The CATS system operates throughout the county with a very centralized system for regular local buses. Only the buses serving the LNYX line and two crosstown buses offer riders any hope of not having to travel to the center of Charlotte to transfer to other buses to continue to their destination. It is not feasible to think that someone in downtown Matthews would travel all the way to the Charlotte Transportation Center (CTC) and then transfer to a bus that would take them to the Arboretum on Providence Rd. By car, this is less than a 10 minute journey, but by bus, the trip would take nearly 2 hours. 

Currently, 5 buses travel to or near the Windsor Square Park and Ride. The two Express buses serving Matthews currently terminate at the Windsor Square Park and Ride. The other 3 routes that travel to the Matthews area end before the Park and Ride and do not allow passengers to connect between the Express buses and local buses.

We suggest that both the Route 17 (Commonwealth) and Route 27 (Monroe Rd. - Crown Point) both travel one half mile further to the Matthews Park and Ride to connect with the Express buses. This would also give people the ability to ride the local bus to Windsor Square. Many people now have to walk from Crown Point along Independence Blvd. to Windsor Square. Extending these buses another one half mile would serves thousands of people who work at Windsor Square, Sycamore Commons and Matthews Festival.

The Monroe Rd. (Route 27M) bus that currently serves downtown Matthews should also be extended to Windsor Square, via Matthews Township Parkway, Northeast Parkway behind Sycamore Commons and Windsor Square and then on to the Windsor Square Park and Ride.

With these 5 buses meeting at one location, it establishes a minihub to launch furture services.

We propose that current routes be rerouted to creat minihubs systemwide. Here are our suggestions.

Besides the 4 minihubs already established (Southpark, Rosa Parks on Beatties Ford Rd., Eastland Mall and The Huntersville Village Rider system), we suggest that these area become Minihubs:

Northlake Mall

Windsor Square

University City

The Arboretum on Providence Rd.

Carolina Place Mall in Pineville

Whitehall Commons on S. Tryon and I-485

The I-485 LYNX station

Central Avenue and The Plaza

Concord Mills at the Mecklenburg/Cabarrus County line.


The only way that we can build a truly decentralized system is to start building a minihub structure with passengers connecting. This needs to be done NOW!

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