Anthony Foxx says public buy-in needed for controversial road projects

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, who spoke in Charlotte on Wednesday, says elected officials have to win public support to make projects like the Interstate 77 toll lanes succeed.

Foxx wouldn’t take sides on the hot-button issue of Interstate 77 toll lanes in north Mecklenburg or criticize another former Charlotte mayor, Gov. Pat McCrory, for his role in it.

The project resulted from a contract between North Carolina’s Department of Transportation and the Spanish firm Cintra.

“Managed lanes have a place, but we know from throughout the country that managed lanes have to be managed well from a public standpoint,” Foxx told reporters after speaking at the Envision America sustainability conference. “That’s up to elected officials, usually the state elected officials, because they control most of the resources. When they do a good job of involving the public and the public feels connected to it, it can work.”

In the face of opposition to the I-77 toll lanes, McCrory asked for local transportation leaders to vote again on toll lanes, including those planned for I-77 and I-485. Critics viewed the governor’s request for an all-or-nothing vote as a bid for political cover on an issue that could hurt him in his re-election campaign.

“I’m not going to Monday-morning quarterback the governor,” Foxx said. “He’s a grown-up. He wears big britches.”

The Charlotte City Council voted 7-4 Monday to support toll lanes. The decision will likely allow the project to continue despite heated opposition from north Mecklenburg residents.

Foxx said the federal Transportation Department is “very bullish on public-private partnerships in general, but the public does have to have a good level of input.”

The Envision America workshop is modeled after the Envision Charlotte sustainability initiative, which has cut energy use in uptown buildings and tackled air, water and waste issues.

Foxx touted his department’s Smart City Challenge competition, which will grant up to $40 million this year to a medium-sized city with “bold, data-driven ideas” to make transportation safer, easier, and more reliable. Charlotte will be an applicant but has not released specifics on its proposal.

Foxx said innovative planners can use data to anticipate changes in growing cities and offer multiple modes of getting around. Charlotte’s traffic, he said, “already looks different in the three years since I was mayor.”

This story was originally published January 14, 2016 at 11:38 AM with the headline "Anthony Foxx says public buy-in needed for controversial road projects."