Car-sharing hasn't reduced private car ownership, in part because many cities are too large to make it practical and affordable. Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., are trying a public/private model and partnering with a nonprofit, offering electric vehicles for short-term rentals aimed at low-income residents -- with a key feature being that users don't have to return the cars to any specific location.

Logistics real estate investment trust Prologis is seeing both inventory levels and rents increase as retailers restock nationwide, with utilization of its space averaging 84% and some markets such as Central Valley, Calif., and Lehigh Valley, Pa., virtually at capacity. Chief Financial Officer Thomas Olinger said rents have surpassed pre-COVID levels and may continue trending upward.

Amazon has made a new $100 million investment in Mexico, including fulfillment centers in the cities of Monterrey and Guadalajara, a support facility outside of Mexico City and 12 additional delivery stations for a total of 27, to expedite orders to customers. Amazon has also launched its fifth and largest fulfillment center in Brazil.

When negotiating with a client, ask questions about how your business can solve their problems instead of talking too much about features and money, writes Clint Babcock, and never make concessions without getting something in return. "Hold onto concessions for as long as you can; don't give them up until late in the sales or negotiation process," he writes.

An exit ramp has been completed a year earlier than expected for the four-year Interstate 91 Charter Oak Bridge Project in Connecticut. The ramp connects routes 5 and 15 south to I-91 south in Hartford as part of a $213 million project that adds a lane to I-91 in Hartford and expands another exit.

New Jersey Transit has decided to focus on renewable energy, rather than natural gas, for a plant it plans to build in northern New Jersey. Nearby towns and environmental groups have objected to a gas plant, so the agency will seek bidders for a renewable project with as much as $3 million in stipends to bidders.

The Miami-Dade County, Fla., Transportation Planning Organization has approved a $265 million project for a speedy bus system with dedicated lanes that extend from west of Florida International University to the Miami International Airport Metrorail station. The county must still find contractors and approve funding, two-thirds of which would come from the state and the federal government.

Demolition is nearly finished on the South Coast Rail project in Massachusetts, keeping the project on track for completion in 2023. The next step involves construction of stations, including four in the New Bedford area, with work expected to begin this winter.

The Washington State Department of Transportation's proposed highway plan updates reflect more of an ideological approach devoted to cyclists and pedestrians than a serious focus on the traditional objectives of maintenance, preservation and congestion, writes Mariya Frost from the Washington Policy Center. "Though there is value in a multimodal perspective, highways also have a very basic utility to the state and to commerce that should be evaluated independent of ideological principles," Frost writes.

The University of Liverpool has formed the Robotiz3d company to develop artificial technology in robots that can better detect potholes on England roadways. "The proposed system will be able to autonomously detect and characterize road defects such as cracks and potholes, assess and predict the severity of such defects and fix cracks so that they do not evolve into potholes," said Paolo Paoletti, who will be chief technology officer for Robotiz3d.