Tuesday's meeting on Bus Routes in Mt. Pleasant, SC drew fifty people, a good, diverse turnout in hard times. Participants included a High School Principal, real estate developers and the unemployed. We'll follow up with a meeting at the Starbucks at 730 Coleman Blvd. on Saturday and then public input at the CARTA board meeting the following week. Thanks to Linda Page of Town Council and the CARTA board for her support.
Here is the column I wrote for the Moultrie news on this issue.
Mt. Pleasant, SC (Near Charleston) - There is a street with empty storefronts and over a dozen second hand stores. That street needs a bus.
On Saturday, my son, Jackson, and I set out to leaflet the businesses along Coleman Boulevard regarding a public meeting on adjustment's to East Cooper's CARTA route system. East Cooper's existing Flex Bus service is expected to end with loss of a supplemental grant. It currently provides the only remaining CARTA bus service to the Isle of Palms, Sullivan's Island, Coleman Blvd. and the Old Village.
After cancellation of this service, unless some new route serves the area, the Tel-A-Ride service for the disabled will also end in those parts of East Cooper. CARTA service will continue on the #40 and Express Routes along Johnnie Dodds Boulevard No current bus line reaches the new Roper St. Francis Mount Pleasant Hospital or Wando High School.
Many people insist on believing that the East Cooper area does not need public transportation. Though thousands of people use the current CARTA services, the East Cooper area continues to stumble forward with a rigid self concept in many minds as a place where everyone is wealthy and pilots large SUVs from high paying jobs to shopping. In this illusion, our community has no poor, no unmet needs, and everyone goes wherever they wish.
The Coleman Boulevard I walked down on Saturday had 45 empty storefronts and commercial buildings on one side from the Boulevard Diner to, and including, Sea Island Shopping Center. There were two pay day lending services. Over a dozen businesses operating were dealing in second hand goods, from antiques to clothing. The three second hand clothing stores I visited were busy. Several businesses said they had relied on public transportation to get their employees to work. The CARTA at Night service which many of those employees used ended last Fall.
The still-operating CARTA Flex bus made at least three trips up and down Coleman Boulevard during the four hours I worked, and probably made several others while I was inside visiting. Most media reports on the Flex Bus reflect a lack of understanding of how it works.
The CARTA flex bus picks up passengers who make a phone reservation, to the extent that reservations can be accommodated, and then transports them, while picking up and dropping off other passengers, to their destination. Unfortunately while it's socially interesting and provides some service to areas not otherwise served, it's inherently expensive and inefficient to operate. It's almost always completely booked though it sometimes runs empty from one drop off to a pickup far away. Its arrival times can be unreliable. Drop off time can be difficult to predict.
As its service area has been increased due to demand, trips grow longer while the number of passengers declines. The dispatch and routing problem grew exponentially more complex and more difficult to manage.
After loss of the grant, CARTA will have enough funds remaining to put one regular, scheduled bus on the road in Mount Pleasant. That new route must be carefully planned, and nearly everyone agrees that Coleman needs to be included in the route. CARTA wants to provide service to the commercial district on the Isle of Palms. A new route system can probably also serve Wando High School, senior center and the new hospital. Hundreds of Students at Wando High School can't attend after school activities because they have no way to get home after wards.
Many people don't think these problems matter. They're lucky enough to still be insulated from the hailstorm of economic and personal problems some of the people in their community struggle with. They have the shining SUVs which transport them from their earning to their spending without ever having contact with people who can't make that trip at all.
They aren't worried about getting to a job as a waiter or store clerk. They don't buy their blue jeans at Good Will. They never need a pay day loan. They don't need a bus.
By the time this newspaper is published, CARTA will have already held its first meeting on this issue. There may be more. However the need for public transportation to these places clearly exists. To the extent our community ignores these needs, we blight the lives of our neighbors and inhibit restoration of a fuller prosperity that everyone--from the restaurant dishwasher to the frustrated landlord of empty buildings--deserves.
We must begin working to use the remaining CARTA resources and the new road connections enabled by our planning department to connect our community more effectively.