure.
https://www.morganlewis.com/blogs/datacenterbytes/2026/05/the-new-ai-corridor-how-the-us-europe-and-middle-east-are-rewiring-the-future-of-digital-infrastructure
Triumph of the Spanish city
In the 1880s, the population of Spain was still very rural: only 26 percent of Spaniards lived in towns of over 5,000 people, against 56 percent in the United Kingdom and 43 percent in Belgium. Spaniards were far poorer than northern Europeans, meaning that fewer of them were able to afford a single-family suburban home. But although they were materially poor, Spanish cities were relatively highly planned by the standards of the time. Municipal governments drew up street plans and required landowners to implement them, creating well-designed street networks with generous endowments of public space. The Eixample district that is now Barcelona’s city center is the most famous example, but similar schemes governed the growth of nearly all major Spanish cities.
https://worksinprogress.co/issue/why-spain-has-the-worlds-greatest-cities/
The Rise of Build-to-Rent Housing
The build-to-rent, or BTR, industry has been in the spotlight recently because of a major federal housing bill, the Senate’s 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. This bill, which is ostensibly designed to stimulate the building of new homes, includes a provision aimed at preventing large institutional investors from owning single-family homes. This provision, section 901, requires institutional investors (companies that own more than 350 single-family homes) to sell any build-to-rent homes to individual homeowners after seven years. Because BTR involves building a home and then retaining ownership of it to rent out, this provision threatens the fundamental business model of the BTR industry. Since the announcement of this provision, funding for new BTR projects has virtually ground to a halt while investors wait to see whether the bill actually passes.
https://www.construction-physics.com/p/the-rise-of-build-to-rent-housing
Knock down, drag out
In a city still struggling to inject life back into its downtown after the Covid-19 pandemic emptied offices, rebirth is a concept on many minds. As the number of weekday employees in Denver still lags at about 65% of 2019 figures, according to the Downtown Denver Partnership, city leaders want to change downtown from a business-focused area to a complete neighborhood where people live, shop and work. To help usher in that transformation, Denver aims to eliminate 7 million square feet of vacant office space downtown, according to the city’s latest Downtown Area Plan.
https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2026/06/04/building-demolition-downtown-denver.html
Is demolition on deck anytime soon for Denver’s downtown mall?
At a recent Denver Downtown Development Authority meeting, city leaders outlined the approach the authority will take toward the outdoor mall, and it does not include demolishing any of it any time soon. Instead, the city will focus on honoring existing leases, possibly leasing to new concepts and improving the physical status of the mall. The city will also prepare a request for proposal with a tentative timeline of opening by the end of the year. That RFP will leave room for developers to suggest demolition as part of their efforts, according to Bill Mosher, Denver’s chief projects officer.
https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2026/06/12/dda-denver-pavilions-demolition-leasing-plan.html
No, Denver Doesn’t Have “America’s Emptiest Downtown”
As for that “emptiest downtown” claim: It refers to a single data point, the share of office buildings that are empty, as measured by the real estate company CBRE. Denver’s commercial vacancy rate in the last quarter of 2025 was 38 percent, the highest among the 50 biggest American cities. This is definitely a problem, though it’s one that worries CEOs more than it does the 22 percent of Denverites who work remotely, and who enjoy not having to sit in rush-hour traffic. Maybe our city’s embrace of remote work (we’re way ahead of the national average of 13 percent) is something to celebrate, not bemoan. Regardless, commercial occupancy is a narrow measure of what makes a city vibrant. Another data point worth a look is the number of people actually walking around. Last month, downtown foot traffic was back to 95 percent of what it was during the boom of 2019, according to the Downtown Denver Partnership.
https://5280.com/no-denver-doesnt-have-americas-emptiest-downtown/
Inside the real estate supporting SpaceX’s growth ambitions
The property signaled how the company would shape its real estate around its goals: targeting cities with existing property networks and talent related to what are now its three core business lines: space, internet access and artificial intelligence. The company is “building the integrated hardware and software infrastructure of the future,” SpaceX said in a regulatory document filed on May 20. The company added that it’s looking to unify its business lines with the goal of creating “orbital data centers,” or AI networks in space.
