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Wednesday, January 8, 2025
Remember Rosa Parks and Don't Give up Your Seat for Lowcountry Transit Feb. 2025
Right, Social Media Banner Promoting Rosa Pancake Effort, from 2022.
Tuesday, July 30, 2024
Prevent Lowcountry Transit From Being Taken Hostage by I-526 Referendum
Charleston, SC - Join us in resisting the plan to hold Charleston Public Transit hostage to the unpopular I526 November road referendum.
July 30, 2024
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| CHATS Meeting, July 29, 2024 |
On Monday we attended the CHATs meeting, which coordinates (rubber stamps) road and transportation planning in the Lowcountry. Its membership consists of elected representatives from local municipal and county governments. Transit, pedestrian and cycle planning now gets regular lip service at these meetings, but now is always about asphalt. Buses, sidewalks and bike lanes are the future.
We were told by Howard Chapman, a member of Mt. Pleasant Town Council and former CARTA Chairman, that the County Council has set up the November referendum so its failure would trigger a shut down of the CARTA and LINK public transit systems. Almost all revenue from this referendum will go to fund construction of the unpopular I526 extension.
We spoke during the public comment period to inform the elected officials present that this was cruel and unfair to an electorate that voted eight years ago and has paid seven years of taxes to build better transit we haven’t seen. Now the alleged hostage plan forces people who have to rely on limited and unreliable transit services to pay taxes for decades to build a road most of them will never see just to keep CARTA and LINK buses running.
Not one of the over 25 officials present corrected us or indicated transit services hadn’t been placed in jeopardy to forced support of more roads.
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| Battery electric Proterra Bus on Meeting St. |
In 2016 our organization delivered the margin of victory in the half penny sales tax referendum in order to secure 600 million dollars in funding for the future of transit in Charleston County for the next 20+ years. County council passed a resolution reserving those funds for the Lowcountry Rapid Transit System and supporting CARTA and LINK. The County Council has not kept that commitment in good faith. The LCRT keeps slipping further into the future. CARTA continues to be starved for funds. A change in operating companies hasn’t resolved the reliability and safety problems. Charleston County Council calls it the “Pay, Go Plan.” Transit riders pay, car drivers go.
We've been demanding that further major road projects in Charleston stop holding back progress on the Lowcountry Rapid Transit System. The Lowocuntry can't pave its way out of traffic congestion. Downtown Charleston, most of N. Charleston and most of Mt. Pleasant simply have nowhere to put more lanes or roads without bulldozing existing neighborhoods and businesses on an unimaginable scale. Read our flyer on why work on 526 should wait until the LCRT is running.
Obviously we should have been far more careful in our dealings with the County Council in 2016. Other groups pulled their support for the 2016 referendum. Every other community which voted to build a bus rapid transit system that year now has one running. Our is now planned to be shorter, slower and less capable. It is still at least five years into the future.
Image right, sharing strategies with other Transit Advocacy Groups regarding the referendum on Zoom
Help us plan how to reach Republican and Independent Local officials in the two week. We've made progress with local Democratic leaders already, but more work is needed there as well. Email you input to William Hamilton at wjhamilton29464@gmail.com
Help us get out the word to your fellow transit riders, friends and neighbors. Download our printable one page flyer
Stand with us at Charleston County Council on Tuesday, Aug. 13 at 6:30 pm to demand that Public Transit continue to be funded with proceeds from the 2016 referendum funds as decided by Charleston County voters eight years ago. Place August 13 at CHS County Council on your calendar and sign up.
Help us get candidates for public office to ride the bus with us this election season. It’s a powerful way to show them the reality of local transit.
Input and More Information
As always, we are happy to talk anytime. Contact William Hamilton at (843) 870-5299 or wjhamilton29464@gmail.com
Monday, July 15, 2024
Get Safer Transit Its Day in Court - Chs. v. Flowers Assault on a CARTA Bus
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Image, Above, Bus Stop on Meeting Street in Downtown Charleston. After people complained about the bench and the people waiting, it was removed. After public outcry, a new bench was installed. No-one in this image was involved in the incident.
