The Charlotte Regional Business Alliance this week kicked off a campaign to convince Mecklenburg County voters to increase the sales tax by 1 cent per dollar to pay for a multi-billion-dollar transportation plan.
Under the name “Yes For Meck” the alliance unveiled a new slogan: “Faster Commutes, Less Congestion.”
The campaign sign features a traffic light on green.
That’s symbolic: Green for go, green for progress, green for equity, green for economic growth.
But the traffic light is also meant to emphasize part of the plan that’s meant to improve roads: 40% of all new tax revenue must be spent on them.
Even if you don’t ride transit, that traffic light signifies the plan has something for you. And don’t forget: You will have a faster commute.
But a close look at Charlotte’s plan for that road money shows there just isn’t much planned for roads, at least as most people think of them. It also hints at the tension supporters will have to navigate as they try to market a plan that’s been built to appeal to road-loving conservative lawmakers in Raleigh, transit advocates in Charlotte and, they hope, the 1-in-6 voters likely to show up on Election Day this November.
During the “Yes For Meck” event at Bojangles’ Coliseum, the Alliance passed out a 100-page book titled “Blueprint For Charlotte Mobility Investment.” It’s the roadmap for how the city will spend its road money from the tax. You can read it online here.
The document doesn’t show any plan for what will be built first, and doesn’t include any cost estimates for individual projects.
But the blueprint gives an indication of what kind of projects the city wants to build.
- The words “bike” or “bicycle” appear in the blueprint 835 times.
- The words “pedestrian” or “sidewalk” are mentioned 709 times.
- The term “Shared Use Path” is mentioned 241 times. That’s a sidewalk that’s wide enough for both walkers and bike riders.
As for traditional road projects:
- The words “new street” are mentioned 25 times.
- “Vehicular capacity” shows up 16 times and “road capacity” is mentioned once.
- “Travel lanes” appears 36 times, though most are qualified as being potential projects — not something that is guaranteed to be built.
- “Traffic signal” is mentioned 58 times.
- “Intersection improvements” are listed 123 times, though the blueprint is light on the details. Most are listed as “Scope TBD.” It’s unclear if that means new turn lanes or longer turn lanes, or if it’s better pedestrian crossings and visual enhancements. In fact, it may be the latter: “Turn lanes” only appears in the document two times.
To be fair, there are large parts of Charlotte where it’s practically impossible to add road capacity. No one wants to chop down trees and bulldoze front yards to expand Providence Road. Plus, new lanes will decrease congestion for a while, but transit advocates argue they cause more people to drive.
A heavy emphasis on sidewalks and bike lanes will appeal to thousands of Mecklenburg voters who don’t want more roads.
As Charlotte becomes more dense, it arguably needs more ways for people to get around without a car. Wouldn’t it be great to walk or bike to the grocery store or a corner bar? And biking and walking are better for the environment and climate change than driving, of course.
But even as the blueprint emphasizes them, the campaign to get the tax passed is downplaying the role of bike lanes and sidewalks. The website for Yes For Meck never mentions bike lanes. It has a graphic touting big money on roads, suggesting that will mean more lanes for vehicles.
Yes For Meck is suggesting big money for new roads for vehicles
A 2-minute video narrated by former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt has numerous shots of Interstate highways — none of which will get money under the transportation plan. There are only two quick shots of children riding bicycles.
If the plan seeks to make the most immediate impact for commuters, it could partner with the N.C. Department of Transportation to advance long-delayed projects, such as widening state-owned Steele Creek Road in southwest Charlotte. The new tax money could advance the highway project; the state would pay the city back at a later date.
The blueprint mentions partnering with the DOT at least once. But one example is to rebuild U.S. 521/Johnston Road into a “shared use path.”
One thing that’s ironic about the emphasis on bike lanes is that former N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore blasted Charlotte’s bike lanes at an appearance at the Business Alliance in early 2023. He also said the city needed to focus on more roads. And two years ago, Republican attorney Larry Shaheen, who is now helping with the Yes For Meck campaign, also belittled the city’s efforts to build bike lanes.
