Articles About Transportation

Would you spend $750,000 to put your name on Charlotte’s new uptown bus station? A consultant told a City Council committee this week that he expects a company would buy the naming rights to the new facility, scheduled to open by the end of the decade. Sean Moran with the Innovative Partnership Group said the […]

When cities apply for federal funding for new transit projects, ridership is perhaps the most important criteria. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) wants to know: How much will a new rail line cost, and how many people will ride it? The Charlotte Area Transit System knows what the feds want, having built three major rail […]

Last week, the N.C. Department of Transportation discussed the possibility of partnering with a private firm to build and manage new express toll lanes on Interstate 77 from uptown to the South Carolina line. But at least one member of the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization said he felt NCDOT was steering voting members toward […]

When it comes to transportation and transit in Charlotte, it seems like there are as many questions as there are answers these days. Add in equity and economic mobility, and the picture gets even more complex. The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute’s second Schul conversation focused on these questions (the first explored gentrification and displacement). The […]

Just a couple of years ago, Charlotte Area Transit System planners were talking a lot about the potential for bus-only lanes to make the city’s buses faster and more reliable, giving them an edge over cars stuck in gridlock. Charlotte debuted a blocks-long bus-only lane on Fourth Street. Then, the city marked off one lane […]

Charlotte’s transit plan is dead — long live the Charlotte region’s transit plan? It’s been almost two years since the $13.5 billion Charlotte MOVES plan was unveiled, and there have been weeks of hints that changes are coming to the city’s plan for expanded rail, bus and other transportation options. Now, the shape and scope […]

Almost two years after Charlotte’s ambitious transit expansion plan was unveiled, local officials are admitting something that’s become increasingly apparent: It might not come to fruition, at least not as originally proposed. That’s because the linchpin of the whole $13.5 billion Charlotte MOVES plan — a one-cent local sales tax that would require approval from […]

The Quality of Life Explorer — Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s source for more than 80 interactively mapped variables about the economy, environment, demographics and more — has been updated with new information allowing you to explore our community. Maps that rely on data from the U.S. Census’ American Community Survey are now up-to-date. This includes variables such as […]

Earlier this summer, the transit system that serves Columbus, Ohio, made a big announcement: It wouldn’t be seeking voter approval for a half-cent sales tax for transit. “Now is not the right time,” Patrick Harris, the vice president of external relations for the Central Ohio Transit Authority told the Columbus Dispatch in July. “There are […]

Here’s another paradox from the COVID-19 pandemic: People drove less, but the streets got more deadly. That’s especially true for pedestrians, a new report from Smart Growth America shows. “Dangerous by Design,” the group’s annual report highlighting pedestrian fatalities, shows that over 6,500 people were hit and killed while walking in 2020 – a 4.5% […]

CATS chief John Lewis on Wednesday shed new light on the reasons that his transit agency’s buses increasingly are late or don’t show up, saying that drivers using their allotted paid sick days are leaving the agency without enough workers to operate routes and contributing to unreliable service. At a meeting of elected officials from […]

A far-reaching new plan could shape Charlotte’s transportation infrastructure for decades to come, reorienting a car-dependent, sprawling Southern city towards a denser, transit-oriented, bike- and pedestrian-friendly future. Charlotte City Council approved the Strategic Mobility Plan on Monday in a 9-2 vote, with council members Tariq Bokhari and Ed Driggs voting no. The plan was developed […]