Tim Larkin (R) talking to voters on the Mount Pleasant 40 CARTA Bus March 13, 2011
Updated Info on the Transit Rider Voter empowerment effort can now be found at www.busec.org/vote.
Mt. Pleasant, SC- Hungryneck Straphangers has now conducted Candidate’s rides on March 7, 13 & 28 and is waiting to schedule more based on candidate’s committments. Our practice is to obtian the first committment for a date of the campaign’s choosing, then invite everyone else. If you want a good time for your campaign, call us first and take your pick. Rides at various times can be worked out including early morning. Full details can be found at www.busec.org. You can reach organizer William Hamilton at 870-5299 or wjhamilton29464@gmail.com.
March 8 Candidates Ride- We’re offering an opportunity for candidates to schedule a ride this week on Friday at 7:00 am Starting at the Express Bus Park and Ride at Oakland Super Walmart in Mount Pleasant (out near Wando HS) into town. Campaigns can either continue on to Citadel Mall to meet more voters or return to Mount Pleasant on the Express or the 40. If no candidates confirm with us, we’ll cancel the ride. Facebook Signup for March 8 Ride.
New- Hungryneck Straphangers has decided to distribute a bookmark type slip at bus stops prior to the primary which lists the candidates which did ride the bus, to recognize their interest in transit. This will need to go to Press a week, March 9 so we can begin distribution on March 11. The last day to ride and be listed on this bookmark slip will be Friday, March 8. We plan to distribute several thousand bookmarks.
A Facebook photogallery of our first two trips with 5 candidates in now online at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.10151430911974824&type=1
We expect to schedule several of these trips. We’re somewhat flexible on how many and when, but this 4 pm to 5:35 pm time slot round trip to Mount Pleasant allows candidates to meet a lot of transit voters quickly and still make their evening event. We also do morning join voters on their way to work rides, which are very intense but allow candidates to meet many transit voters who go on to discuss their candidate contact at work.. Bus trips go rain or shine. We’re willing to work with campaign schedules to tailor a trip which meets your needs at these or other times. We promise you’ll meet more voters faster doing this than any other form of in person campaigning. Most candidates over 100 voters per hour.
Information and Questions for Candidates Now Updated, Online
Linda Page of the CARTA board & Mt. Pleasant Town Council speaks to candidates in a rainy Kmart parking lot on Feb. 7
All 16 Republican candidates were invited to ride during the Feb. 16 Freedomworks forum in N. Charleston and given a full information package, including the four that had already taken a ride, since package materials had been updated since their ride. Listed below are the candidates in alphabetical order by party and name and who hs ridden or committed to ride.
The Democrats and Greens have been invited by phone call and email.
Candidates can review our updated information for candidates memo, now with our exact Transit issue questions we’ll be asking candidates to answer.
Transit Issues in this Election
We’ll be distributing thousands of voter information cards in April with the candidates answers to three simple questions. Candiates will have a brief space to explain their answers and we’ll provide links to more detailed information online if they ask.
- Have you ridden CARTA or Tri County Link Public Transit in the Lowcountry recently? We’ll note if this has been a guided ride with a person familiar with transit issues or a self reported claim which we can’t verify.
- As a congressman would you be willing to work to obtain Federal support to complete planning and construction of the Passenger Intermodal Transportation Center in N. Charleston which will combine a new Amtrak Train Station, Greyhound Station, Airport Shuttle, CARTA route hub and car rental services as well as offices and service businesses. We/ve put together an Intermodal information packet for the campaigns. Details on this Public/Private partnership project are available from CARTA.
- As a congressman, would you support returning public transit’s share of the Federal Transportation Budget to 20% or more from it’s current reduced share of 18%? For background on this issue see Stranded at the Station, a natinal report on public transit funding issues.
- There will be a short space for additional comments by the candidate.
Help Get Candidates to Ride the Bus
If your candidate hasn’t been on the bus yet, please contact them and encourage them to ride. Our community will be better for everyone when all of our leaders understand what transit is really like, by seeing it from the inside right here, on a bus and meeting the people who ride every day. You can download printable postcards to help get more people involved in this effort.