That led to the city agreeing to create a “roads first” plan, with 40% of tax money for roads, whose legal definition in the enabling legislation includes sidewalks and bike lanes. But that “roads first” plan now appears to be most focused on bike lanes and sidewalks, at least when judging by the number of mentions in the blueprint.
The city is back where it started, in a way.
Here are other thoughts on the plan, now that the Alliance has formally jumped in the ring and the 2 ½-month sprint to November is on:
Tax set for passage
The kickoff event Wednesday showed the Business Alliance will flex its political muscle to get the tax across the finish line. It featured numerous big-name speakers praising the plan, such as Gene Woods, the CEO of AdvocateHealth, formerly known as Atrium. Former Mayor Harvey Gantt also attended.
Supporters say their early polling shows strong support for the plan. And that’s before the alliance rolls out a $3 million-plus campaign to convince voters.
In short, the tax is a heavy favorite to pass in November.
And yet: Some elected officials and candidates are getting cold feet. Four Charlotte City Council members — Tiawana Brown, Renee Johnson, LaWana Mayfield and Victoria Watlington — have said they are neutral or undecided about the tax.
Progressive activists such as Robert Dawkins of Action NC and Rev. William Barber of “Moral Mondays” fame, who oppose the tax, have raised enough questions on social media that some politicians are listening.
Let’s not talk about rail transit
One of Dawkins’ objections to the tax is that rail transit will lead to more gentrification and displacement. He has cast trains as a way for corporations to get their (mostly) white employees to work, while low-income Black residents pay a higher amount of their income from the sales tax.
(To be fair, the Lynx Blue Line does have more white riders than buses, but there are many, many Black and Brown riders too.)
The Alliance appears to be changing its messaging around Dawkins’ objections.
At the kickoff event, the Red Line commuter rail line to Lake Norman was mentioned briefly - I remember just one time.
The Gold Line streetcar? Never mentioned. Extending the Blue Line to Pineville? Also not mentioned.
And the crown jewel of the plan is the Silver Line light rail from the airport to Bojangles Coliseum, which happened to be the site of the alliance’s “Yes For Meck” kickoff party.
It was the perfect opportunity for a campaign photo opportunity: The rally was at the beginning of the rail line, which would be the largest transit project in the state’s history; a way to connect the east with the west side; a way to finally bring a train to the airport.
But no one mentioned that. They focused on buses and roads instead.
Buses only arrive once an hour. Huh?
Speaking of buses: The “Yes For Meck” group makes a startling — and very incorrect — statement on its website that “Most bus routes run just once an hour, if that.”
Bold and incorrect claim about bad bus service
The Charlotte Area Transit System operates 63 bus routes. Fifteen of those are express routes that only operate in the morning and afternoon rush hours. There are a handful of others that are shuttle routes that only operate at rush hour, but aren’t technically called express routes.
CATS has one route that arrives every 15 minutes — Route 9 down Central Avenue. That’s close to the standard transit advocates say a bus line needs to meet to be useful and convenient for riders.
By my count, it has four routes that arrive every 20 minutes, and 21 routes that arrive every 30 minutes. There are 12 routes that arrive either every 35 or 40 minutes, and one that arrives every 50 minutes.
That’s 39 routes arriving more frequently than once an hour.
The express bus routes are slated to get additional service under the Better Bus plan, but there is no plan to have them run hourly or more frequently throughout the day.
Better Bus will ensure 15 routes have 15-minute service or better. No route (except for express buses and shuttle routes) will have buses arriving more than 30 minutes apart.
Mecklenburg Republican Party: Silent on tax?
One of the interesting things about the transit tax debate is that many of the biggest supporters are Republicans: City Council member Ed Driggs, attorney Larry Shaheen and State Rep. Tricia Cotham.
The Mecklenburg Republican Party has so far been silent on the tax, perhaps not wanting to hurt Cotham’s reelection chances next year. She will be in another swing district. Party chair Kyle Kirby hasn’t returned calls from Inside Politics.
If the GOP doesn’t oppose the tax, it shows just how topsy-turvy the current political environment is.
Opposition has come from the left. While many Republicans are backing what will probably be the largest one-year tax increase in Mecklenburg County’s history. (Though also the largest investment in transportation as well.)
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