The next hearing in this case will be heard on
Please note correction of Weekday
Friday, August 16, 2024 at 8:30 am at the
Municipal Court at 180 Lockwood Drive
(on the CARTA/DASH 213 bus route)
See Google Maps Entry to put on your calendar.
This will only be a status conference where Flowers will enter a plea, his court appointed public defender will appear with him, he will renew his plea of not guilty and a date will be set for trial. This hearing will be brief, but it's a good, short opportunity for transit riders and their friends to show the city and court that this case, and others like it should be taken seriously.
Read the Statement Hamilton filed with the Police about the attack.
Before and at the hearing, William Hamilton will ask the Prosecutor and the Court to Charge Mr. Flowers with the additional charge of violating SC Code 58-23-1830 which prohibits does not allow any passenger to "(4) obstruct, hinder, interfere with, or otherwise disrupt or disturb the operation or operator of a public transportation vehicle." in addition to the outstanding charge of 3rd. Degree Assault, which could add another 30 days to the Defendant's sentence. Read the SC Law
Most of the people Flowers harms are struggling to make ends meet and have the overwhelming problems one would expect of anyone who has to rely on public transit in the South. Mr. Flowers knows that most of his victims won't be able to support a prosecution against him. They can't spare the time from work for court. They can't pressure elected officials to do their jobs. He knows that most of the time, he can get away with it.
How One Assault Impacts the Entire Community
The two most often cited reasons why local people do not ride the bus is fear of crime and difficulty reaching or spending time waiting at bus stops. This reduces bus ridership and cripples attempts to improve service.After Mr. Flowers was arrested and placed in jail, there was a noticeable increase in ridership on the #20 bus It's clear his presence depressed ridership. People who were working class, disabled, elderly or poor chose to walk miles rather than risk being on the bus with him.
Flowers is not the only such offender. Unfortunately, when transit riders have problems like this, we are in the hands of people who have the privilege of driving cars wherever they want to go. One of the reasons drivers spend thousands of dollars a year buying and maintaining an automobile is to escape the risk of being attacked by someone like Flowers. They see transit riders as people too lazy or incompetent to obtain an automobile, people who deserve the abuse they receive. Their unstated belief is that car ownership is a burden every socially competent adult is required to bear, not the massive, publicly subsidized privilege it actually is. They're content to know that people like Mr. Flowers reinforce the value of their automobiles and validate their operation of them.
This has been the situation on transit in the US since shortly after the end of WWII, encouraged by lobbying and social manipulation by a trade group working for the automobile, petroleum and tire industries. Fear helps sell cars, gas and tires.
It is also the reason why Charleston has ineffective transit, ridership which has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels, and traffic congestion which is making life in the Lowcountry increasingly difficult.
Only the people riding transit can change this. It's a national problem, but we will impact it on a local level. Charleston is our home. These are our buses. This is an election year. We're going to use this case and the Freedom of Information Act to encourage local officials to act. This is the exact reason why the 5th. Amendment guarantees public trials.
Half SC's population doesn't have a driver's license. They shouldn't be relegated to humiliation, abuse and injury because they can't driver a car. We will be forced to endure mistreatment and abuse until we stand up.
It should be noted that our buses are generally safe and many wonderful people ride them. This is the only serious negative experience Hamilton has had since he began riding local transit in 1976.
Please note that if you see these materials and are called to serve upon the Jury, you should report your exposure to these materials to the Judge. The Judge will probably excuse you and you may be assigned to another case. Mr. Flowers is entitled to a fair trial by an impartial Judge and Jury. He is presumed innocent until proven guilty. We're confident that the quality of the evidence (which includes a full video of the incident) will support a just verdict.