Democrats
- Elizabeth Colbert Busch (D) Colbert Busch Facebook rode with us on March 14.
- Ben Frasier
Green Party
- Eugene Platt (G)
- Larry Carter Center (G) rode with us in the rain on Feb. 7
Ric Bryant(R) in teal colored jacket at left, speaks to Express Bus Riders in North Charleston on Feb. 28
Republicans
- Keith Blandford indicates that he will not be riding, and that he is opposed to public transportation,
- Curtis Bostic or Bostic on Facebook
- Ric Bryant rode in the Morning on Feb. 28, North Charlston Exp.
- ‘Larry Grooms or Larry Grooms on Facebook
- Johnathan Hoffman rode in the rain, Feb. 7, Mt. P. Exp & 40
- John Kuhn
- Jeff King
- Tim Larkin rode on Feb. 13, Mt. P. Exp & 40
- Chip Limehouse or Chip Limehouse on Facebook
- Peter McCoy
- Elizabeth Moffly rode on Feb. 13. Mt. P. Exp & 40
- Ray Nash
- Andy Patrick
- Shawn Pinkston or Pinkston for Congress on Facebook
- Mark Sanford or Mark Sanford on Facebook
- Teddy Turner rode in the rain on Feb. 7, Mt. P Exp.
Here is the detailed Itinerary
Candidates Teddy Turner and Mathww Hoffman chat before boarding the Express bus on Calhoun Street
Feb. 28 Morning ride- Starts at Kmart Park and Ride in North Charleston at 7 am, at 7:19 Ride Express 1 all the way to James Island, turn around and stay on Express one back to the city. Take Rivers Ave. 10 back to North Charleston. Candidate Ric Bryant commieted to ride all candidates welcome. You can sign up for the Feb. 28 Ride on Facebook.
Elixabeth Moffly (R) talks to riders at the Express Bus stop in Downtown Charleston on our March 13 rided
For a full update on our current efforts to improve Public Transit East of the Cooper, see Going Somewhere Together in 2013
This effort is a project of the Hungryneck Straphangers, an independent Rider’s Advocacy group and is not officially associated with CARTA, a government agency in any way. Hungryneck Straphangers is associated with Americans for Transit, a national Rider’s advocacy group.
The idea of abolishing the bus system is absurd! Thousands of citizens, of all social classes, utilize CARTA on a daily basis; they need the bus to go to work, to go to school, and just to save on gas. If congressman wanting to discard CARTA have to take a bus ride in order to change their minds, then so be it.
They will never where I’m going if they don’t know where I’m coming from.
We continue to work on getting more candidates to ride the bus. One called today and said they just wanted to campaign at bus stops, but the Candidate didn’t have time to actually ride a bus. I advised them that we had transit riders who might decide to vote in the other primary if they thought that would make a difference. Thanks for your interest.
I was on the bus on the day that Tim Larkin rode, and found it refreshing to see him speaking with and listening to people who depend on Carta every day.
We’re very happy that six candidates have been on the bus. Elizabeth Colbert Bush is scheduling for shortly before the primary with a very ambitious ride. However 1O Republicans, four of which are currently serving elected officials haven’t been on the bus, 1 Democrat and 1 green haven’t been on board as well. We’ll continue to work until the end to reach them.
Why is there not a bus that runs to Daniel Island? There are alot of workers that need to get to that island.
We’ve been talking about a Daniel Island CARTA route for over five years now. There is currently one Tri-County Link rural transit service bus which does go through part of Daniel Island while running from Moncks Corner to Mount Pleasant. We need to add a page on that route to our website. It only runs a few times a day however.
One of the new route proposals is for a bus running between North Charleston and Mount Pleasant, or the beach islands. However there are tough decisions. If you go to the beach, your bus can get trapped there throwing the route off. If you go all the way to Superstop in N. Charleston, it takes almost an hour to make the trip, which means two buses for hourly service. That’s a lot of money.