Strategic Mobility Plan

Strategic Mobility

City Council adopted the Strategic Mobility Plan (SMP) in June 2022. This plan advanced policies that prioritize safety for all who share Charlotte’s streets and set a 50-50 mode share aspiration to have half of commute trips be made by means other than a single-occupancy vehicle. The SMP also committed to supporting transit for faster and reliable travel and preparing for a future where our mobility is on the leading edge of technological transformation. Since then, the city has built a blueprint for Charlotte Mobility Investment that translates the SMP’s mobility vision into action. This blueprint identifies the community’s transportation needs, and provides an approach for implementing scalable and impactful projects that align with a regional funding strategy.

Strategic Investment Areas

Through a data-driven process, Strategic Investment Areas, and groups of potential projects, have been identified that align our mobility goals with our mobility needs.

Strategic Investment Areas

What are Strategic Investment Areas?

Through a data-driven process, the City has identified Strategic Investment Areas (SIAs) that align our mobility policies with our mobility needs. There are 22 areas throughout Charlotte that include a wide range of big and small projects that can be delivered efficiently, while being measurable and adaptable. It sets up a place-based focus, with a strategy for building infrastructure around local needs which creates a new way of identifying, prioritizing, and implementing transportation infrastructure. The goal is to expedite a range of projects across project type and scale in targeted areas – designed for specific local impact.

Strategic Investment Area Pilot Program

In 2024, City Council adopted, and the voters approved, a $55M capital bond investment program for piloting this strategic approach to transportation investment. These initial funds will implement coordinated transportation improvements through 2027 in the Far East/Harrisburg and Arrowood Strategic Investment Areas. These two SIAs were selected for the pilot to test new processes against a variety of common constraints and contexts from residential neighborhoods to employment centers. The plan is to scale the program with larger and long-term investments across all 22 Strategic Investment Areas in Charlotte.

Harrisburg Road - Far East / Harrisburg Strategic Investment Area

Harrisburg Road runs swiftly through Charlotte’s Far East community by existing and new neighborhoods, parks and churches, an elementary school and a fire station. It serves the area’s two bus routes and touches the area’s two commercial activity centers. The proposed projects located in the Far East – Harrisburg SIA advance the City's mode shift and vision zero goals, by better connecting neighborhoods to centers, transit, and to each other, by filling in sidewalk gaps with both sidewalk and shared use path. These connections will be complemented by new signals, pedestrian crossings, improved streetlighting, and intersection improvements that will improve safety for all modes along both the Harrisburg Road and Robinson Church Road corridors.

Take a look at our brochure to further explore the projects being implemented in the Far East – Harrisburg SIA:

Harrisburg Road - Far East/Harrisburg Strategic Investment Area Brochure(PDF, 6MB)

Arrowood Road - Arrowood Strategic Investment Area

The SIA Project Team is in the process of identifying and prioritizing projects within the Arrowood SIA. The projects will advance the City's goals connected to mode shift and vision zero, by better connecting people to high-frequency transit and to destinations, through new sidewalks and shared use paths, in-street bike facilities, pedestrian crossings, new signals, intersection improvements, improved landscaping, and new streetlighting. These projects also improve mobility in multiple different contexts, including older single-family neighborhoods, multifamily, industrial, retail/commercial, and transit-oriented development around the light-rail station.