Archive for the ‘advocate’ Category

Route Status

November is an important month for the East Cooper CARTA effort.  Both local routes, the #401 East Cooper Connector and the #402 Island Flex have not met ridership standards.  Everyone seems to recognize that more time is needed for the #401 to reach its goals considering the negative impact of road construction in Mount Pleasant on operations.  The bus simply can’t keep a reliable schedule with the roads its operating on being snarled in traffic and construction barriers.  Lots of improvements and effort is needed on the 401 but its utility and ultimate success seems to have everyone’s confidence.  It also has the backing of a community wide effort supported by neighborhoods, schools, churches and business.

The #402 Island Flex is a much different story.  It has continued to struggle with the issues which have plagued it since June.  It never really performed like most people thought it would.  There are some great new drivers on the route and major improvements in the operation of CARTA’s telephone reservation and dispatch system, but they’ve come after the busy summer season is over.  Something different is going to need to be tried, possibly a bus connecting the front beach with a limited stop route connecting N. Charleston and Mt. Pleasant to the beach.

The CARTA board voted to put both routes before the Route Review Committee, the committee which adjusts, cancels and approves routes as their own rules require them to.  There will be a hearing.  We’re going to need to be ready.

Later, Lets Have Some Fun

Nov 13- Park Pleasantly, Play Downtown with the CARTA #40

East Cooper CARTA Riders will provide a guided tour to Second Sunday Festival on King Street on Sunday, November 13.  Those interested can board the CARTA #40 bus anywhere along its route on the run beginning at Wando High School at 11:38 and arriving downtown at 12:38 or later runs.  Riders can return home on either the 2:38, 4:38 or 6:38 runs from the Visitor’s Center Downtown to any point along the #40 route.  Full information on the #40 CARTA Trans Mt. Pleasant bus route can be found at www.eastccrider.com.

In order to assist riders that day, updates from the #40 CARTA bus will be tweeted by @wjhamilton29464 or they can call 843 870-5299 for a telephone report on where the bus is between 11 am and 12:38.  Activities the entire afternoon will be tweeted with hash code #CARTA40.

Second Sunday on King transforms King Street into a walkable, car free environment from Queen Street to Calhoun with outdoor dining, shopping specials and street entertainment.  Since the event burdens the surrounding streets and parking facilities, the bus is an excellent way to access it from Mt. Pleasant.  Those who made the trip in October said it was a delightful way to go downtown, parking pleasantly in lots along the route in Mt. Pleasant and playing downtown.

Then, Let’s Make some Money and have More Fun

Nov. 25- Black Friday on the Bus CARTA #401

Mount Pleasant’s East Cooper Connector #401 bus is a fun way to enjoy the busy Black Friday shopping day after Thanksgiving while sampling the Town’s surprising array of local and second hand shopping, as well as it’s major shopping areas.  Members of East Cooper CARTA Riders will be on Board from 9 to 1 pm, sending out updates on Twitter and Facebook.  Merchants can facebook and tweet specials and sales that day using hash code #CARTA401.

The East Cooper Connector links shoppers to five major shopping centers including Belle Hall, Town Centre, Sea Island Shopping Center, Patriot’s Plaza and all of Coleman Blvd.  Over 25 antique and second hand shops can be found along the route from two Goodwills to high end purveyors of treasures from centuries ago.  You’ll find plenty of your neighbors at both.

You’ll also find ECCO on the route serving the needy of our community and many small, local shops with unique gifts grown and made right here in the lowcountry.  The Sweetgrass basket pavillion at Waterfront Park offers Mount Pleasant’s signature craft, our world famous baskets made by your neighbors, an heirloom gift that returns every penny spent on it back to your community.

To shop on Black Friday or any day, get full route information at www.eastccrider.com.  The East Cooper Connector is an easy bus to use 12 hours a day, Monday through Saturday, following a lollypop shaped route around Mt. Pleasant.  Merchants can post specials on the East Cooper CARTA Riders Facebook Event Page or tweet with hashcode #CARTA401

If you want your business to be involved email wjhamilton29464@gmail.com with details on any special offers or sales your business located along the #401 route might like to offer that day and we’ll put them online here, tweet them out and let people know.  A downloadable PDF guide will be available.  Deadline for to submit offers will be Nov. 18.