https://www.costar.com/article/1367721202/inside-the-real-estate-supporting-spacexs-growth-ambitions
Taxing Land, Not Homes: A Revenue-Neutral Path to Unlock Spokane’s Underused Land
This report models a revenue-neutral shift in the property tax structure — exempting a portion of building value from taxation and raising the overall rate to collect the same revenue. The result shifts the tax burden off homeowners and developers and onto landowners who leave valuable parcels vacant or underused. The reform is progressive, preserves existing taxpayer protections and revenue constraints, and is supported by decades of evidence from Pennsylvania cities that adopted similar land-focused reforms.
https://landeconomics.org/reports/spokane-report
Who is allowed to walk on the beach? It depends on where you live
A legal principle known as the public trust doctrine establishes people’s rights to use certain lands and waters. The concept originated in Roman law and was carried through English common law into the laws of Britain’s American colonies, and on to the rest of the United States. It is well settled federal law that as states joined the union, the U.S. government transferred to those states the ownership of navigable waters and the beds beneath them, to be held in trust for all the people. The division between those public trust areas and private land is usually set at what is called the “ordinary high-water mark,” or “mean high tide line.” That designation refers to a specific location on the shore established by a discernible line, often based on debris buildup or vegetation growth, on the land side of the point at which the water contacts the shore.
https://www.planetizen.com/features/137769-who-allowed-walk-beach-it-depends-where-you-live
Manhattan’s Red-Hot Office Market Poised for Its Best Year Since 2000
The similarities with the frothy dot-com era are hard to ignore. In the early 2000s, the boom in money-losing dot-com startups ended in a bust, dealing a financial blow to investors and the landlords who rented space to many suddenly insolvent companies. Landlords are once again chasing a fast-growing class of technology tenants. Many AI firms are also giving priority to market share and scale over profits, and often renting far more space than they currently occupy. Still, there are notable differences between the two periods, and valuable lessons learned from the dot-com meltdown. Unlike many internet startups of the late 1990s, several of today’s leading AI companies already generate substantial revenue and count large corporations among their customers. Building owners, burned by the previous tech collapse, are scrutinizing business plans, fundraising and revenue growth more closely these days.
https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/manhattans-ai-office-boom-echoes-the-red-hot-expansion-of-the-dot-com-era-8289fac7?mod=djemRealEstate
Economist Snapshot: The Rising Cost of Data Center Pushback
While data center development NIMBYism is perhaps the highest profile today, we have seen similar pushback for years against other types of development, including large-scale distribution centers, manufacturing plants, transportation infrastructure, renewable energy projects, and even multifamily housing. Studies based on responsible development principles highlight the opportunity cost of NIMBYism as reducing local economic output, curtailing the formation of skills clusters, and lowering overall labor market dynamism. Data centers also have the potential for positive economic impact. Particularly in areas of concentrated development, the pipeline of skilled labor needed to operate, maintain, repair, and construct data centers has increased through local training programs. In regions where data center projects are at risk, this public/private investment into enhancing the future workforce may not occur. With the growing utilization of AI and potential to eliminate some categories of jobs, workforce training programs will be key for labor forces to adapt to the shifting economy.
https://urbanland.uli.org/capital-markets-and-finance/economist-snapshot-the-rising-cost-of-data-center-pushback
Finding Opportunity in Public Property
For example, the Public Buildings Reform Board (PBRB), established to review utilization and conditions in federally owned buildings throughout the U.S., found that deferred maintenance has rendered some buildings obsolete and left them with extremely low occupancy. “The General Services Administration (GSA) and the PBRB have asked developers to let them know if they have ideas for other uses for those buildings, which is a helpful signal to the market that opportunities are available,” Combal said. “A developer can reach out and send an LOI and provide information about potential alternative uses for buildings. We talk to brokers, capital partners, and agency leasing officers, because we know that it will take an interdisciplinary approach to uncover opportunities.”
https://urbanland.uli.org/issues-trends/finding-opportunity-in-public-property
Target Opens Its Largest Food Distribution Center In Denver Suburb
Target Corp. has opened the largest food distribution center in its nationwide rollout in Thornton as the Minnesota-based retailer continues investing in its food and beverage supply chain. This is Target’s ninth food distribution center and its first with consolidation capabilities, the company said in a statement Monday. The consolidation center is intended to reduce the volume and cost of transportation and streamline arrivals, the company said. “We expect from farm to shelf that we’ll be able to reduce our total lead time within our supply chain by one to two days,” Thornton Distribution Center Site Director Erik Hansen said in the statement.
