WFAE — N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore, R.-Cleveland County, said Charlotte's proposed $13.5 billion transportation plan would spend too much money on rail transit, buses, and bike lanes. We disagree. 

Charlotte needs the General Assembly to allow it to place a 1-cent sales tax increase on the ballot for a referendum, as WFAE reports. Moore said for him to support the plan, “it needs to be focused on road capacity.”

“We also need major investment in rail and bus service,” said Sustain Charlotte founder Shannon Binns. “These are the most efficient ways to move people in fast-growing metros like ours. Wider roads mean more cars, and that means more traffic and congestion.”

Binns added that roads can never be widened enough because “they will just fill up with more cars.”

He said cities that have “tried to widen their way out of congestion” have “abandoned that approach in favor of transit.”

Sustain Charlotte also noted the recent death of Kristie Crowder, who was hit by a driver while riding an e-bike in Plaza Midwood. The bicyclist was crossing The Plaza at Hamorton Place when she was struck by a Honda Insight.

Read the full article from WFAE here.