Why Our Position on Toll Lanes Has Changed Since 2016
Why We Supported the I-77 North Project in 2016
When Charlotte City Council considered the I-77 North project in 2016, we believed managed lanes represented the best available option for improving mobility in that corridor.
Several factors influenced our thinking.
• The Red Line appeared to be dead because Norfolk Southern had refused to allow passenger rail service on the O Line, leaving buses stuck in the same congestion as everyone else.
• The project largely fit within the existing grassy median, minimizing impacts on surrounding neighborhoods, parks, streams, greenways, and natural areas.
• Managed lanes offered one of the few realistic opportunities to provide buses with reliable travel times.
• Carpools with three or more passengers could use the lanes without paying a toll, creating an incentive for higher-occupancy travel.
Given those circumstances, we believed managed lanes represented the best available option for providing a faster transit alternative while limiting additional highway expansion.
What Changed?
A lot.
First, the proposed I-77 South project is fundamentally different. Unlike the North project, it would require significant expansion into existing neighborhoods, parks, greenways, streams, and wooded areas.
Second, our region’s transportation options have changed dramatically. Mecklenburg County now owns the O Line corridor. Voters approved the transportation sales tax. The Red Line is funded and moving toward reality.
Third, we have another decade of real-world experience. While managed lanes can improve travel reliability for those who use them, we have become increasingly concerned about their long-term effectiveness, affordability, equity impacts, and their ability to meaningfully increase transit and carpool use.
As our understanding evolved, so did our policy.
What We Believe Today
Today, Sustain Charlotte does not support managed toll lanes as a transportation strategy.
Instead, we believe our region should prioritize investments that move the greatest number of people while minimizing impacts to surrounding communities, including:
• High-quality public transit
• Safe walking and bicycling infrastructure
• Transportation demand management strategies
• Compact, connected land use
• Projects that improve mobility for everyone—not just those who can afford to pay.
Why Changing Our Position Isn’t a Contradiction
Some people see changing your mind as inconsistency.
We see it differently.
If an organization never changes its position—even after circumstances, evidence, and alternatives have changed—that isn’t leadership. It’s rigidity.
Our mission has never changed. Our commitment has never changed. Our goal has always been the same: helping Charlotte become a more connected, equitable, healthy, and sustainable community.
Over the past decade, the facts changed. So did our understanding. We believe changing our position in response to those changes is exactly what responsible public policy organizations should do.
Reasonable people can disagree about toll lanes.
We respect those who continue to support them.
We simply believe that, given what we’ve learned over the past decade and the transportation opportunities now available to our region, Charlotte can make better investments for our future.
Changing your mind in the face of new evidence isn’t inconsistency—it’s responsible leadership.
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