https://www.bisnow.com/denver/news/industrial/target-opens-largest-distribution-center-denver-suburb-134809
Denver office performance highs and lows
Denver’s office market reflects national trends surrounding flight-to-quality: Highly amenitized buildings surrounded by strong mixed-use activation have been much more successful than older buildings or those in districts with just offices or few retail and restaurants in the area. “This effect, combined with the after-effects of some local socio-political factors, has created an interesting dynamic in the metro area, which currently houses one of the best office submarkets in the country in Cherry Creek, as well as one of the worst performing submarkets in downtown Denver,” Marc Selvitelli, NAIOP president and CEO, said in an email.
https://denver.app.bizjournals.com/story/denver-office-performance-highs-and-lows/content.html
Consolidation comes home: How Compass and Re/Max are poised to remake Denver real estate
If Re/Max is purchased by Real, a legacy real estate company will gain the tools of a young firm with a very different business model. And that deal was likely made to keep up with Compass, a company that has already proven it is not afraid to change how business is done. ~ Because of Re/Max’s franchise model, brokerages report their sales volumes separately. That’s true of multiple firms operating in the area. Compass captures the work of all affiliated agents. Data provided by the Denver-metro area’s multiple listing service, REcolorado, shows how these brands perform when on-market home sales are tracked. In 2025, the combined area Re/Max franchises totaled $6.6 billion in total sales volume in the Denver metro, according to REcolorado data. That surpassed Compass’ $5.23 billion in sales and Keller Williams’ $4.19 billion. Real recorded $902 million in sales volume for the same period. Terrell told the DBJ Real has 420 agents registered locally.
https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2026/05/29/compass-real-denver-real-estate-market.html
Years of Underbuilding Are Reshaping Retail Real Estate Investment
Rising construction costs and limited new retail development slowed many projects during the past few years, retail executives said at the 2026 ULI Spring Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee. Several speakers noted that, since retailers absorbed much of the vacant space left behind by earlier bankruptcies and store closures, limited supply, stronger fundraising activity, and renewed investor interest are supporting rent growth and redevelopment activity across open-air retail.
https://urbanland.uli.org/capital-markets-and-finance/years-of-underbuilding-are-reshaping-retail-real-estate-investment
Denver Water supply and water use update
For its part, Denver Water has proactively reduced its spending, taking steps that include enacting a hiring freeze and reviewing maintenance and other projects to see which ones could be deferred. We are also looking into other ways to increase supply by activating agreements that allow us to capture additional water that is typically unavailable during normal conditions. This year marks the fifth time since 2000 that Denver Water has issued a Stage 1 drought, and the first since 2013. Prior to 2013, the board declared a Stage 1 drought in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
https://www.denverwater.org/tap/denver-water-snowpack-and-water-supply-update
Denver’s First Hotel-Style Apartment Community Now Open
Perched above the Apiary Hotel, South Denver’s first lifestyle extended-stay hotel, The Apiary Residences is introducing a new model of luxury living to the city—one inspired less by traditional apartments and more by the elevated experience of boutique hospitality. Now leasing, Denver’s first hotel-style residential community blends thoughtfully designed homes with the personalized services, curated amenities and seamless convenience typically reserved for high-end hotel guests. The residences, managed by Greystar, are part of a larger mixed-use development creating a connected community where residents enjoy direct access to valet parking, Keepers Cocktail Lounge and June Gap Market and Cafe. 193 residences are available across the property, spanning one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and 13 penthouse options ranging from 905 to 4,072 square feet.
https://milehighcre.com/denvers-first-hotel-style-apartment-community-now-open/
Local firm breaks ground on redevelopment of former VA hospital
The project will turn the 490,000-square-foot main VA building at 1055 Clermont St., along Ninth Avenue just east of Colorado Boulevard, into 493 apartments. The base of the building will incorporate about 15,000 square feet of retail space and about 35,000 square feet of medical office space. The latter is intended to mesh with the neighboring Rose Medical Center, which once expressed an interest in buying the former VA hospital itself. The hospital, known as the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center, moved to Aurora in 2018.
