As it stands now, we have a plan that calls for about $11 billion in spending on transportation. The problem is 57% of this amount ($6.35 billion) is presently allocated to transit. Transit-taxi currently amounts to 2.6% of commuting, and about 1% of travel. So we will spend 57% of our money to address 2-3% of commuters. This is a critical and perhaps debilitating funding error in several ways. First, rail transit will do virtually nothing to remedy congestion and address the needs of most commuters. So we would be spending $6.35 billion of the $11 billion, but not address our number one transportation issue. Second, we would miss the opportunity cost of the billions spent erroneously on rail transit that could be spent to address the widening of roadways, stop light coordination, intersection improvements, and other remedies that would have a direct effect on congestion. The Charlotte long range plan itself predicts a doubling of traffic delay after the plan is implemented. Third, if we continue to misallocate transportation dollars to light rail in lieu of roads, we will need to build the roads in the future, with higher cost dollars and possibly increased taxes as the result.

Lastly, light rail will have virtually no impact on the environment. Unfortunately, the other side has spread inaccurate statements that the repeal of the tax will cause air quality to deteriorate. This is exactly opposite of what is projected to happen as stated on local air quality conformity projections. In fact, if ALL transit were stopped, a position neither side supports, air quality will IMPROVE. The reason: motor vehicles are being built with newer emissions technology. Cars and SUVs built today run cleaner than ones built just three years ago, and the standard will get even better. The best way to help the environment is to replace older vehicles with newer vehicles – not spending billions on something that very few people will use.

We must re-evaluate our transportation plan so that it will address congestion. Currently, our transportation improvement projects and long range plan focus more on providing mobility choices, minimizing accidents, and mention very little quantitatively about congestion and the improvement these plans and projects would provide. This is a critical error. In addition, the city has designated many of the city’s arterials as off-limits for widening. This is another critical planning error. We must rethink our transportation plan for the goal of reducing congestion.

It is critical that we repeal the transit tax so that we can correctly allocate limited resources to the projects that we truly need to meet the transportation needs of our growing city. This misallocation will have disastrous effects on our future quality of life and economic prosperity. I hope you will join us in voting to repeal the transit tax.