How will the SMP engage the community?

Neighborhood Listening Sessions and Town Hall Meetings

The SMP Team will host a series of virtual Neighborhood Listening Sessions to learn more about the transportation needs and priorities that are most important to residents in different parts of Charlotte. These will be followed by a series of Town Hall Meetings that will occur later in the development of the plan. Both the Neighborhood Listening Sessions and the Town Hall Meetings will be geographically focused to help anchor the SMP in the specific mobility needs and challenges in different parts of our city.

Equity Focus Groups

• Charlotte is a vibrant and diverse community. It’s not always easy for all our residents to participate in traditional forms of community engagement. The Equity Focus Groups acknowledge that by engaging residents from specific underrepresented groups to ensure that the SMP benefits from the diverse perspective of all Charlotte residents.

• In late 2020, The SMP Team hosted 3 equity-based focus groups, 1 focus group for Spanish speaking residents in partnership with Charlotte's Bilingual PreSchool, and 2 focus groups for young adults in partnership with Johnson C. Smith University, for a total of 6 focus groups which reached nearly 60 Charlotte residents. The focus groups were planned with intent to recruit participants of African American, Hispanic, Asian and Indigenous ethnic background as well as immigrants, non-English speakers, transit-dependent workers, single-parent households, older adults, members of the ADA community, and people experiencing homelessness. Participants represented people who have stated that they travel using various modes of transit, as well as a diverse representation of gender and ethnicity.

• The SMP team will host additional focus groups in 2021 to allow for a more nuanced look into the travel habits of diverse participants and allow for more open-ended discussion and account for those populations not represented through other forms of engagement.

Survey (Coming Soon!)

• In 2020, the SMP team deployed a survey garnering over 1,100 respondents weighing in on mobility habits, preferences, and opinions. An additional online questionnaire/survey will be conducted later this year. The primary purpose of the survey is to evaluate the goals and tradeoffs that will help inform future project prioritization and decision making

Transformational Mobility Network Mapping Tool (Coming Soon!)

• A key question that the SMP will answer is, “How should we spend our limited transportation dollars?” The SMP will deliver a “Transformational Mobility Network” Map, focused on 6 basic categories, that will illustrate how we can invest to achieve a safe and equitable mobility future for Charlotte. The 6 priority networks that add up to the Transformational Mobility Network are:

• Rapid Transit (Rail)

• Bus Priority

• Greenways

• Pedestrian

• Bicycle

• Roadway

• This will be an online mapping interface that allows participants to view and comment on the transportation priorities that are most important to them. The interactive map will include a backdrop of information related to specific mobility needs in different parts of Charlotte.

Mayor’s Task Force (Complete)

Mayor Lyles convened the Charlotte Moves Task Force to deliver a strategy to address mobility and transportation issues in the Charlotte area. The Task Force met from May to December 2020 and fulfilled its charge by delivering recommendations to the Charlotte City Council. The Task Force was composed of 25 community leaders from across the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area who represent business, government, transportation and planning, education, nonprofits, and more. Former Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt led the Task Force. Learn more about the Task Force recommendations by clicking the link and reading the Charlotte MOVES Task Force Report.