Going Somewhere Together 2013

December 31, 2012 By 1 Comment

Welcome aboard, Transit Riders going somewhere together in 2013!

CARTA East Cooper Connector Bus at Mount Pleasant, SC Waterfront Memorial Park

CAARTA #401 Bus at Mount Pleasant Waterfront Memorial Park

Five Million trips will be made on Charleston County Public Transit this year.  Auto is optional for a new generation & economy evolving new priorities.  The urban, elderly, tourists, disabled, students and people too busy to drive are experiencing smarter, more connected mobility. Transit builds a stronger America and protects the Earth’s environment. Hungryneck Straphangers is organizing an East Cooper community ready to ride!

Image, right- CARTA (Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority) opreates public transit services in the urban core of Charleston County, including most of Mount Pleasant, including Tel-A-Ride Services for the Disabled, Express Bus Commuter Service, The #40 Trans Mount Pleasant Route, #401 East Cooper Connector and the Free Downtown DASH Bus system.

Improved Service Starts in late February

This year East Cooper will get service ever 40 minutes on the #40 Trans Mount Pleasant bus, new #401 East Cooper Connector Service along Coleman Blvd. directly to Downtown and real time uplinked GPS data on bus locations and speed so online Google Transit trip planning moves from when the bus is supposed to come to when it is going to arrive.  Unfortunately regular bus service on the Isle of Palms and Sullivans Island provided by the #402 Island Flex will end, however Tel-A-Ride service for disabled persons living on the Islands will continue.  There is some discussion of operating a seasonal bus service on the Islands in the warmer months and Hungryneck Straphangers will work actively in support of such a plan.

Empower East Cooper Public Transit, Help Hungryneck move ahead!

Ride Smart and Connected- Plan trips online using Google Transit (Video at left), your smart phone, or from the www.ridecarta.com website (Main page, left hand side, top). Assist others by printing out, emailing or posting links showing trips they can make (with real time arrival information transmitted from the buses coming soon). Contract for a discounted trip with CARTA for your school, church or community group.  Buy a discount multiride pass at Kmart, Sea Island Piggly Wiggly or online.

Park Pleasantly, play downtown! Park near home and use transit to reach the free DASH bus system, fun and shopping downtown. Help visitors save hundreds of dollars staying at hotels East of the Cooper while taking the bus to Charleston.

Show the Way– Get your business, school or other group bus schedules and maps for you area.  Request a few from your bus driver while on board, pick up some up at the Mount Pleasant Kmart or Sea Island Piggly Wiggly  or request a larger supply from the CARTA and Tri County Link administrative offices.  Promote available bus routes when you’re hiring employees, advertising, renting or selling real estate to increase your response.  Employers can participate in a new federal program to provide payment for transit use as a tax free benefit.

Improve Everyone’s ride!  Greet your driver. Say hello to other passengers. Thank the driver when you get off the bus.

Get on Board- Join our mailing list or Hungryneck Straphangers Facebook Group for updates on public hearings and advocacy opportunities to improve our routes and stops.  Follow Hungryneck Staphangers on Twitter  or check for our route focused has codes for the #40 Trans Mount Pleasant Route #CARTA40

Start with Stops- Work with your community, government or businesses to get stop shelters erected.  Make walkable and bikable routes to stops available.  See our Start with the Stops Page.

Let’s Talk- Invite us to speak to your group about East Cooper expanding transit system with CARTA and Tri County Link Service reaching Mount Pleasant, Isle of Palms, Sullivan’s Island, Awendaw and McClellenville.  Contact Hungryneck Straphangers  for a presentation.

Image, Right- Tri County Link,  runs public transit to McClellenville and Awendaw, Connecting with CARTA at Oakland Shopping Village (Super Walmart) and Wando HS.  It also operates other routes in rural Charelston, Berkeley and Dorchester Counties.

The Bus is up to U.S.- Get on the mailing list for American’s for Transit, to protect and improve service across the nation, making America more secure and protecting our environment.  Try transit on vacation. Bring the good ideas you discover home to share.

Ride Proud & Loud- Let the people who represent you in government, the businesses you patronize and the organizations you work with know you ride.  Vote for transit and engage candidates about our issues during their campaigns.  See candidates package for SC-1 Congressional Election.  You’re empowered to make transit work for everyone East of the Cooper.  Attend public hearings. Speak up for transit! Make East Cooper transit enabled, not auto dependent!  See our Straphangers Calendar for upcoming events.