 

Four more events in October to make East Cooper Transit more useful and efficient.  Click the “Calendar” tab at the top of our page for access to fully interactive Google Calendar entries on all our activities,  including transit access information.

Night Service Returns, Online Trip Planning

CARTA at Night returns thanks to improved retail sales in our community generating additional transit support revenue, providing door to door transit opportunities from, to and across a downtown hub after regular bus service ends at night.  Google Transit goes online with a new CARTA website, enabling automated door to door transit trip planning with detailed maps and Google context content on your computer or smart phone.

Sun. Oct. 16, 12 noon—5 pm
Children’s Festival Transit Outreach

Image, Right “Linky” Tri County Link’s Bus mascot, will join us at the Children’s Festival

Students from the University School of the Lowcountry, CARTA, Trident Links (and their frog mascot Linky) join a  fun afternoon of outreach and children’s activities at the 24^th Annual Town of Mount Pleasant Children’s Day Festival presented by BI-LO at the Park West Recreation Center. Learn how CARTA and the rural Trident Links bus system connect here enabling transit all the way to Moncks Corner and McCellenville.

Wed, Oct.  19,  2 pm – 4pm
CARTA Board Meeting

The CARTA board will hear public comment and make decisions about the future of routes East of the Cooper based on data from the April to September service period.  Location and full agenda TBA.  East Cooper CARTA Riders encourages everyone who can to attend.

Tue, Oct. 25,  7 pm – 9pm
Mt. Pleasant Town Election Forum

Waterworks Bld., 1619 Rifle Range Road, Mount Pleasant, SC.  Present questions on transit related issues and learn about the candidates for Mt. Pleasant Town Council.

Thu, Oct. 27,  7 pm – 8:30pm
IOP City Election Forum

IOP Recreation Center, #24, 29th. Ave., Isle of Palms, SC.  Question Candidates about transit related issues, including efforts to make the endangered #402 Island Flex more effective.  Both forums sponsored by the League of Women Voters and several other organizations.

 

9/23/2011- Friday Update has been added at the bottom of this post with new information.

Mount Pleasant, SC, USA- East Cooper's effort to build a better CARTA transit system joins a global event on Saturday, September 24th when the East Cooper CARTA Riders will take transit information into Mount Pleasant's Old Village after a breakfast meeting, knocking on doors with the message that success for the new East Cooper Connector #401 Route means "the bus up to us."

Volunteers will enjoy a Dutch treat breakfast at Page’s Okra Grill at its new location at 302 Coleman Boulevard at 8 am, then move out about 9 am on foot, by bike and on the CARTA #401 East Cooper Connector Bus for a morning of transit awareness development and outreach focused on Coleman Blvd. and the walkable, transit accessible community and shopping district being redeveloped along Mount Pleasant’s Main Street and nearby areas. Most of the effort will be hanging bags with transit literature on door knobs and talking to people about the new routes.

Such efforts have already proven successful here, raising ridership on the #40 Trans Mount Pleasant bus route by 16%.

University School of the Lowcountry Students have already been at work in this effort earlier this month. This wonderful video gives you an idea of what we’ll be doing Saturday after breakfast.

This event marks the beginning of the last full week in the probationary evaluation period for the new route, which will be rated by the CARTA staff and board based on its performance for the period ending September 30, 2011. Based on ridership and farebox revenue figures to that date the bus may be continued, modified or terminated.

For full information or to volunteer that day see www.eastccrider.com or call (843) 870=5299.  You can sign up for this event and updates on The Bus is Up To Us Event Page on Facebook

This is part of the Moving Planet Global event focused on reducing carbon emissions www.moving-planet.org with thousands of activities around the world that day.  We’ll connect with that Global effort online during our activities here in Mount Pleasant.

Friday Update to this Post

Rhonda Weichsel facilitated a very productive survey of the Old Village / Coleman Blvd. area this morning in preparation for tomorrow’s door to door transit outreach canvass with community volunteers and students from the University School of the Lowcountry.

