Urban Planning

A partnership between the ride-sharing and autonomous car companies will bring self-driving cars to the state capitals in Georgia and Texas sometime in 2025. Waymo already offers rides in self-driving cars in California and Arizona.

It can take about a decade for a high-speed electric vehicle charger to recoup its investment without government subsidies, according to a new report. But the need for public charging infrastructure may be unlikely to diminish.

One, in Red Oak, is a 480-megawatt data center campus on 292 acres. Construction is underway. A second, roughly $1 billion data center project on 60 acres near the Bush Turnpike got city economic incentives last week.

Its newly launched Local Government Research and Development Agenda, a nationwide undertaking, looks to provide research and science to cities. Interviews and workshops with 20 munis are underway.

A report assessed two North Carolina projects piloting low-speed autonomous shuttles, stood up by partners including the state Department of Transportation. It found the vehicles still have significant limitations.

Falls Church, Va., near the nation’s capital, is beginning the first phase of a smart city initiative to modernize traffic signals into one coordinated network. Other project phases include adaptive street lighting.

Pittsburgh startup Velo AI will use $200,000 from the U.S. Department of Transportation to inform cities on making streets safer. Its devices collect data showing sites for potential improvements like bike lanes and fixing potholes.

The San Bernardino County Transit Authority recently presented the first zero-emission passenger train in the U.S., the Zero Emission Multiple Unit, in California. It should begin serving a nine-mile transit line early next year.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit system cut service to many East Bay and South Bay stations for a time Thursday morning. Trains on its Orange and Green lines were being turned back at the Bay Fair station.

The devices will go in this week along O Street, on traffic signal arms and streetlight poles, to gather information for a study. It’s part of a pilot aimed at potentially creating new pickup and drop-off spots, and higher parking turnover.

The Texas capital received a nearly $48 million federal grant, to help develop programs to reduce traffic congestion and pollution. Encouraging sustainable transportation choices during major highway builds may be a side benefit.

Only a few data centers are now operating in the state, but at least six more are being developed. With that in mind, government, utility and data company officials met to discuss what happens next.

The company behind the cryptocurrency mine, Blockfusion Ventures, is exploring powering the endeavor by a nuclear microreactor. A “technical assessment” of “advanced power supply systems” for its data center is on the way.

A unanimous vote Tuesday by the Common Council barred new cryptocurrency mining operations from the northern New York city for the next two years. The ban on new enterprises follows resident complaints about an existing facility.

Traveling across the West in an electric car turned out to have unexpected thrills, and occasional frustrations. Our reporter found that the chargers were out there — but connecting with them sometimes meant taking the long way around.

In a forecast, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council warns data centers could use up to 4,000 megawatts on average of electricity by 2029 — enough to power the entire city of Seattle five times over — setting up potential shortfalls.

Cities are no longer seeing their miles of streetscape as cheap parking spaces. Curbs are now considered some of the most in-demand pieces of urban real estate, and technology is stepping up to help manage them.

Providers around Fort Worth, Texas, and the San Francisco Bay Area are using technology to expand on-demand options for riders. The availability can help connect first- and last-mile areas that lack service.