Stand Up and Grab a Strap- For full information on all the things your neighbors are doing to improve mobility for everyone East of the Cooper (including those of you still fighting the traffic in your cars) see the main page for Hungryneck Straphangers.

Special National Day of Service Outreach Event, Sat. Jan. 19

Mount Pleasant, SC-  Helping the Mount Pleasant community take advantage of improved public transit services coming to the Johnnie Dodds Corridor later this winter will be the focus of a National Day of Service effort connected to the Presidential Inauguration & Martin Luther King Holiday on Saturday, January 19 sponsored by the Hungryneck Straphangers.

National MLK Day of ServiceVolunteers will gather at the Starbucks near the intersection of Highway 17 and 41 at 9:30 am and then move out to surrounding residential communities and businesses with information about improvements to the CARTA 40 bus service, which will be going from running once an hour to running once every 40 minutes a few weeks later.  Soon this service will also be supported by real time bus location and travel data updates through Google Transit transmitted from the buses, allowing riders to obtain updated arrival times for their bus online.  They also be distributing information on locally proven transit strategies to make businesses more successful at hiring employees and getting costomers and information on the Tri County Link Bus route running from that area to McClellenville and Awendaw.

You can sign up to participate in the event and learn more about the national effort at https://donate.2013pic.org/page/event/detail/wf2 online.  For more information call (843) 870-5299.

You can reach the event location on the CARTA #40 route (Directions from Charleston)  and the Tri County Link Bus from McClelleville/Awendaw.

 

 

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Fighting the CARTA Cuts, “Consolidating” Resistance

May 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Charleston, SC- 12 Demonstrators from the Hungryneck Straphangers collected over 100 petition signatures and talked to over 200 transit riders on Tuesday,  May 1st.  The demonstration was reported by WCIV TV-4 News, the Post and Courier and the City Paper.  The effort continued on May 2 with outreach at Superstop in N. Charleston.  Future demonstrations are planned a major transit centers around the County.

Materials for May 1 Stop the CARTA Cuts Demonstration

Materials for the May 1, 2012 Stop the CARTA Cuts Demonstration provided by www.supporttransit.org

CARTA Board Chairman Elliot Summey continued the offical push back, claiming that a 5% cut in service wouldn’t actually be a cut in service, but a consolidation, responding to the protest to the media.  He didn’t say which routes would be targeted for elimination or consolidation, decisions likely to be made this summer after consultants issue reports and at a time when public resistance can’t be organized.

Report on the Demonstration on WCIV TV-4 News. With Video

Article in the Post and Courier

Article in the Charleston City Paper.

More pictures and video.

The fundamental problem is that most decisions about CARTA, including funding, are made by people who drive cars.  To them moving lines on a map which represent combining bus routes is an academic exercise which produces the desired cost cuts.  If an area goes from having three bus routes to two, it still appears has just as much service.  The distances and travel to stop conditions involved aren’t significantly different to someone driving in a warm, dry car at a high rate of speed, safely insulated from the risk of crime.  A mile is two minutes of driving for them.  However to the rider walking over a mile, in the dark on a cold, rainy night in February down a road with no sidewalk on a muddy shoulder, between wet pavement and speeding cars on one side and an open ditch of dirty cold water on the other, the difference is overwhelming.   For such people, every intersection crossing is potentially fatal.  Charleston County already has one of the highest pedestrian fatality rates in the United States.  Riders become an easy mark for criminals.  The long walks too and from the nearest bus stop in the conditions which prevail here range from unpleasant and degrading to dangerous or fatal.

Many political leaders in Charleston are uninterested in this reality, but even for them the functionality of our transit system is important.  Most jobs in Charleston pay less than ten dollars an hour (including the starting wage for our bus drivers).  These rates of pay do not meed a cost of living which is now above the national average..  However our medical, F&B, tourism and hospitality sectors depend on such jobs to function, with long hours which often begin early in the morning or end late at night.  Affordable housing is often far from work.  CARTA is a necessity.

A bus driver proudly stands next to a bus stop sign on a beautiful day in sunny Charleston, South Carolina.Unless riders, community leaders, employers and their families stand up and remind our leaders what loss of bus service really means to actual people, we can expect round after round of cuts moving towards a skeletal transit system which serves only the truly desperate and tourists on DASH.  Unless we demand an adequate system, more powerful interest groups will continue to see that government funding is used for other purposes, including the massive subsidies paid to support the private automobile and air travel.  We can’t expect members of CARTA’s own board to stand up for the system and riders unless there is public pressure to stop the cuts and build towards an efficient, basic public transit system for our region.  With younger Americans taking 40% more transit trips, our region’s future depends on an adequate transit system.

