Charlotte transportation plan has a big goal: Getting us out of our cars (WFAE)
As state and local leaders look for ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slow global warming, they’re taking aim at some big targets: transportation and electricity production. North Carolina’s challenge is this: Can we bring ourselves to change the way we do things?
The city of Charlotte has come out with the first draft of the Strategic Mobility Plan to do just that, and it has an audacious goal: reduce one-person vehicles to half of all transportation trips by 2040. (For comparison, the plan says that before the COVID-19 pandemic, about three-quarters of Charlotte residents commuted by driving alone.)
“It’s important,” said Shannon Binns, executive director of environmental group Sustain Charlotte. “It’s really a vision for helping Charlotte residents more easily get around the city without having to drive.”