https://businessden.com/2026/05/19/developer-breaks-ground-on-redevelopment-of-former-va-hospital/
Denver city council unanimously approves one-year moratorium on new data center construction
“This moratorium is not about CoreSite. It’s about future data center development. There are already nearly 50 data centers in Denver Metro area, operated by dozens of companies,” a Coresite spokesperson told Denver7 on Monday. “Any potential regulations will be established by the working group. Together with the businesses that utilize data centers, the labor organizations that help build them and the technology leaders advocating for a strong digital economy, we look forward to observing the work of the task force and supporting it, where possible, with accurate information about data centers and their essential role in modern life.”
https://www.denver7.com/follow-up/denver-city-council-unanimously-approves-one-year-moratorium-on-new-data-center-construction
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Opportunity Zones: What We Learned—and What Must Change in Round Two
One thing that will definitely change in the next round of Opportunity Zones is the data collection. “Treasury will be required to produce an annual report to Congress with the findings,” Lyons says. “Additionally, in five [years] and ten years, Treasury will publish a report on the long-term socioeconomic outcomes of OZ communities compared to other, similar, non-OZ census tracts. These reports will shed light on the long-term impacts of the policy on designated communities and their residents.”
https://urbanland.uli.org/capital-markets-and-finance/opportunity-zones-what-we-learned-and-what-must-change-in-round-two
A New Opportunity Zone Competition Is About to Begin
The revised framework is expected to intensify competition among local governments, developers, and economic development organizations seeking designation before the next round of Opportunity Zones takes effect in 2027. Because governors can nominate only a limited share of eligible low-income census tracts, the process is likely to create sharp competition among urban infill districts, suburban redevelopment corridors, industrial sites, and rural communities pursuing long-term investment capital. The law also changes the economics of where investors may concentrate future Opportunity Zone activity. Rural projects now qualify for enhanced tax benefits tied to longer holding periods, even as revised eligibility standards narrow the number of census tracts that can qualify overall. That combination could redirect more capital toward smaller markets and lower-density regions, which struggled previously to compete with fast-growing urban districts that dominated much of the first Opportunity Zone cycle.
https://urbanland.uli.org/capital-markets-and-finance/a-new-opportunity-zone-competition-is-about-to-begin
Can Ultra-Low-Cost Housing Scale?
“The irony is that hundreds of thousands of people live in RVs and travel trailers and tiny houses all over the U.S.,” Anthony said. “Some RV parks even set aside space for ‘permanent residents.’ It’s safer than sleeping outside, but a lot of jurisdictions don’t allow them.” Although no federal ban on living in RVs exists, they are classified as vehicles, not as housing, so they are not regulated by HUD the way manufactured homes are, according to Bruce Etkin—a former chairman of Etkin Johnson Real Estate Partners and past ULI Trustee who now advocates for innovative solutions for homeless individuals. “The first step in allowing for more widespread use of Park Model RVs and travel trailers is to get them to count as homes, since they’re the lowest-cost option for shelter,” Etkin said. “Park Model RVs are designed to be semi-permanent and connected to utilities, so, in some locations, if local zoning allows it, they can be occupied full-time.”
https://urbanland.uli.org/issues-trends/can-ultra-low-cost-housing-scale
Could ‘Living As A Service’ Be The Future Of The Apartment Business?
A new subscription-based model called “living-as-a-service” — a nod to the software as a service business model — could soon replace the traditional apartment lease, Deloitte forecast in a May report. The concept involves bundling payments for rent, utilities, maintenance, housekeeping and other services into a single bill, while landlords would provide fully or partially furnished apartments. Perhaps the most radical change: Renters could move whenever they want. LaaS offers far more convenience and flexibility for renters than the typical lease agreement. And it would provide financial benefits for landlords, according to Deloitte.
