With pedestrian deaths in the U.S. at their highest in four decades, citizens across the nation are urging lawmakers to break from transportation spending focused on car culture. From Salt Lake City to Charlotte, North Carolina, frustrated residents are pushing for increased funding for public transportation and improvements that make it safer to travel by bike or on foot. Continue reading

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - On April 30, Vaden Hill said he was riding his personal scooter home along East 6th Street in uptown Charlotte when a driver started yelling at him. “It was clearly marked in green, separated by dividers. A gentleman pulled up on my left and at first I wasn’t paying attention to him and I saw him roll his window down and when I looked to my left I heard him say, ‘Get out the road.’ And when I looked down I was still on the green bike lane, I’m still in the dividers,” Hill said. Continue reading

While Charlotte has become more pedestrian friendly in recent years, the city still has far to go, according to organizations that work to improve walkability. Out of 130 cities with populations over 200,000, Charlotte is sixth from last on a walkability ranking by WalkScore, an organization that measures walkability by analyzing walking routes and the distance of local amenities. On a scale from 1-100, Charlotte logged a score of just 26, meaning that the city relies heavily on cars, according to WalkScore. Continue reading

The City of Charlotte’s vehicle fleet includes more than 300 buses it wants to transition to all-electric within seven years. Today, CATS’ fleet includes just 18 battery electric buses. Why it matters: In 2018, as part of the Strategic Energy Action Plan, the city set an ambitious goal to fuel all its vehicles with 100% zero-carbon sources by 2030. But it isn’t on track to meet that goal. Continue reading

For those already struggling to find stable housing prior to March 2020, the pandemic made matters worse. Housing instability affected more people as COVID-19 pushed people out of jobs and interest rates and home values fluctuated drastically, Charlotte’s housing director Shawn Heath said. Federal and state eviction moratoriums kept roofs over renters’ heads, but they didn’t last forever. Continue reading

QUEEN CITY NEWS — For many in North Carolina, the yearly inspection of a vehicle is a necessary evil, a part of living in North Carolina, but also a thorn in people’s sides. Over the years, though, the state has sought to somewhat ease the pain.  One of the inspections, an emissions test, is now only done in 20 counties, and in the spots that need it the most. However, Senate Bill 341 would eliminate emissions inspections in all but one county, Mecklenburg. Continue reading

Bicycling on Charlotte streets tends to evoke two reactions. Drivers moan when cyclists slow them down, and cyclists fear for their lives when forced to ride next to cars. Mixing bikes and cars in the same lane often makes bicycling in Charlotte unsafe. That combination is even more dangerous because bike awareness and safety gets little attention when drivers receive their license and when students take drivers ed in high school.  Continue reading

As growth in Charlotte exploded around his west Charlotte neighborhood, Rickey Hall has seen one thing stay the same: a lack of dedicated green space. He’s been pushing for the expansion of the Irwin Creek Greenway in the West Boulevard corridor for 30 years and hopes Mecklenburg County will fund it this year. But he fears his historically Black neighborhood will be left out of the conversation once again. Hall, the West Boulevard Neighborhood Coalition chair, said he’s asked county officials to fund the project every year, and every year he’s been told to wait.   Continue reading

WCNC — Charlotte drivers will no longer have free on-street parking in Uptown and South End starting this weekend.  Beginning Saturday, March 25, drivers will have to pay to park in metered spaces in both areas. The current rate is $1.50 per hour for metered spaces. Paid Saturday parking was originally expected to start last September but was pushed back to March 2023 for further assessment of the public parking system.  Continue reading

QC News – A final, dire warning, this week, a new report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says we need “transformational change” to tackle climate change. But the hope is we already have the solutions. Continue reading