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There’s no doubt that if you live and work near or in Charlotte, traffic is part of your daily life. As thousands more new neighbors move to the Queen City and surrounding areas, it seems like traffic troubles could get worse.
Despite this, there’s been a push from Mecklenburg County and Charlotte city leaders to develop a plan to put funding toward public transit and roads. Although the discussion is still ongoing, the consensus is that there could be a concrete plan.
This might just make it to the ballot if leaders in Raleigh like it in the near future.
Hope Wright is the advocacy manager with Sustain Charlotte, a nonprofit that promotes transportation solutions and better growth strategies for the Queen City. She told WCNC Charlotte much of the equation simply involves money.
“The problem is coming down to funding, that is our main barrier, that and cultural perceptions on public transit," she said.
That dilemma continues to rear its head with a daunting question: with a growing and diverse city, should the money go toward funding more and wider roads, or to growing and solidifying public transit? With plans like the Silver and Red lines still in the works, many projects in the background can’t get off the ground.
“The funding we have right now simply is not enough to make transformative changes that we need to make in our bus system, our light rail and bike lanes," said Wright. "We need to have the 1 cent for mobility sales tax, which has been in discussion for the past 4 years and maybe even longer.”
Wright told WCNC Charlotte that much of the debate both in Charlotte and in Raleigh has been on a new sales tax that will go to funding this transit plan. But there’s a discrepancy as to what the investment should flow toward; state legislators have made it clear they want more investment going toward road projects instead of rail and buses.
As of mid-July, state lawmakers said they hadn’t seen a written plan hit any desks in Raleigh but that there is an atmosphere of collaboration. Either way, Sustain Charlotte’s view is that if you give people more options – especially those that are coming from a big city – transit will flourish.
“Transportation choices are an opportunity for people to experience freedom and get where they need to go," she said. "Trying to make it easier for people in our community to live here and not have to worry about owning a car or having access to one.”
Wright said with one-third of our community is either too young or old to drive or not able to reliably access a car otherwise, how we work toward our transit future will shape Charlotte for years to come.
Sustain Charlotte said simply widening roads will not fix the problem. The organization said this in turn will create more cars on the road--- a phenomenon called induced traffic.
Contact Colin Mayfield at cmayfield@wcnc.com or follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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