How to Save Charlotte's Dying Bus System

The epidemic of falling ridership has struck no American city as hard as Charlotte, but there's plenty that could be done to recover.

1 minute read

May 15, 2018, 6:00 AM PDT

By Casey Brazeal @northandclark


North Carolina

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American bus transit is in a bad state, and by the numbers, Charlotte, North Carolina is in the worst shape of any large city in the country. "The current CATS transit network simply isn’t working very well for many of the 75 percent of its riders who use the bus. The average one-way travel time for a CATS passenger who has to transfer between routes is 90 minutes," Shannon Binns argues for the Charlotte Observer.

The city has a plan to redesign and grow its bus network to make it more frequent, walkable, and direct. "A redesigned bus network will not only better serve current riders, but also attract new ones. TransitCenter, a New York-based foundation dedicated to transit reform, identifies growth in the number of people who ride transit often and for multiple purposes as an important indicator of whether transit is serving its function of helping a city meet its “triple bottom line” of economic growth, environmental stability, and social equity," Binns reports.

Friday, May 11, 2018 in The Charlotte Observer

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

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