Rhonda’s detailed knowledge of her neighborhood showed me areas which would need transit information I didn’t know existed.  We highlighted a map which will be refined today for handing out to the volunteers during the breakfast at Page’s Okra Grill.  Our target is 600 residences and an information table at Royall Hardware.  We expect to reach over 1000 potential transit riders.

I’ll lead the Old Village area door to door effort.  Linda Page will lead the effort along Whipple Road, which will start with the Anchorage Apartments.  Thomasina Stokes Marshall, also of the CARTA board and Mt. Pleasant Town Council will also be working with us.

We also visited Mt. Pleasant Academy, Sullivan’s Island Elementary (currently at the old Whitesides Campus on the #401 Route) and Stella Marris Schools where we began the process of involving them in our
effort this morning.

Tri County  Link is joining our effort for the first time tomorrow.  They run the bus services in rural areas, including the route which connects McClellenville & Awendaw to Mount Pleasant.  They’re bringing their costumed Mascot to assist us Saturday.  One of their vehicles will be visiting the University School to drop off printed materials today.

Everyone planning to work tomorrow should wear good walking shoes, bring a reusable bottle of water and an empty backpack if they have
one.  We’l go rain or shine, so dress appropriately.

It was clear from this morning’s survey that there is a lot of need for transit here.  We saw people waiting for the #401 East Cooper Connector in several places.  Frankly I saw mobile home parks and low income areas likely to need transit that I, a 20 year resident of Mount Pleasant, didn’t know existed.  If we can connect that need to the resources CARTA has operating, we can keep these routes and build this transit system beyond the 2000 additional riders per month we’ve already put on the buses.

The University School of the Lowcountry  is stuffing 600 bags with transit material today and for the first time, we’ll be including material from Trident Links as well as CARTA.  The students have also been making posters.  Our
efforts would be impossible without the help of our school volunteers, including the massive Wando effort last Spring.

Tomorrow our effort will be one of thousands in 176 countries which are part of the Moving Planet event.  We’ll be sending out images and video of our efforts here to that global effort.  Your efforts Saturday open a weekend of working for a more sustainable, greener world that continues on Sunday with the Charleston Green Fair, at which CARTA and Trident Links will both operate information booths.

Our East Cooper effort will continue with a promotion to ride CARTA downtown for the Second Sunday on King Street event in October, a
major student lead outreach effort at the Mount Pleasant Children’s Festival, support of the restart of CARTA at Night in our area and Black Friday on the Bus, the day after Thanksgiving.  We’re in contact with transit activists in N. Charleston and James Island who are beginning work similar to ours at East Cooper CARTA Riders.

It has been a long, hot summer but now that the community is back together and schools, churches and other organizations are active again, the network we began last Spring is working.  Thanks for helping us begin the journey we take together for public transit East of the Cooper.

William Hamilton, Coordinator
Wjhamilton29464@gmail.com
(843) 870-5299

East Cooper CARTA Riders will join disability rights advocates at this June 28th. Meeting to show support for improved bus stops and access to bus stops in the East Cooper Area.  We’ll video record the meeting for use on our website and hand up full copies of our complete stop survey of the deficiencies in East Cooper’s existing bus stops.  Please join us at this important meeting.  Afterwards, we’ll gather at the Starbucks on Houston Northcutt, near the Harris Teeter, to debrief and plan future strategies.

Meeting Signup

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May 18- Recommendations for Immediate Action

Members of East Cooper CARTA Riders will attend today’s (May 18, 2011) CARTA Board meeting at 2 pm.  All the materials discussed at our Monday meeting have been send to seven members of the CARTA board with a summary of our recommendations for immediate action on the part of CARTA administration needed to conduct a fair trial of the new routes.

