(By Elsa Gillis, WSOC TV) A memorial has been set up at the intersection where a cyclist died when she was struck by an SUV in south Charlotte Saturday morning. Stacy Stranick was taken to Carolinas-Medical Center-Main, where she was pronounced dead at 11:21 a.m., police said. "It's an absolute tragedy,” Kate Cavazza, with Sustain Charlotte, said. “Last year was the highest pedestrian and cyclist death rate in Charlotte -- 27 pedestrians were killed in 2017. There are some infrastructure changes that are well around Charlotte that need to be addressed." Read the full article here.

(By Michelle Boudin, StyleBlueprint) It’s called bike sharing. You may have seen evidence of it around town and not realized exactly what was going on. You know those bright green and orange bikes that seem to be parked at random locations? That’s what we’re talking about. Last year, the Charlotte Department of Transportation (CDOT) started the pilot program, encouraging several bike share companies to come to town. The idea is to help the Queen City become a more bike-friendly city. Between all the different companies, there are more than 2,000 bikes up for grabs — mostly in the Southend, Dilworth and Uptown areas. Shannon Binns, the Executive Director of Sustain Charlotte says, “It’s fantastic! We’re such an auto-oriented city, and this is giving the people of Charlotte another option — and an easy option.” Shannon adds, “What’s nice about these dockless bikes is that they’re not limited to a certain part of town, and I think this pilot program has turned Charlotte into more of a bike city.” Shannon’s organization, Sustain Charlotte, will host Biketoberfest again this October for the third time, and he expects to have a bigger crowd than ever thanks to the dockless bikes. “It’s fantastic. These bikes have been a huge hit already, and it was a cold winter. I can’t wait to see how many people are on bikes by summer!” Read the full article here.

(By: WSOC TV) Charlotte is bursting with public transit options, but walking to the bus stop can be dangerous. Local advocates have released a new report on how to make them safer. Sustain Charlotte studied each of the major intersections and areas near bus stops. Now, Sustain Charlotte has some ideas on how to improve safety. The group released a wish list from transit riders. They want more crossings, including signalized crossings and islands pedestrians can stand on, along with wider sidewalks and safer behavior from drivers, and better bus stop amenities, such as shelters and lights. Read more.

(By Steve Harrison, Charlotte Observer) Charlotte City Manager Marcus Jones said Monday he doesn’t recommend that the city bring back red-light cameras, despite studies that have shown the cameras improve safety. Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article203770699.html#storylink=cpy Shannon Binns, executive director of Sustain Charlotte, said the recommendation was “very disappointing.” “We have people running red lights with reckless abandon,” he said. “It causes accidents. It contributes to people not feeling safe.” Read more here. Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article203770699.html#storylink=cpy

(By WSOC TV) More than 20 residents and volunteers gathered Saturday morning to build benches for public bus stops in north Charlotte. The event was organized by Sustain Charlotte in partnership with the Prosperity Village Area Association. Read more here.

(By DaShawn Brown, WSOC TV) For years, local nonprofit Sustain Charlotte has been working with officials to integrate safety features throughout the city. Kate Cavazza, a program director with Sustain Charlotte, said the safety initiatives could save lives. “That means more lighting, more crossings for pedestrians that aren't 4 miles apart to allow equal access for everybody to cross the street at safe opportunities,” Cavazza said. Read more here.

(By Mark Barber, WSOC TV) A new plan has been unveiled to add more greenways in Mecklenburg County. On Monday afternoon, a nonprofit called Greenways for Mecklenburg shared their plan to ask county commissioners to add 150 miles of connected greenway by 2030.  As traffic delays on Charlotte's interstates get worse every day, more and more frustrated drivers are searching for ways to escape the gridlock. "Charlotte is one of the most rapidly growing cities in the entire country and we can't keep building roads wherever," said Meg Fencil, with Sustain Charlotte, one of the groups that supports the proposal. Read more here.

(By Erik Spanberg, Charlotte Business Journal) A nonprofit dedicated to expanding local trails this week began pushing for Mecklenburg County to triple the number of miles of connected by greenways to 150 by 2030 — a number that would increase by half the pace already funded and planned.  Greenways for Mecklenburg and supporters, including Sustain Charlotte and Carolina Thread Trail, point to rapid population growth and rising land costs as the basis for jump-starting expansion. County park-and-rec leaders agree, but note that land costs are somewhat less of a concern since 70% of the property used for the existing greenways came through rezoning, often for free or at deeply reduced rates. Read more here.

(By Ryan Pitkin, Creative Loafing Charlotte)   For Phillip Sanford, a Charlotte cyclist who regularly advocates for more bikeability in Charlotte, the rollout of dockless bike-share programs has left him sore. He worries that the constant photos on social media of neon bikes strewn about like litter on the city's sidewalks is giving cycling a bad name. "Our city is close to capacity for cars and we need to utilize mass transit and bike commuting as the area grows," Sanford said. "We need proper infrastructure. We need a public base that is very pro-car and anti-anything else to have a positive view of bike commuting and its possibilities. Flooding the area with cheap bikes with little oversight and a lack of acknowledgement of legitimate concerns just perpetuates the idea that biking is just a fad very few people should be a part of." Kate Cavazza, bike program manager with local cycling advocacy organization Sustain Charlotte, thinks otherwise. She said she has high hopes for the programs and wouldn't mind seeing more in the area. Sustain Charlotte has been consulting with each company about where their bikes could be best used as they arrive in Charlotte, Cavazza said. She pointed out that while the groupings may seem crowded during the first months of operation, once people start to ride them throughout the city — especially as the weather warms out — they won't be as noticeable. "Each new bike that gets dropped, they kind of stand there and people look at them. With time, we hope that people get on these bikes and they're spread out into communities all over Charlotte," she said. Cavazza is optimistic that dockless bike sharing can help bring bikes to parts of the city not usually associated with cycling and help provide more people with a dependable mode of transportation. She said she's aware of some of the bad publicity the dockless bikes are getting, even from within the cycling community, but hopes she can rely on the folks who want to support bikeability concepts in Charlotte to lend a helping hand in the first months of the rollout. "I would say, for other bike advocates, if you see a bike that's down, pick it up, move it over," she said. "It doesn't take that much effort. If you have a problem with it, move it three feet to the left." Read more here.

(By Steve Harrison, The Charlotte Observer) Shannon Binns is the executive director of Sustain Charlotte, a nonprofit that advocates for alternatives to driving, including walking, biking and transit use. Binns said he believes CATS will redesign the bus system to funnel passengers to the light-rail line, which will cover roughly 20 miles when the extension opens in March. Binns said he also wants CATS to increase the frequencies on some bus routes. Read more here.