You could it see it coming while scrolling down this Winston-Salem Journal editorial on NCDOT’s funding shortfall:

The state also needs to develop more mass-transit options. North Carolina has three major urban centers and several lesser ones. Each should have viable mass-transit systems that allow most urban dwellers to get to work and back home without a car. And, most important, North Carolinians must be willing to use mass transit. The days of cheap gasoline are over, while the prospects for unlimited new roads are being lost.