Posts Tagged ‘mount Pleasant’

Welcome aboard, Transit Riders going somewhere together in 2013!

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.

Volunteers 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.

Everybody wants it better, faster, safer and more often. (We’re talking about transit here.)

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

In November 2012 Bus Transit Riders East of the Cooper will have a major opportunity to improve the quality of their experience for themselves and the growing number of riders in our area, which has increased about 74% on the 40 in the past five years as of August, 2012.  As road work is completed and a national election is held, we’re at an inflection point on policy and investment when it pays to speak up.  East Cooper needs a  safe, accessible stops on routes which run on time and ways to cross our new roads which don’t get riders killed.  We cannot accept a 140 million dollar road improvement projects which degrades bus service in our community.

Speak up for Better Routes & Stops on Nov. 13

In response to ridership trends, including disappointing results on the  402 Island Flex and parts of the 401 East Cooper Connector Route, CARTA has begun a process of redeploying transit capacity East of the Cooper.  Linda Page was successful in making sure we retained all the capacity we have now, but the Islands will probably lose their Flex Bus service and the 401 route will be changed.  The 40 will probably be adjusted in response to changes in the road system.  The Express may continue unchanged, but needs better support infrastructure. Four different options are being considered.  See the consultant’s CARTA East Cooper Analysis report (PDF).

We need to be sure that quality of operation issues don’t get ignored and that the new routes and stops are designed to serve riders safely, which includes being sure that crossings at the massive, new intersections on Johnnie Dodds Blvd. are as safe as possible and can be avoided to the extent possible.  We expect a public hearing this winter, probably during or near the holidays when participating may be low.  Lets make sure riders, the real experts, get heard so we get stops and routes which really work.

What we’re going to do in November

1.  Help us spread this and other information to community leaders.  We’ve already presented our Fall Report to the CARTA Board, which we also made available to the media. Read and help distribute our Fall 2012 Report to the CARTA Board.
2. Speak to members of the Charleston County Legislative Delegation, Charleston County Council (some running for reelection) and Mount Pleasant Town Council.
3.   Please sign our online petition for Better Routes and Stops East of the Cooper (available soon).
4. Join us at Mount Pleasant Town Council on Nov. 13 for the public comment period.
5. Email us at wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or call 843 870-5299 with your input or feedback.  Interact on our Hungryneck Straphangers Facebook Page.  Unfortunately the comments at the bottom of this page don’t work properly due to a flood of spam.

Speak out at Mount Pleasant Town Council on Nov. 13

We’re asking everyone who can to join us on Tuesday, November 13 at 6 pm during the public comment period at Mount Pleasant Town Council to make sure that public attention is focused on making sure we have safe, accessible bus stops on the new Johnnie Dodds Blvd.  Town Hall is located at 100 Ann Edwards Lane, off Houston Northcutt Blvd.  in Mount Pleasant.  You can sign up to join us Nov. 13 on Facebook.

Thanks to the millions of people who talke to candidates and participated in the votetransit.org effort in this election.  We distributed over 1000 information cards here in Charleston and assisted a successful transit referendum effort in Richland County and Columbia, SC in partnership with the SC Progressive Network, Amalgamated Transit Union and Americans for Transit.   Hungryneck Straphangers was the first pro transit organization to start activity on the ground in Columbia after the massive transit cuts there last Spring.

Lets make sure that seven years of promises about a transit enabled Johnnie Dodds Blvd. here in Mount Pleasant get kept before the work is over, the concrete is hard and the money is gone.

CARTA bus stop at Roper St. Francis Mount Pleasant Hospital

Three Public Transit services connect Roper St. Francis Mount Pleasant Hospital to locations throughout Charleston County with service arriving at and departing from the Hospital every hour, 14 hours a day Monday through Friday, all day Saturday and limited service every two hours on Sunday.  At left is a picture of the main stop for the Hospital, which has a garden with seating nearby where you can wait for the bus.  It’s located towards the North end of the hospital, to the left as you exit the front of the building.  This is several hundred feet North of the location indicated on Google Transit at the time this page was prepared.  A correction has been requested.

1. The

   A Tri County Link bus connects the Hospital to Awendaw and McClellenville

   Hospital is served by the CARTA 40 Trans Mt. Pleasant Bus, which runs between Wando High School and the Visitor’s Center in Downtown Charleston, where it connects to seven other bus lines, including the free downtown DASH bus service.

2. You can also use the Tri County Link C203 Bus (a separate system not on Google Transit) for bus trips North to Awendaw and McClellenville.
3. Disabled persons may qualify for Tel-A-Ride door to door par transit services provided by CARTA as well.   A companion may ride with you on Tel-A-Ride if you wish.

All vehicles used by all these services are wheelchair accessible. It’s now possible to plan trips throughout the CARTA system using Google Transit on your computer, tablet or smart phone which will generate a detailed trip plan with maps which you can printout or email. The basic fare to downtown Charleston is online $1.75, with discounts for the disabled and Senior Citizens. Transfers for connecting to other routes are only thirty cents. Here are some sample trips on public transit from the Hospital to other locations in the area.

On the right is a short video on how to use Google Transit to plan any bus trip in our area or over 100 other cities.  Below is a list of common trips from the Hospital.  You can reverse these trips by using the swap Icon on the right side of the origin and destination fields in Google Transit to find trips running between those two locations in the opposite direction.  Call CARTA at the phone number indicated with detailed questions or ask a driver for help.

From Roper St. Francis Mount Pleasant Hospital to

Mount Pleasant Town Centre & IOP Connector Hotels
Mount Pleasant Town Hall Near Whole Foods and Patriot’s Plaza Shopping Center, Red Roof Inn & other Ravenel Gateway Hotels
Visitor’s Center Downtown Charleston & Connections to FREE DASH Bus System serving historic / tourism district
Sea Island Shopping Center, Old Mount Pleasant
Isle of Palms Front Beach Business District (note Computer error shows excessive trip length.  This trip takes about 10 minutes after you board the bus at Town Centre, about 45 minutes total)
Citadel Mall- West of the Ashley
North Charleston Superstop- Rivers Ave. and Consgrove, connecting stop for North Charleston CARTA routes
Charleston International Airport

Save stress, money and enjoy a relaxing ride to and from Roper St. Francis Mount Pleasant Hospital using these public transit options.