Mass transit
The Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) operates historical trolleys, express shuttles and bus service serving Charlotte and its immediate suburbs. The 2025 Corridor System Plan looks to supplement its established bus service with light rail & commuter rail lines called the LYNX. Designed to carry passengers along five key corridors, the project is estimated to cost $1.7 billion, recently revised upwards to $8.9 billion. CATS has begun work on the $426.8 million light rail line which will run from downtown to suburban Pineville with service scheduled to begin in 2007. Plans for the Lynx and commuter rail network will link uptown Charlotte with its immediate suburbs along four additional key corridors.
The light rail system and the half-cent sales tax used to fund transit operations have been subject to controversy as local anti-transit forces have successfully placed a repeal of the tax on the November 2007 ballot. recently. The half-cent tax measure, almost half of which funds light rail construction, comes up for possible repeal in the November 2007 general election. The operational efficiency of CATS has declined significantly since the tax came in to effect after 1998 and began to provide additional funding for CATS operations. Those opposed to the sales tax and to mass transit in general assert that if the entire light rail system is implemented, it will affect 2-3% of Charlotte area commuters; pro-transit advocates assert that this is an overly conservative short-term estimate that disregards significant long-term benefits. Transit and sales tax foes also point to the fact that in terms of spending the half-cent sales tax, as of July 2007, nearly $9 billion out of $12 billion slated for all transportation projects for the Charlotte region is earmarked for mass transit despite the small proportion of area residents who ride public buses. Pro-transit forces argue that Charlotte needs high-capacity mass transit infrastructure to lessen the burden of traffic congestion on area residents by offering a viable alternative to driving, to improve quality of life by spurring high-quality and high-amenity mixed use development in existing communities and along new transit corridors that caters to pedestrians and bicyclists in addition to automobiles, and to lessen the pressure on roads, schools, and other public services on the urban-rural fringe by steering more development inward and upward, rather than solely outward in conventional, low-density, automobile-dependent sprawl. Though anti-transit commentators such as Wendell Cox argue that the Charlotte area ranks as one of the least favorable candidates for light rail nationwide because of its low population density, transit advocates counter that transportation investments shape surrounding land uses, and thus a high-capacity mass transit network in Charlotte would indeed increase density in the areas it serves.
(Source: Wikipedia.org)
