INCREASE frequencies – EXPAND routes and schedules – BUILD shelters
make PUBLIC TRANSIT
a PUBLIC GOOD
The Charlotte for Public Transit campaign may be over, but our work is just beginning. Between now and the November presidential election, we will be promoting DSA’s 2024 Program: Worker’s Deserve More! Public transit is crucial for thriving working class communities and an economy for the working class. Click the button below to read the full program.
Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) buses are miserable to use. They are infrequent, arrive late, and skip stops. Bus stops can be hard to get to, sometimes with nowhere to sit or shelter while waiting. Trips that ought to take 30 minutes can take hours depending on the day.
This needs to end.
Last year Charlotte Metro DSA canvassed bus riders at the Charlotte Transit Center. We knew that bus service levels were down since the outbreak of COVID-19, but we learned from the first-hand experience of those who depend on CATS how this affects their day-to-day lives. Embarrassment when you fill out a job application and check the box saying you have reliable transportation, knowing it's effectively a lie. Having to build an extra hour into your schedule each way, just in case. And when you can't do that? Getting fired due to how many times the bus system has failed to get you to work on time. The city shrugs this off — after all, most people have cars — but as socialists, we believe this is a tragedy needing an urgent solution.
"Horrible but necessary" — "Problems everyday" — "Sucks" — "Schedule doesn't matter" — "Need a new system" —
"Horrible but necessary" — "Problems everyday" — "Sucks" — "Schedule doesn't matter" — "Need a new system" —
"Horrible but necessary" — "Problems everyday" — "Sucks" — "Schedule doesn't matter" — "Need a new system" —
"Horrible but necessary" — "Problems everyday" — "Sucks" — "Schedule doesn't matter" — "Need a new system" — "Horrible but necessary" — "Problems everyday" — "Sucks" — "Schedule doesn't matter" — "Need a new system" — "Horrible but necessary" — "Problems everyday" — "Sucks" — "Schedule doesn't matter" — "Need a new system" —
Riders describe their experience with CATS
That’s why Charlotte Metro DSA launched the Charlotte for Public Transit campaign.
We support mass transit because it is crucial for the Charlotte working class. It’s a substantially cheaper, safer, and more dignified form of transportation than our current car-centered infrastructure provides. Mass transit relieves us of the need to purchase, maintain, and pay debt on a car. Further, mass transit takes vehicles off the road, resulting in calmer streets. Finally, mass transit recognizes that the ability to get around should be shared equally, in a way that connects us to each other and the rest of the city.
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Needing a car in Charlotte effectively puts a tax on city residency, except this "tax" only serves to profit car manufacturers, dealerships, fossil-fuel companies, and the insurance industry. Worse, it's a regressive tax, meaning that it affects low-income people most of all.
On average, Americans spent over $600 per month just to own a car in 2023. The cost of gas and maintenance only adds to that number. This amounts to over six times greater than what it costs to use unlimited public transit in Charlotte – money that directly returns to the well-being of our city.
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Buses provide a professionalized and less congested alternative to traffic-heavy individual vehicles. Individual cars are relatively more dangerous due to the wide range of both vehicles on the road and skills of their drivers.
Case in point: North Carolina had 1,535 fatal crashes resulting in 1,663 deaths in 2021, making the lifetime odds of death by a car accident were 1 in every 93 – over quadruple that of pedestrian accidents, and greater than motorcycle, bicycle, and railway accident odds combined. By centering public transit, mobility safety will dramatically increase.
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Life in Charlotte is simply harder without a car. Many people own cars not because they want to, but because they have no choice. Because public transit is unreliable, you have to own a car to get to go to work, see friends, and get around in the community. Many people also cannot drive, whether it be the young, old, or disabled.
As socialists, we believe everyone has the right to live dignified lives. Reliable public transit is an essential step towards achieving this.
Our vision is for Charlotte to have a reliable transit system that serves the needs of everyone — not only in getting to work, but to the doctor, to the store, to the park or a friend's house — to guarantee accessibility to the city as a right of residency.