https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/multifamily/as-renter-population-grows-deloitte-foresees-new-living-as-a-service-business-model-134799
Redfin Reports the Income Needed to Afford a Home Declined For Seventh Straight Month in April
Housing costs came down in April because the average 30-year fixed rate was lower than a year earlier; April’s monthly average was 6.33%, down from 6.73%. The estimated median household income was $87,599, up 4% year over year. Still, the median home-sale price rose 2.4% year over year in April, which is why affordability is improving only slightly. Note that mortgage rates jumped in May, with the weekly average hitting 6.51%. Because of that increase, house hunters locking in a rate now may not find the market more affordable than a year ago. The income required to afford a home soared in 2022 and 2023: Home prices skyrocketed amid the pandemic homebuying frenzy, then mortgage rates doubled. Now, the tide is slowly turning, with the income needed to afford a home consistently dropping since October 2025. Still, it’s about $29,000 higher than the typical U.S. household income of roughly $88,000.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260526880888/en/Redfin-Reports-the-Income-Needed-to-Afford-a-Home-Declined-For-Seventh-Straight-Month-in-April
Housing market won’t be affordable for at least 7 years: Report
These predictions are bleaker than those from other home index models — including the National Association of Realtors’ — because they include a wider range of cost variables, including property taxes, homeowners insurance and homeowner association fees. Oxford also uses a different measure of income than NAR that’s based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, resulting in a lower estimate, the report noted. In 2024, for example, Oxford pegged the median income at $81,604, while NAR’s estimate was $101,360. The recent rise in homeowners insurance rates, particularly in states like Florida, is also having an impact on affordability.
https://www.realestatenews.com/2026/05/27/housing-market-wont-be-affordable-for-at-least-7-years-report
New Bridges for Affordable Housing’s Financing Gap
The main challenge in creating a capital stack for development in this environment is a weaker tax credit equity market. This has resulted in developers and investors rethinking and adjusting the way they put affordable financing deals together. The weakening tax equity is posing a real challenge for tax credit equity on these projects. The One Big Beautiful Bill lowered the bond requirements to 25 percent, so that more projects can qualify for the program. That has increased the supply of credits, pushing values down to about 80 cents from close to $1.
https://www.multihousingnews.com/new-bridges-for-affordable-housings-financing-gap/
REAL ESTATE AND MOBILITY
Fixing Federal Transit Finance for Housing
The Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) and Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) were expanded in the 2015 surface transportation reauthorization bill to support real estate development near transit. These programs offer low-interest, long-term financing for projects within a half mile of a fixed guideway transit station, including residential, commercial, and infrastructure-linked development.
https://urbanland.uli.org/capital-markets-and-finance/fixing-federal-transit-finance-for-housing
The new civic landmark: Developers, localities elevate role of transit station design
The concept of transit-oriented development isn’t new. Public transit agencies have long sought ways to make better use of underutilized assets, such as empty parking lots. What’s new is that transit agencies and architects are prioritizing station design, said Jose Gonzalez, an architect and principal at Francl Architecture in Vancouver, British Columbia. “When stations become destinations by themselves rather than just infrastructure, nearby investment normally accelerates,” Gonzalez told CoStar News. “In many successful cities, the station becomes the front door to a neighborhood, driving up real estate value directly.”
https://www.costar.com/article/1667924738/the-new-civic-landmark-developers-localities-elevate-role-of-transit-station-design
Building Homes Near Jobs, Stores, and Transit Saves Public Dollars
The research offers a key insight: Development patterns have real fiscal consequences. New housing built near existing workplaces, retail, and transit entails lower infrastructure construction and maintenance costs because these new homes generally rely on roads and utility connections that are already in place. Housing built at the urban fringe, on the other hand, often requires new roads, sewer and water lines, and other public services. Adding homes around existing amenities maximizes per-acre property tax revenue by making efficient, compact use of land.
https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2026/05/27/building-homes-near-jobs-stores-and-transit-saves-public-dollars
Transit-Oriented Development Can Help Cities Grow. Which Urban Areas Are Doing Best?
