Transit Time: Reader mailbag 📫

Feedback from our readers on recent articles

You’re reading Transit Time, a weekly newsletter for Charlotte people who leave the house. Cars, buses, light rail, bikes, scooters … if you use it to get around the city, we write about it. Transit Time is produced in partnership between The Charlotte Ledger and WFAE.

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Your turn: Readers weigh in on plans to widen U.S. 521, the city’s ‘roads-first’ mobility plan, tourism tax money — and more!

It’s time to open the Transit Time virtual mailbag, with emails on articles from the past few months. To share your thoughts, you can always reply to this newsletter, and we could feature your comments in the future.

In response to “Why Gastonia is getting rid of its buses” (Jan. 11):

• “So why ride Uber when you can ride for $2.50 anywhere in Gastonia? Gonna be interesting.”

• “Makes a lot of sense for small towns because of ridership and bus maintenance to downscale the bus system to smaller buses/vans. Would not likely work for larger cities and towns.”

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In response to “How tied are Charlotte leaders’ hands on spending tourism tax money?” (Jan. 18)”

• “Thanks for researching and writing this. With Charlotte having high tourism density in uptown and heavy auto-centric traffic in and out of the center city, funding transit, greenway recreational facilities and affordable housing for hospitality workers all make a lot of sense. Thinking of mass transit and greenways as commuter alternatives to more cars on the road could help quality of life for all residents.”

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In response to “Transit update: Same plan, new talking points” (Jan. 25):

• “Sounds like it was a really productive THREE days. How do these folks not lose their mind in the boredom of getting nothing done?”

• “So the plan is to have no plan and continue to waste taxpayer dollars while not figuring it out.”

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In response to “A road conundrum in Ballantyne” (Feb. 1):

• “Charlotte is reaching an inflection point on transportation, and unless we reverse its current trajectory in the near term, it will not be pretty on the other side. From the southern corridor of I-77 (last touched 30 years ago) and the ridiculous timeline to complete the Independence Expressway (nearly 2040, or 50 years after it began) to U.S. 521 and any number of high-profile mobility projects in Charlotte that continue to be undelivered, the second half of this decade and beyond is going to be unbearable. Our state’s largest city deserves better.”

• “NCDOT and SCDOT are hopefully collaborating on how to help S.C. residents without harming N.C. residents. Turning U.S. 521 into a version of Independence Boulevard will harm the character of Ballantyne and devalue the real estate and probably Indian Land also. It will also make access to the new Novant hospital emergency room more difficult, which can’t be good. S.C. has the option of widening Highway 160 for access to I-77. Combine that with widening Lancaster Highway, and that could possibly help immensely. I imagine NCDOT can obtain control of it. The high cost and adverse impact of a 521 widening need not fall onto N.C. residents.”

• “There is another option. South Carolina could look at another route to 77 from Indian Land that does not require coming through the center of Ballantyne. So much is being done to build up the community of Ballantyne in terms of retail, entertainment, etc. It doesn’t need another Independence Boulevard running through it. Another option may be to widen Lancaster Highway to two lanes and divert traffic coming from the south to take Lancaster Highway to I-485 in Pineville instead of through the middle of Ballantyne.”

• “Without multiple connecting streets inside and between neighborhoods, shopping areas, etc., traffic will continue to be a nightmare. The problem is how the development has been designed, so that driving is the only way to navigate the area, whether you’re going through it or just going to the grocery store. NCDOT proposals won’t solve the traffic problems. Mass transit is the only thing that might help. It won’t reduce traffic, but it could reduce how bad future traffic will be. But no one wants to pay the money to build a sensible transit system, despite everyone being happy to pay the multi-millions to repeatedly widen roads and streets.”

• “It is nothing short of absurd that the crux of this article is … more delays. The U.S. 521 corridor was woefully underbuilt when constructed in the late 1990s to bypass Lancaster Highway through the heart of Ballantyne. In typical NCDOT fashion, it has since ignored anything close to resembling solutions for this beleaguered corridor all while traffic surged and surged and surged. Fast forward to 2023, when improvements were finally in sight with a construction start of 2026, only for the project to be delayed again, until 2028. And now we learn it “will be tough to meet” a 2028 start date? That means we’re looking at the 2030s before anything is done, if then. If a forecast of 100,000 vehicles around two of the corridor’s most vexing intersections doesn’t spur nearer-term action, then it’s clear that nothing will.”

• “I live very close to 521 and Ballantyne Commons, so this was very interesting and great coverage. I said the same thing last year, but I previously lived in Michigan and the design that allows only right turns works very well. It seems so strange, but after experiencing it, everything else seems inferior. Lights stay green longer and U-turns are quick and easy. Not sure what the resistance is based on.”

• “Maybe Charlotte / Mecklenburg should consider limiting building permits like some other towns, i.e. Mount Pleasant, S.C., until infrastructure catches up, or we will all be in gridlock and Charlotte will no longer be so desirable.”

• “Do nothing on roads; provide more mass transit. As Robert Moses proved in New York City, you can never build enough roads to accommodate the resulting demand of more cars.”

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In response to “A closer look at Charlotte’s ‘roads-first’ mobility plan” (Feb. 15):

• “One thing that could help move traffic along would be for the knuckleheads at CDOT to figure out how to time lights. It often takes nearly 10 minutes to travel north on Sharon past SouthPark, beginning just south of Fairview and continuing through the light at Colony — because the lights are always out of sync. Or how about traveling along Brooklyn Village out of town (or into, for that matter) and stopping at every light — which always happens. Timing our lights is such low-hanging fruit, yet no one in city hall seems to make that a priority.”

• “While I fully understand the ongoing need to plan for change and expansions, there remains a situation that I think is overlooked: The ‘Roads First’ plan seems to me to be ‘Roads First, Maintenance Last.’ Being a Charlotte resident for over 20 years, I think there is an opportunity to provide some real improvements to Charlotte roads. One thing would be using more reflective paint for lane markings on almost all of the roads in Charlotte. If you have traveled during a rain storm, any lane markings are virtually invisible. The other fix would be to repair the roads where asphalt has broken down. This would also include repairing the manhole covers that are 2” to 3” below street level. … I have lived in five different countries over the course of my career, and I think the roads in Charlotte are similar to a Third World country.”

• “The media needs to start shaming Charlotte leaders into doing something about our Amtrak station. It is a hideous embarrassment to our city! Compared to all of the other stations on the N.C. line, ours is borderline scary and feels unsafe. The station and its location are a blight on Charlotte as we welcome students, businesspeople and families to our city.”

• “Long story short, the roads will fill back up. The congestion will never go away. There may not even be a temporary dip. That’s why, as my dad likes to say, ‘The road construction in Charlotte always seems to be 10 years behind.’ And the worst part of it all is that the exurban growth means that other towns reap the benefit, because they get the property tax revenue from the growth, while Charlotte (or North Carolina) has to pay for the roads that carry those people to their workplaces.”

• “I love the ‘compromise’ alternative idea! Make it so!”

• “Where on the list is a plan to repaint and maintain street and highway lane markings in Charlotte? There are streets throughout the city where markers are completely faded and guesswork or experience is used to determine lane boundaries to guide drivers safely along the road.”

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If you have a comment on Transit Time or any other newsletter from The Charlotte Ledger, you’re welcome to drop us a line at editor@cltledger.com, or hit “reply” to the email newsletter, or post in the comments (Ledger paying members only).

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