Your Daily Guide

🛴 Did Veo Break Its Promise to Denver?

It’s been three months since e-bike and e-scooter provider Veo launched in Denver, and while the company promised to help keep its micromobility vehicles off sidewalks, neither city officials nor residents are satisfied with the results. [CBS Denver]

• Why Denverites are mad: People have been riding and parking rentable e-scooters on Denver sidewalks since they arrived in 2018, despite it being illegal to do so. In negotiations with the city, Veo promised to implement GPS technology to help stop sidewalk riding and designate e-scooter parking areas, but scooters are still littering sidewalks and posing accessibility challenges for residents. [Denver7]
• Sidewalk semantics: Veo says its contract with the city doesn’t actually require it to keep scooters off sidewalks. The company contends it just has to have the technical capabilities to deter people from doing so. City Council member Chris Hinds disagrees, saying he thinks it's Veo’s responsibility to enforce the no-sidewalk-riding policy.
• What now? The city attorney is reviewing Veo’s contract to determine who is reading it correctly. The city has the ability to adopt another micromobility provider should Veo not uphold the agreement. [Westword]

🚙 New Rideshare Laws Roll Out in Colorado

A new law aimed at making Uber and Lyft rides safer and reducing sexual assault took effect in Colorado yesterday. Rideshare companies are now required to run additional background checks on drivers every six months, with additional regulations set to roll out in phases: By February 2027, companies will need to share annual safety data with the state, and by June 2028, drivers and riders will have the option to choose a recorded ride. [Denver7]

🌳 City Begins Santa Fe Streetscapes Project

Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure kicked off a $29-million overhaul of Santa Fe Drive between 6th and 13th avenues. The project is meant to improve infrastructure and make the neighborhood more pedestrian-friendly. The changes are funded by the Vibrant Denver Bond and include updating a 136-year-old water main, widening sidewalks, adding more greenery, and making intersections safer. [9News; Denver.gov]

🚬 Denver Sues Cigarette Companies for Pollution

Mayor Mike Johnston wants cigarette companies to pay up for contributing to pollution. The city filed a lawsuit against a group of multinational cigarette corporations, stating the tobacco companies could’ve made cigarette filters biodegradable, but instead chose not to, knowingly leaving municipalities like Denver to clean up the mess. Among the city’s main concerns is how cigarettes end up in local waterways, where they leak their toxins into the environment and eventually flow into the ocean. The lawsuit states, “by 2030 there could be more cigarette butts than fish in the oceans.” [Denverite]

🌧️ Cool Weather Is Here (For Now)

This morning kicks off a multi-day, temporary reprieve from the scorching weather that’s plagued the city for weeks. The cold front rolling into the Denver metro area today is forecast to increase the chance of storms and flash flooding, so be on the lookout for those alerts, but it should also improve air quality. [9News]