Could more bus lanes be coming to Charlotte soon? We sure hope so! Charlotte City Council's Transportation, Planning, and Environment Committee heard updates on this and several other topics at their June 22 meeting. 

When the national bike advocacy organization People For Bikes rated more than 480 U.S. cities for bike-friendliness this year, Charlotte received a less than stellar report card: 1.3 out of a possible 5 stars. 

There's clearly a lot of work to be done. But we're optimistic!

Will Pellisero has long been a sustainability advocate. He and his family are big fans of composting, gardening, and solar energy. But before connecting with Sustain Charlotte, he hadn’t made the connection between sustainability and transportation. “I didn’t even really think about driving,” he says now. “It wasn’t my biggest priority.” 

When Nancy Pierce moved to Charlotte for a job in 1979, she chose to live close-in for the urban feel. But she longed for a body of water she could walk to. In her home state of Minnesota, water was plentiful for play, solace, and inspiration.

When Dustin Branham first moved to the greater Charlotte area in 2007, living life without a car was the last thing on his mind. After landing a job at a law firm in Davidson, he moved to Huntersville in an insular neighborhood.

It's hard for bus drivers to stay on schedule and carry riders to their destinations quickly if the buses are getting stuck in traffic. Our city's leaders are experimenting with ways to give buses dedicated space on the street so the public transit system can be more efficient. It's called bus prioritization, and we're huge fans!

In December 2019, the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) and Charlotte Department of Transportation (CDOT) began a pilot project to provide dedicated street space for the exclusive use of buses and bicycles on E. 4th Street. They created a single, combined bus/bike lane between South McDowell and the Charlotte Transportation Center (CTC).

How did it go? And why should you care even if you don't ride transit? We have answers!

The lane provides exclusive access for buses inbound to the CTC and bikes. (map: CATS)

Determining how to advance Charlotte's mobility goals and pay for a major expansion of the transit system is no small task.

Fortunately, there's now a task force working to propose a solution! We're thrilled that our Bike + Pedestrian Coordinator, Eric Zaverl, has been appointed by Mayor Vi Lyles as one of 25 key community members members serving on the task force.

The first meeting of the new Charlotte Moves Task Force was held virtually on May 14. Watch video of the meeting and view the presentation slides. All images in this blog post are from the City's presentation.

Our program director, Meg Fencil, spoke during the public forums of the May 26 Charlotte City Council meeting and the May 28 Metropolitan Transit Committee meeting in support of the new bus and bike lane pilot on 4th Street. Check out the full comments below, and watch a recording (start at 10:50 timepoint) of Meg's presentation to City Council.

Daniel Crow moved to Charlotte from one of the top biking cities in the nation: Madison, WI, where even the layout of the city itself suggests a giant bicycle wheel.  In the city center, the state capitol building and university campus are joined by a single pedestrian road—State Street—where all cars are strictly forbidden. Shooting out from this urban hub, like spokes, is a crisscrossing network of bike lanes and trails, which graduate students and young professionals ride into town on weekdays and out into the countryside on weekends.

For Steve Yaffe, volunteering with Sustain Charlotte is more than just something to do—it’s part of his lifelong passion for transit and the quality of life improvements that come from well-designed mobility systems.