For more information contact
William J. Hamilton, IIIwjhamilton29464@gmail.com
(843) 870-5299
Thursday, May 23, 2024
Bus Be Best Way to Beach
We celebrate the return of our Bus to the Beach Memorial weekend. Last year, in part to our Pirates on the Bus project, ridership increased by 90%. There are still empty seats on nearly every run.
Right- Bus Pirate Day at the beach, June 2023
#40 Mount Pleasant Bus connects the Beach Reach Shuttle to the rest of the CARTA system, leaving the Mary Street Transit Center downtown once an hour where it connects to eight other bus routes running to other parts of downtown, North Charleston, West Ashley and James Island. Find a link to maps of this route on the Ride Carta fixed routes page.
We may also have another bus to the beach party at Container Bar on the #20 Route downtown. Last year's Pirate Party at Container Bar was a blast with sword fights, drama and an exceptional effort from the food truck and the bar,
Free Fair, Free Parking, Free Beach- Free parking is available near the stop in Mt. Pleasant Town Center on Market Center drive. However you can also take the #40 Mt. Pleasant bus from the Mary Street Transit Center in downtown Charleston for regular fare. The schedules for the beach reach shuttle and #40 are synchronized so you shouldn't have a wait at Mt. Pleasant Town Center.
Electronic Wayfinding- The Beach Reach Shuttle is represented on the Transit App which will allow you to track it's location and get ETAs in real time. You can also use the Transit App and Google Maps / Transit to plan your transit trip to the beach from anywhere in the Lowcountry which has transit service, however since the shuttle only works on Summer weekends and holidays these services will report no service to IOP unless you have set the time and date for your trip when the service is running. Here is a Google Maps trip plan for Memorial Day from downtown Charleston to the beach. You should download the transit app now if you don't already have it on your phone.
You Have a Place at the Beach- The shuttle lets you off at the Charleston County Park on the front beach IOP. Since you don't have to pay for parking, use of the park is also free. That includes indoor, flush toilets in their air conditioned building, outdoor showers and changing rooms.
IOP has City Bathrooms and Showers- In the middle of the commercial strip, the City of the Isle of Palms maintains it's own free shower and toilet facility. It's closer to many locations if you decide to beach west of the pier.
Veteran Visits- If you are a veteran or active duty military, the VFW Post on the Coast will welcome you to their extraordinary beachfront location. Located next to the Windjammer, up a small walkway you'll find veterans enjoying a wonderful beachfront deck with a bonus view of the adjacent Windjammer stage where there is often music. The Post has toilets, a bar and sometimes food. There are events there throughout the summer. The VFW has been a strong supporter of the Beach Reach Shuttle since their members don't have to look for parking.
IOP Front Beach Businesses- IOP has a wonderful, small beachfront business district with places to eat and shop. Let them know that you came on the bus since it's their tourism taxes helping pay for it. Here is a list of IOP restaurants. The ones near the bus stop are in the center of the island.
Wonderful Wait- On your way home, the waiting area outside the park where the bus stops is shaded and has plentiful benches. With the sea breeze, it's probably the most comfortable bus stop in the Lowcountry on a hot summer day.
Stopover on your way home. The #40 bus runs later than the Beach Shuttle so you can stop over on your way home at Mount Pleasant Town Centre. There's a Lowes, a movie theater, over 13 restaurants and many other shops and businesses. If you shower and change at the beach, you'll be OK to enjoy some time there.
