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PART
1 OF 6
If
we build it, will we ride?
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 Traffic on Independence inbound at sunset. On
Nov. 3, voters will be asked to spend more than $1 billion -- paid in a
half-cent sales tax -- to build the beginnings of a rapid-transit system
along five major corridors. L. Mueller/staff
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Rapid transit is
the largest public works project ever put before Mecklenburg
County voters -- and perhaps
the hardest to explain.
In a City Council race, for example, the losers leave office within a
matter of months. When a school bond issue passes, bricks and mortar begin
rising within a year or so.
But if voters approve a half-cent sales tax for transit, it will be
years before most Charlotteans notice or feel a
difference.
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PART 2
OF 6
Trains
depend on density
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Traffic volumes are up more than 30
percent on Interstate 77 North since 1994, making the commute among the
area's worst. File
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If there's a local
hot bed for rapid transit, it's Huntersville, Cornelius and Davidson.
Residents talk eagerly of train service from north Mecklenburg
to the uptown on a 23-mile freight line through the three towns.
And while commuter trains are a decade away, the towns have adopted
innovative land-use rules to get ready.
PART 3
OF 6
Transit
planners face a test: University City
If you set out to
design a community that's almost impossible for rapid transit to serve, it
would look like University City.
This northeast corner of Mecklenburg has some of
county's biggest employers, but workers are so scattered that cars are almost
the only commuting option. Drive W.T. Harris
Boulevard at rush hour and see the result.
PART 4 OF 6
An
alternative on Independence
Take a bus out of
traffic and put it on its own lane on Independence Freeway. Now watch the
heads of drivers, stuck in a 30-mph crawl, turn when the bus speeds by.
That's the city's vision for Independence
-- rubber-wheeled rapid transit.
It won't be an easy sell. A recent Observer poll of Charlotte--Mecklenburg
voters showed that 50 percent of those questioned said they are unlikely to
ride a bus; 34 percent said they probably would.
PART 5
OF 6
Some
to south say train ride an attraction
When it comes to
transit, south Charlotte has
something no other part of the county can match -- an abandoned rail line
with a ``For Sale'' sign.
Negotiations are already under way between Norfolk
Southern and city officials who want to buy the old track from uptown to Tyvola Road. And south of
there, the city would lease land and build new track.
PART 6
OF 6
Airport
link: Route to jobs also promised
Rapid-transit
service from uptown to Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, with its 500
commercial flights a day, has long been a goal of city boosters.
But at $25 million a mile, a passenger rail line to the airport is more
the stuff of civic dreams than reality, consultants say.
Instead, they're proposing a less-costly busway
to the airport -- at $8 million a mile. Buses can pick up passengers in the
many westside neighborhoods near Freedom
Drive, and Wilkinson and West boulevards.
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