About Connect Beyond
The vision of CONNECT Beyond is to create a total mobility network for the region that would provide residents and visitors with a variety of alternative mobility options to travel seamlessly around our 12-county region. A total mobility network will help improve transportation choice and enhance mobility for everyone in our region.
It Starts with a Vision
The vision will guide long-term transportation planning for the region and enable collaboration between regional partners, including local governments, transit agencies, and regional planning organizations. With this shared regional transit vision, the partners in the area will be able to plan, coordinate, and implement innovative transportation projects that will boost regional mobility, promote equitable access, encourage sustainable regional growth patterns, inspire community placemaking, and energize regional economic competitiveness.
A Focus on Equity
Transportation is a crucial element in providing access to education, jobs, and housing to improve economic and social mobility. Limited or lack of public transportation options create significant obstacles to getting to work, shopping for groceries, taking your children to school, accessing healthcare and other public services, and participating in activities and social events throughout our region.
Helping to improve equitable access to transportation for everyone in the region, especially for those with limited or no access to a personal vehicle, is an important consideration of CONNECT Beyond. Through a combination of public listening sessions, stakeholder input, review of previous plans, and available data, CONNECT Beyond set a foundation to guide context-sensitive mobility improvements in areas that need it most.
Total Mobility Network
You are at the center of the CONNECT Beyond vision. A total mobility network includes mobility options and mobility-supportive strategies that meet the user’s particular and constantly changing needs. Providing various mobility options in an area allows residents and visitors to make trips in several ways, increasing travel efficiency and enhancing user experience.
Our Region
The CONNECT Beyond region is a diverse, two-state, 12-county region consisting of Charlotte as the metro center and surrounding suburban counties with regional cities and rural areas with small towns and open space land.
What makes the CONNECT Beyond region so unique and special is the diversity of its geography. This area is made up of rural counties with small towns, suburban counties with regional cities and an urban hub – the City of Charlotte. Each of these different geography types has its own set of transportation challenges and needs.
Did you know?
- The CONNECT Beyond region is one of the fastest-growing large metropolitan areas in the United States. Between 2000 and 2010, the total population of the region increased by 26 percent, adding approximately 500,000 new residents to our region.
- Today, Charlotte is the nation’s 15th largest city.
- Between 2000 and 2018, employment in the region grew by approximately 367,403 jobs, which is an annual growth rate of 3.8 percent.
Understanding Regional Mobility: The first step in developing this regional mobility plan was to cultivate a deep understanding of the region and the mobility needs of those who live here.
Community Engagement: To truly understand the mobility needs of our region, we engaged with and listened to our community
Our Partners
CONNECT Beyond is a joint effort by the Centralina Regional Council and the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS).
CONNECT Beyond Thanks Our Project Funding Partners
Learn More
CONNECT Beyond is a bold regional mobility plan that sets the vision for how to better connect the rural, suburban, and urban communities in our 12-county region. This plan will guide and coordinate future mobility investments for the next two decades and serve as a blueprint for implementing a robust, integrated public transit network.