Not finished until we get to Folly. We still want a bus out to Folly Beach, where parking is now over $20 in their downtown area. Folly is a much tougher place to reach, but we were able to push the Folly Road bus further out to Sol Legare road at the Harris Teeter where it's an easy bike ride out to folly or a challenging walk, side walked all the way. Almost there. We were also able to get frequency of service on the Folly Road bus increased. Bus ride to end of the Folly Road Bus line on Google Maps
Nothing is Easy and even a Free Bus Isn't Free- It took seven long, hard years of grassroots advocacy aimed at both the East Cooper area and Folly Beach to get this shuttle running and we've put a lot of work into getting people to ride. All you need to do to make that effort worthwhile is to ride the shuttle and bring your friends. Several members of the team which fought to get the bus back out to the beach did not live to ride it. Julia Hamilton and Mary Smith (Our transit fairy) included. The struggle for better transit in the Lowcountry has been a long, hard one but we have progress to be proud of. There are hundreds of new shelters standing or planned for our exisiting bus lines. Service has been increase on the Northbridge and Dorchester Road routes. Ridership, though still below what it was before the pandemic is building. The LCRT, though reduced in scope, slowly advances towards construction and CARTA has stuck to it's guns in the controversy over the fairgrounds. There is a massive, now funded project to build affordable housing and walkable communties along and near Rivers Ave. Every inch of this progress was fought for and six of our core advocates have already taken their last ride.
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
Charleston Must Fight for a Sustainable Future of Transit Equity
On Wed. May 15, 2024 we expect to be confronted by another large pressure group from the Fairgrounds Organization attempting to pressure the CARTA Board into giving up plans for a Lowcountry Rapid Transit Stop at the Fairgrounds. Last month a group of nearly all elderly, white men outnumbered Transit advocates 50 to 1. Politicians make decisions by counting noses.
Please join us to demonstrate and make our voices heard during the public comment period of the CARTA Board Meeting starting at 12:45 pm at the Offices of the BCD Council of Governments on Casper Padgett Way in N. Charleston, #12 CARTA Bus Route.
The Fairgrounds are now the last stop on the Northern end of the Rapid Transit line since the plan to go to Summerville was torpedoed by that Town’s good ole boy’s political gang. Ladson, the area around the Fairgrounds and Lincolnville (Charleston’s County’s historically black town) are the regions’ most affordable housing opportunities now.
With over a million open jobs in the national tourism industry, skilled hospitality workers are in high demand. Recruiters from Charlotte, Miami and Atlanta have been seen in Charleston in the past. If you are young, strong, and mentally stable with skills in hospitality, these recruiters will help you move to a city where your rent will be lower, the schools will be better, and you’ll be a short, highly reliable ride on good public transit to work. As a transit rider, I’ve seen people I’ve been on the bus with for years, shake those recruiters’ hands, leave the bus stop to go to Starbucks and never be seen again. Other people have been recruiting for the healthcare industry in other cities.
In its 350-year history, Charleston has never really cared about the quality of life of its working class. From colonization, through slavery, the suppression of the mechanics, reconstruction and segregation Charleston’s rulers have always been able to count on people with little power or choice to do the hard work from cultivating rice to cleaning the toilets of tourists. Inadequate transit, along with poor education and overpriced, inadequate housing have been the tools which maintain the money machine which is greased by racism and class privilege.
However, the 21st Century has brought greater connectivity and mobility to America’s working class. Thirty years ago, finding a possible job in Atlanta, Denver or Orlando would have required poking through the want ads of days old newspapers purchased at the Book Bag on King Street, that, and finding an apartment, and knowing how the area’s transit worked can now all be done on a smart phone in minutes. Schools can be rated, local crime statistics found, and necessities priced in seconds online from a bench at a bus stop. It is no longer hard to leave.
In the bitter, divided politics of Trump era America, the belief that everyone should pull themselves up by their bootstraps and buy a car so they can sit in traffic for hours a day may satisfy the lucky retired person, who finished paying for their fifty Thousand dollars house a decade ago. They simply won’t drive to their next meeting of the fair committee until rush hour is over. When they’re too old to drive, they’ll disappear into the carless underclass that doesn’t matter.
Charleston will not be winning its long war against the future which has seen it decline from one of the leading cities in the American colonies to a tourist’s amusement park over the last 200 years. Rice cultivation, phosphate mining and the Navy Yard are all long gone. The real estate for retirees’ industry will eventually exhaust the available high land. The ocean is rising. The expectations of tourists for something authentic and friendly won’t be supplied by skeleton staffing or robots.