Our next effort will be to present copies of the petition signatures collected to date to Charleston City Council on May 8.  You can sign the petition online.

Join us that evening at 5 pm at Charleston City Hall on Tuesday, May 8.   There is a public comment period.  Come speak up for transit if you can.  After that, we’ll begin to prepare for the next CARTA board meeting.  You can find the details on our calendar (use the menu bar link above) and sign up for the Speak to Charleston City Council event on Facebook.  Charleston City Hall, at 80 Broad Street is located on the North Beltline, Meeting/King DASH, King Street Citadel and Savannah Highway Bus routes.  You can plan your trip using Google Transit.

We’ll post the time, date and location of the next CARTA Board Meeting as soon as it is confirmed.  Those needing immediate updates may call William Hamilton at (843) 870-5299 or contact him through our feedback form.

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Marching CARTA Forward 2012

March 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment

People East of the Cooper, from the Mayor of Mt. Pleasant to Middle School Students were all working on improving our transit system on March 13.   The process which has pushed ridership on our #40 Trans Mt. Pleasant Bus up 30% and gotten ridership on the #401 East Cooper Connector to 1400 riders per month continues after more than a year’s effort by government, non profits, churches and schools.

Town Leaders take a Ride

Mayor and Members of Mount Pleasant Town Council taking a route tour on the CARTA 401 East Cooper Connector

The Mayor of Mount Pleasant, four members of town council, the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Planning Dpt. and several other Town Government representatives joined Linda Page and CARTA staff on board the #40 & #401 for a ride to and from Mount Pleasant Town Center from Town Hall.  Our #401 circulator bus route, which is still working towards achieving its ridership goals.  The #40 has shown spectacular growth.  The ride was linked to a CARTA promotional effort coordinated with similar promotions throughout the country celebrating the increase in ridership throughout the United States which was moving at a 6% annual rate as of December as increasing employment brings sidelined workers back on to transit while increasing gas prices make transit more competitive.  CARTA has exceeded the national trend with 17% growth over the last 12 months.  Along the route, our elected representatives saw places where upgraded stops were needed and were briefed on upcoming plans to put GPS tracking on the buses.  The ride was covered by local media, including WCIV TV 4′s Report.

Bus to the Beach Promoted to C of C Students

That afternoon, East Cooper CARTA riders renewed outreach efforts on behalf of our transit system at the College of Charleston, taking updated information on the #402 Island Flex Route to the beaches to the Offices of Admissions, Student Government and Student Media.  We had face to face conversations with counselors at admissions, student leaders and reporters about how the beach service worked and how the #40 connected it to downtown, from which students can have a fee round trip to the beach by using their ID as a bus pass.  We had made this trip before, however the new route began running too late for effective outreach last spring.  This time, with warm weather just beginning and memories of last week’s spring break fresh in the student’s minds, we got a very positive response.  About 50 schedules were distributed.  Details on the Free Bus to the Beach for C of C Students are online here.  OUr efforts were rewarded with a tweet send to hundreds of students the following day about the service, with more promotional efforts sure to come as the weather warms.

Preparations for Medical Complex Transit Canvas

In the evening, we got an update on preparations for transit canvass of the East Cooper Medical Complex being planned by the Moultrie Middle School Beta Club on March 30.  The Hospital has assigned staff to guide the students so that the canvas can reach the nursing and public information counters throughout the hospital.  More route schedules for the #401 were ordered from the printer by CARTA.  The students are studying the system, learning how to use Google maps to plan trips and working on outreach to the fellow students at the school as well.

Thanks to efforts like these, we’re making progress based on community engagement, not preparing for a public hearing where most of our routes are being reexamined for possible changes or cancellation as West of the Ashley and James Island were the following day.

See a quick video overview of the East Cooper Transit System at right from Youtube at right.

A year ago, as we prepared to launch these new routes, the common assumption was that people East of the Cooper wouldn’t ride CARTA.  We now know that isn’t true and that face to face outreach and educational efforts work here.  While the automobile will certainly continue to be a major part of our transportation system, the community is clearly moving towards a diversified hybrid system where transit, pedestrian travel along improved sidewalks and cycling along the new bike lanes and paths is becoming a significant part of how people East of the Cooper Move.

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