When we control for transit service availability, we find that a 10 percent increase in the share of urban housing units near frequent transit is associated with 10 additional transit rides per person per year. That means a typical urban area with 2 million residents would take an additional 20 million transit trips annually. (The Portland, Oregon, San Antonio, and Sacramento urban areas each have about 2 million residents and recorded 74 million, 31 million, and 18 million transit trips in 2024). These correlations are borne out in research that examines the link between density and ridership.
https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/transit-oriented-development-can-help-cities-grow-which-urban-areas-are-doing-best
Denver ranks worst in U.S. for return-to-office trends, report says
Other than Denver, only two major cities, Houston and Washington, D.C., registered declines in per-day visits in May, and their declines were considerably smaller. San Francisco is showing particular strength in the return-to-office trend; per-working-day visits rose 8.2% in May. Placer.ai cites a push toward in-person collaboration by the region’s booming artificial intelligence companies as a major driver of the increase. Los Angeles came in second, with a 6.5% year-over-year jump in in-person office work. The figures are still nowhere near in-office attendance prior to the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic.
https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2026/06/11/denver-ranks-lowest-for-may-officer-worker-visits.html
Can’t find a job after graduation? Blame WFH, not AI
The study postulates that where WFH is more common, managing junior staff is more expensive. At the same time, young staffers who receive less training may be less productive than they would be otherwise, even as they mature and demand more pay. So the cost of WFH to young graduates is not just a harder job market — it also makes it harder for young employees to get good training, supervision and mentorship, a point also made by the New York Fed study. WFH has always had a superficial appeal. At first, it seems easier and often cheaper for both employers and employees; companies can pay less if they offer more flexibility, and many staffers have commitments that keep them at home. In the long term, however, both management and workers pay a price in terms of lost training and career development of younger employees.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/work/cant-find-a-job-after-graduation-blame-wfh-not-ai/articleshow/131463718.cms
Young and unemployed? Remote work, not AI, may be the problem, study finds
The study, by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, compared occupations that can be done remotely — such as software development — with those that are done in person, such as nursing. The study finds that the unemployment rate among young college graduates in “remotable” jobs rose by about 1 percentage point from 2017-2019 to 2022-2024. Yet for older workers in those fields — those aged 29 and over — the jobless rate declined slightly, leading to a notably higher unemployment rate for younger college graduates in remotable occupations compared with older workers. Yet in non-remotable jobs, there has been little gap in the unemployment rates between older and younger college grads, the study finds. A similar pattern exists for those without college degrees, the New York Fed said. The study, led by New York Fed research economist Natalia Emanuel, concludes that businesses are reluctant to hire new college grads into remote work because it is harder to train and mentor them if they work outside of the office. The authors of the study calculate that remote work is responsible for nearly two-thirds of the rise in the unemployment rate for young college graduates since the pandemic.
https://apnews.com/article/ai-unemployment-remote-work-hiring-1942a6b0c8dc6f17a30878735a0256ae
MOBILITY
Seattle Light Rail Ridership Surges to Break National Transit Records
Seattle’s regional transit authority has officially recorded an unprecedented 155,000 daily light rail boardings, elevating the Pacific Northwest city to the highest daily ridership volume in the United States. The massive surge follows the historic inauguration of a cross-lake passenger rail connection. This demographic shift is fundamentally redefining urban mobility. While legacy transit networks in coastal metropolises struggle to recapture pre-pandemic passenger volumes, Seattle’s aggressive infrastructure expansion has triggered a massive behavioral shift among suburban commuters. The resulting data presents a definitive blueprint for the future of sustainable metropolitan expansion.
https://streamlinefeed.co.ke/news/seattle-light-rail-ridership-surges-to-break-national-transit-records
New York City DOT to use sensors to understand street use to inform street design
The sensors will be mounted on NYC DOT street infrastructure and will anonymously analyze street activity including speeds, turning movements and how different users move on the street. For example, officials said, the sensors can identify areas where pedestrians are crossing mid-block instead of at crosswalks to identify where mid-block crosswalks would be beneficial. Using sensors that operate continuously to capture changes in travel patterns by time of day, season and street design will allow planners to not have to rely on short-term, labor-intensive counts. The agency said it expects the sensors to evaluate the effectiveness of street redesigns and safety projects, identify high-risk locations, better allocate street space amongst pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles and improve access to transit, loading zones and local businesses.
https://transportationtodaynews.com/news/37935-new-york-city-dot-to-use-sensors-to-understand-street-use-to-inform-street-design/
The Hidden $1 Trillion Infrastructure Problem Facing America’s Cities
According to reporting by The Independent, which cited research from municipal finance expert Richard Ciccarone, the estimated cost of wear and tear on infrastructure across roughly 2,000 U.S. cities has reached $1.03 trillion. The figure reflects the growing backlog of repairs facing local governments as roads, bridges, buildings, and other public assets continue to age.