For the first time in the history of the Holy City, it will be forced to value the quality of life of its working class or accepting the reality of an economy where the work does not get done.
I am aware that the Exchange Club provides charitable donations. I’ve been informed that they intend to weaponize those donations to force their will on the community by forcing area nonprofits to support them. Their role in funding child abuse prevention is given prominence.
Charity has not and will never solve the Lowcountry’s problems. The fundamental problems in our economy require major treatment and surgery, not band aids. Our private, child abuse prevention programs are often incompetent, tainted with racism and class bias and serve the needs of the people who run them. Families need jobs that pay, transit that works, safe places to live and decent schools. Without this, those families will fail. I know this from personal experience from 35 years of serving as an unpaid attorney in court appointed DSS cases. I have been in court where parents were threatened with the loss of their children because they couldn’t get to charity funded child abuse treatment appointments because we don’t have transit that works.
I have been accused by members of the Exchange Club of being a know nothing woke do-gooder that meddles in public affairs. I’m white enough to get their approval, but I do the rest wrong. I have in fact been legally blind my entire life. I have never and will never be able to drive an automobile. I have been nearly killed crossing highways on foot and on bicycle to get to places I’ve needed to go. I fish for rides. I’ve paid fortunes for cabs, limos, and ride share. I have missed innumerable events because the cost to go there was simply too high, from my Senior Prom to the Mt. Pleasant farmer’s market. I’ve spent thousands of hours sitting at bus stops since the first SCE&G bus blew by me without stopping in 1977 on Coleman Blvd because white people in Mt. Pleasant did not ride the bus back then until last weekend’s delightful trip to Container Bar on the #20. I’ve done some of that waiting on bus stop benches I built with my own hands and paid for with my own money. I understand the cruel power of the car.
I have been told to leave the Lowcountry my entire life because I can’t drive a car. I probably should have, long ago. It’s too late now. My family arrived in SC in 1695. We’ve fought the Indians, the French, The Redcoats, the Yankees, the Germans, and the Japanese. We’ve built two schools two churches and one Town. I plan to stay. fight it out here and have my ashes interred beside those of my wife Julia who died after four years of helping me in this fight. I would like my ashes to be carried to Magnolia Cemetery on the LCRT.
My decision to stay isn’t going to be too much of a disappointment to anyone. However, the young family packing up to take its energy, intelligence and capacity for hard work elsewhere will be missed. Their children and their grandchildren will be missed too. When the empty restaurant spaces and unopened hotel rooms are common enough, perhaps Charleston’s ruling class will grasp what they’ve missed.
William J. Hamilton, III, Exec. Director, Best Friends of Lowcountry Tranist, wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or (843) 870-5299
Monday, December 18, 2023
Make Sure Transit Reaches our Fairgrounds
Stand Up for Your Right to Ride on May 15Wed. May 15, 12:45 pm
Our Fight For Your Right to Ride Continues at the CARTA Board Meeting
BCD Council of Governments,
5790 Casper Padgett Way, N. Charleston, SC, CARTA #13 Bus Route
Sign up to participate as a transit advocate on Facebook
Charleston voters approved funding for a rapid transit line in Nov. 2016. After ten years of planning at a cost of over 5 million dollars, and a tentative contract negotiated by Glenn McConnel and others, the Exchange Club has withdrawn its agreement at to sell land for construction of a stop on our planned Lowcountry Rapid Transit Line at their fairgrounds. As always, people who drive cars and enjoy privilege want transit to be “somewhere else.”
Thus far the CARTA Board has stood firm, but the pressure being exerted by Charleston’s elite is powerful. Join us at the CARTA Board Meeting and public comment period to stand up for transit in the historic tradition of Mary Bowers, Charleston’s Rosa Parks (see below) .
