CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Part of the 600-plus page state budget bill would force municipalities that voted against the I-77 project to pay back millions of dollars. The toll expansion plan was scrapped by NCDOT due to pushback from Charlotte residents. But one Charlotte nonprofit is still hoping improvements will be made to the congested highway.
Sustain Charlotte is offering smaller solutions to fix congestion. That includes adding a bus on shoulder option, using traffic signals at on-coming ramps and using real-time traffic technology. All are options being used in other major cities around the country.
Sustain Charlotte founder Shannon Binns says, “What we did is really just bring to light how are other cities solving the same problem? Because they aren’t, they aren’t widening their roads with toll lanes because they know that’s not a long-term fix for the problem, and it’s very expensive and destructive to existing neighborhoods.”…