Speaking to a regional business development group in Charlotte last week, NC House Speaker Tim Moore lashed out at the Charlotte transportation plan for its emphasis on rail and other public transit, and inclusion of bike lanes.

Moore “spoke at great length” about too much money being directed to rail transit, bus transit, and bike lanes, and the need to instead focus just on road construction. Moore has clearly consumed the poisoned kool-aid of the fossil fuel and road construction industries, who perpetuate the myth that adding more highway lanes and loop roads will reduce traffic congestion. 

It doesn’t work. We know it doesn’t work—but powerful legislators and certain right-wing “think tanks” demand that we keep doing it anyway. There’s a better way of balanced transportation alternatives that Charlotte and an increasing number of other cities are trying to pursue, but in our state they’re being blocked by a devotion to the failed transportation policies of the past. See some thought-provoking national examples of what happens in such cases. 

Our top state legislative leadership still has its head stuck in the “Groundhog Day” gopher hole of the endless more-lanes-more-congestion-more-lanes nightmare. Pull your heads out, y’all!