Image, Left, Bus stop (with no sign) on Hungryneck (North Side) just West of the IOP Connector, between BI-LO and Irongate Plaza.  despite its modest appearance and lack of a sign, this is the only bus stop in the East Cooper Area served by all three of our regular routes.
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East Cooper CARTA Riders will hold its first formal Route Performance Review and Planning Meeting on Monday, May 16 at 6 pm.  The meeting will be held at Page’s Thieves Market at 1460 Ben Sawyer Boulevard, in Mount Pleasant, SC.  The meeting will start as soon as participants arriving on the inbound #401 bus can arrive from the Ben Sawyer / Rifle Range stop located 2 blocks West and end in time to catch the outbound 401 a little over an hour later. The meeting is open to the interested and supportive public.  Full details can be found at www.eastccrider.com.

Agenda:

Send your suggestions to wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or use our website input form.

1. Reports from the Route Committees for the #401 East Cooper Connector Route,
2. Route Committee Report for #40 Trans Mt. Pleasant
3. Organization of Committee for #402 Island Flex (Bus to the Beach).
4. Prioritize goals for stop and route improvement over the summer to present to the CARTA board later that week.
5. The Daniel Island committee will present their report on efforts to connect Daniel Island to transit hubs in Mount Pleasant and N. Charleston.
6. Review final plans for and volunteer recruitment efforts for the ECCO Transit effort set for May 21 in Snowden and Six Mile.
7. Recognition of Student Volunteers
8. A comment period will be recorded on Video to post on YouTube so those who can’t attend the CARTA board meeting have the opportunity to be heard.

For more information see the website or contact William Hamilton at wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or (843) 870-5299.

We hope everyone will join the East Cooper CARTA riders and representatives of the Town of Mount Pleasant, Isle of Palms and Sullivan’s Island as we celebrate the beginning of a summer when new CARTA routes will enable everyone to enjoy the beaches of Sullivan’s Island and the Isle of Palms without their automobile. Read the rest of this entry »

Throwing Public Transit Under the Bus

Mount Pleasant, SC- Gas was $2.49 a gallon at the pump when conservative Mount Pleasant Town Councilwoman Linda Page called activist, columnist, and network member William (Jack) Hamilton at 10:45 pm on January 4th and asked him to join her in an effort to save the area’s CARTA bus service. Plans to cancel bus service in most of the area, and all of the Isle of Palms and Sullivan’s Island were being proposed as part of the systems third major round of budget cuts forced by declining sales tax revenue.

Though Hamilton was preparing to send his son Jackson, a committed activist in his own right, to Evergreen State College in Washington State, Linda’s promise of backing from Town Government and her vast array of friends and contacts in a community effort combined with the critical need persuaded Jack to help lead the effort, extending a ten year activist involvement with the transit system..
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Our interest at transit doesn’t end at the Wando River. We recognize that Daniel Island, Thomas Island, the Clemins Ferry Road Community and the Cainhoy Peninsula are important parts of the East Cooper Area.

Kurt Kehlenbeck (pictured left), of Daniel Island, has been involved in the East Cooper CARTA Riders Effort for over a year. Kurt will lead our Daniel Island Committee. Kurt is an experienced community leader and construction foreman who gets things done and appreciates the value of concrete results at the end of the day. He’s clever, handy and determined.

If you could build a bus with a sawzall and nail gun, Kurt would have already made sure Daniel Island had one. Kurt will be working with the community, CARTA, Berkeley County Government and the City of Charleston on this effort. He’s recruiting activists now, starting with his son, who commutes to Trident Tech downtown on the CARTA Express.

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A stress free trip to the Sunday, April 17th Blessing of the Fleet at Mount Pleasant Waterfront Memorial Park will be available on East Cooper’s new CARTA bus route system which will be making special runs that Sunday.

Updated information on these bus lines will be sent out from the CARTA information booth at the Blessing of the Fleet that day on Twitter by monitoring the #ecarta hashtag.  The information booth can be reached by phone at (843) 870-5299.

The new East Cooper Connector 401 route will be running to the heart of the 12 thousand person community celebration, stopping right in the park just steps from the Sweetgrass pavilion.  The East Cooper Connector will be running it’s Saturday schedule on Sunday for this special event.

It will be running at least once an hour from the following stops starting at 8 am. All trips end at Waterfront Memorial Park at Four (4) minutes after the hour.

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