https://www.roadsbridges.com/funding/news/55383338/the-hidden-1-trillion-infrastructure-problem-facing-americas-cities
The BUILD America 250 Act: What Congress gets right and wrong in its new transportation bill
Increasing flexibility and putting more overall funding into the Surface Transportation Block Grant and National Highway Performance programs—especially for resilience and digital technologies—should lead to greater variation among how states build and operate their transportation systems. Such experimentation is a foundational asset of American governance. By shifting significant responsibilities to states, the BUILD Act may actually reveal which state policies most effectively grow the industrial base, drive down household costs, and protect residents’ safety. The lack of forward-looking vision, however, becomes clearer by looking at what the BUILD Act cuts. The bill would reduce relative spending on transit, eliminate guaranteed funding for passenger rail, disincentivize the transition to electric vehicles, and generally commit fewer resources to consumer choice.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/build-america-250-act-transportation-bill-analysis/
Millions of Trips, “Waymo” Empty Miles: California’s First Thousand Days of Commercial Robotaxi Service
We analyzed the composition of more than 86 million total vehicle miles traveled over approximately 14 million Waymo robotaxi trips, using data reported to the California Public Utilities Commission from August 2023 through December 2025. We found that only about 54% of all miles traveled by Waymos in California are driven with a passenger onboard.
https://findingspress.org/article/161870-millions-of-trips-waymo-empty-miles-california-s-first-thousand-days-of-commercial-robotaxi-service
Massachusetts proposes license plates, insurance requirement for e-bikes, scooters
Lowest speed devices, 20 miles and under, are going to be treated like bicycles. And while highest speed devices receive stronger safety and operational requirements such as registration and insurance,” he said. But Healey’s bill dives even deeper into the pockets of Tier 3 device owners, even requiring them to acquire and pay for liability insurance. The owners will be required to present a certificate with proof of insurance in order to obtain a Massachusetts registration for the so-called “micromobility devices.”
https://www.planetizen.com/news/2026/06/137703-massachusetts-proposes-license-plates-insurance-requirement-e-bikes-scooters
Tactical Curb Extensions Offer Pedestrian Safety Benefits, New Research Shows
The study found that curb extensions have statistically significant impacts on pedestrian and motorist behavior and suggests that tactical curb extensions with or without mural art offer a feasible alternative to improve pedestrian satisfaction and safety compared to control locations. Most importantly, all curb extension types encouraged pedestrians to wait further out and more within the mutual sightlines of motorists than control locations, and each type of curb extension was associated with increased motorist yielding.
https://trec.pdx.edu/news/tactical-curb-extensions-offer-pedestrian-safety-benefits-new-research-shows
Secure bike storage coming to Union Station 20 years in the making
The value for hospitality and service industry workers near Union Station will be immense, according to the DDP. The DDP conducted a Downtown Denver Bike Parking Study in 2023 using a grant from the Colorado Department of Transportation Office of Innovative Mobility. That study, Iltis told the DBJ, showed that while many office workers could access secure parking through their jobs, the same was not the case for hospitality and service industry employees. Union Station has already reserved 25 of the 75 spaces in the future bike storage facility for retail and hospitality workers, he said.
https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2026/05/26/plaza-americas-bike-hub-denver-union-station.html
DIA will create walkway to all concourses using underground tunnels
Design work will begin this year on the project to repurpose this existing baggage tunnel, adjacent to a tunnel that carries the electric trains, at an estimated cost between $300 million and $700 million, Denver Mayor Michael Johnston said. Johnston planned to announce the plans on Tuesday morning. Construction is scheduled to start next year, with the 17-foot-wide walkways opening in 2028. DIA’s trains broke down 262 times over the past two years, airport records show. While most of the breakdowns were brief, lasting an average of four minutes, DIA officials say the lack of a backup option as the airport grows, toward a projected 120 million travelers a year by 2045, increasingly causes problems.
https://www.denverpost.com/2026/05/26/dia-tunnel-pedestrian-walkways-trains/
