Before you head off on your Biketoberfest presented by The Charlotte Knights urban adventure on October 13th, make sure you have the route map on your phone!  This customized Google Map will give you turn by turn directions in case you get lost along the way. You can download the map for offline use, too! 

Thousands of people filled the streets on Sunday, September 30th for Open Streets 704!  We hope you had a chance to participate in this fun people-powered event that closed 4 miles of streets from Charlotte’s South End to West End.  If you missed it, Open Streets 704 happens bi-annually, once in the spring and once in the fall, so you’ll get another chance.

Thanks to you, we had the biggest turn out to date for a Shifting Gears workshop! On Thursday, August 23rd, close to 70 people come out to Birdsong Brewing for an evening of bikes and fun!

The goal for every Shifting Gears public action workshop is for each attendee to leave with one action that they can undertake to help advance biking in Charlotte and one community contact to help them along the way.  These actions can be anything from biking to work regularly, trying dockless bikeshare for the first time, or volunteering. Whether interested in biking but haven’t yet started, a weekend warrior, or a daily bike commuter -- everyone has a part to play in helping realize our City’s new vision for bicycling in Charlotte.

Summer in North Carolina is in full swing: long sunny days, temperatures in the ‘80s, and humidity even higher… oh, and for those of us at Sustain Charlotte, the chance to go back to summer camp! On Thursday, July 19th, we hosted a Sustainable Transportation Fair in partnership with the Progressive Baptist Church’s summer camp, YouthQuake!. We invited governmental departments and nonprofits from all over the city to Arbor Glen Outreach Center, to teach the campers about how transportation choices affect their health, safety, and community.

It’s time for an Uptown protected bike lane update!  In 2015, Sustain Charlotte started the #ibikeclt petition, a campaign to ask City Council to commit to supporting completion of  Charlotte’s first protected bicycle lane connecting the Little Sugar Creek and Irwin Creek Greenways through the heart of Uptown.  Because of your continued support and involvement, the project is moving forward.

But, where are we?  What happens next? Keep reading to see what you can do as this project moves toward construction!

Charlotte Department of Transportation’s renderings showing what the Uptown protected bike lane could like.

On Monday, June 11th, City Council adopted their FY 2019 budget and FY 2019 - 2023 Community Investment Plan!

City Council adopts FY Budget on June 11th, 2018

The FY 2019 budget includes:

• $4 million for the bicycle program to begin implementing the elements of a bicycle-friendly city as outlined in the Charlotte BIKES plan.  This is the first stand-alone funding for the City’s bicycle program since 2012, and the largest single-year allocation to the city’s bicycle program ever.   
• Doubling the funding for the pedestrian program from $15 million to $30 million for projects including sidewalks, street crossings, intersection improvements, and more.
• $2 million to create a new Vision Zero program to work towards the elimination of traffic fatalities and serious injuries. 

Sustain Charlotte hosted our second Shifting Gears of 2018 on May 24th at Central Piedmont Community College.  The goal of Shifting Gears is for every participant to come away with one action item and one community contact to help them achieve their goal.

Did you miss the workshop?  We have a summary for you right here!

We hope you were one of the 30,000 people who came out to support Open Streets 704 on Sunday, April 29th!  The route extended four miles from Plaza Midwood all the way to up to NoDA.  

Sustain Charlotte is proud of our increased involvement in the Open Streets 704 program.  Our Bicycle Program Manager Kate Cavazza served as the demonstration project manager for the recent event. We organized and hosted three projects on the route.  We successfully advocated for a partial protected bike lane on Parkwood Avenue that provided a safe connection between Brevard Street to Davidson Street. We also placed several public engagement boards at bus stops and gathered important information on how better to improve the experience for riders.

People walked and biked through the streets of NoDA during Open Streets 704.

Do you want to go biking around Charlotte with your family? Don’t know where to start?

We have assembled all the need to know information in one handy source — the Charlotte Family Bike Guide! Big thanks to the Oregon Metro for generously donating their template to Charlotte for our use. By working with the City of Charlotte Bicycle Advisory Committee, we have customized this document for the needs of our City. From general information on child helmet safety to greenway maps and bike shop information, The Charlotte Family Biking Guide is your all-in-one spot for information!

Check it out here!

On February 28th, Sustain Charlotte hosted the first Shifting Gears public action workshop of 2018, where close to 60 people discussed ways to propel cycling in Charlotte forward. The goal was for every participant to leave the event with one action item and one community contact to help them make progress toward their goal before the next Shifting Gears meeting!