On this week’s Flashpoint, MPTA Chairman David Howard said the first concrete changes will come to the bus system.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The chairman of the newly formed Metropolitan Public Transportation Authority is laying out the organization’s top priorities as it prepares to oversee how sales tax funds are spent on transit — and eventually take authority over Charlotte Area Transit System.
MPTA Chairman David Howard sat down with WCNC Charlotte’s Flashpoint team, addressing pressing concerns about public safety, fare enforcement, and bus service improvements.
This week, the MPTA outlined plans for the “Better Bus Program,” which aims to deliver improved bus shelters and shorter, more dependable wait times. Howard described reliable bus service as the foundation of the entire transit system, and this will be the first tangible change riders see.
“That means we got to be cleaner, we got to be faster, we got to be more dependable,” Howard said. “Buses is the backbone of that. No two ways about that.”
The interview comes as interim CATS CEO Brent Cagle revealed that 50% of riders across the system are not paying their fares. Cagle also unveiled next year’s budget proposal, which includes a $10 million increase for safety — half of which would go toward fare enforcement.
Howard said the Red Line and public safety remain at the top of the MPTA’s agenda.
“I can tell you that everybody that went into this with their eyes wide open to the issues CATS has been dealing with for the last couple of years,” Howard said. “And we know that that means that we need to make sure the public knows that safety comes number one, and it does for the next — until January one, though, it continues to be the city’s responsibility, and I’m very happy to see what the city and the city council has done to address safety.”
The Charlotte Black Voter Project is hosting a forum at Reeder Memorial Baptist Church 5:30 p.m. Monday, with Howard and Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners Chair Mark Jerrell. Organizer Collette Forrest says her biggest questions have to do with safety.
“One of my biggest concerns that I heard, be it Brent Cagle or maybe the city council members, was that they were going to get their own police force,” Forrest said. “Are you all going to have body cams? Is it going to be legislatively controlled or monitored or by city council?”
Full interviews with Howard and Forrest will air on Flashpoint, available on the WCNC Charlotte app starting Sunday at 11 a.m. and on demand.