We’ll have a short, peaceful demonstration outside the BCD COG Headquarters before the meeting, join the meeting at 1 pm and speak during the public comment period. You can sign up to speak for 2 min. If you want to share your written comments with the board, please bring 20 copies.
You can also sign the Online petition we’ll be presenting to the board. For info call 843-870-5299 or see https://tinyurl.com/fairbus.
This petition is being offered by Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit, Inc. William Hamilton, Ex. Dir. (843) 870-5299 or wjhamilton29464@gmail.com.
A petition is being circulated attacking the plan to place the Ladson area terminal for the long planned Lowcountry Rapid Transit System at the Fairgrounds in Ladson. The Fairgrounds have suffered from terrific congestion problems for years, which in turn is alleged to have substantially reduced attendance. As the Ladson area has developed along the accepted pattern of suburban sprawl, the extremely limited LINK rural transit bus service hasn't been able to contribute much to helping meet the area's mobility needs. Bus stop shelters were even removed in Summerville. As always, weak, unreliable transit doesn't work. Sprawl strangles our quality of life. The Lowcountry refuses to learn that inadequate effort in things like transportation, housing and education doesn't solve problems. it's time for the failures to stop.
A Plan that is Already Compromised.
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The 2014 I26 Alt plan for the transit line approved by Charleston County Voters in the 2016 referendum called for rapid transit from Charleston to Summerville, the result of over 20 years and ten million dollars in planning. This plan has already suffered greatly by repeated decisions not to surrender to resistance by giving up use of the railroad line into Charleston as a transit corridor and turning it over for use as a dog walking park for rich people. The plan to have a transit hub in the central city has retreated from the Visitors Center, to Line Street and now to Mt. Pleasant Street, almost two miles from the central city. The system no longer operates as rapid transit in in it's own dedicated lane South of Reynolds Ave. in N. Charleston, running as a regular bus in mixed traffic and flooding to MUSC downtown. The plan for a transit line stop connecting the LCRT to our Train and Bus Station in North Charleston has been abandoned and the nearest stop is now half a mile away. Plans to connect Summerville were abandoned when the system was cut back to the fairgrounds. A critical stop near Huger Street was moved half a mile South into an area with weaker connections. Each of these decisions has been made without a public vote, in secret. What is left is a system which won't have the capacity to provide mobility and relieve traffic congestion the region needs.
Our political leaders have quietly and undemocratically surrendered the region's rapid transit future to the piecemeal complaints of people who will be enraged when they're spending two hours a day snarled in traffic five years from now with no functional alternative to reach places of business who can't hire staff because people have no way to get to work there in a reasonable time and nowhere to live nearby which they can afford.
Sign the Petition.
Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit is circulating it's own petition to demonstrate support for having a public transit terminal at the Fairgrounds. For most of the year, this will have no impact on the fairgrounds at all, since it is deserted. On the handful of weekends when the Fairgrounds fully uses it's parking, the access provided by the Lowcountry Rapid Transit System will more than replace the fair attendance the loss of a few parking spaces might cause.
The Petition Reads
As a resident of the SC Lowcountry, I would like to be able to travel to and from our region’s fairgrounds by Public Transit using the planned Lowcountry Rapid Transit System.
I am disappointed that an agreement has not yet been reached to build a transit station at the Fairgrounds to serve the community, make this location more valuable to the region, increase fair revenue for local charitable causes and to reduce traffic congestion associated with events held there. A functional transit terminal adjacent to the fairground would increase the value of the fairgrounds to the entire community for all the events held there and activity at the adjacent Coastal Carolina Flea Market. Reducing traffic congestion will also help ensure safety by avoiding blocking fire, police and EMS services from operating in the area during the fair.
I do not believe it is appropriate for outdated attitudes about racism and discrimination to get in the way of assuring our community enjoys the benefits of public transit and a successful, inclusive fair in the future.
I am asking the Exchange Club to work diligently to reach agreement with local governments so we can all move forward quickly to the day when everyone will be able to reach the fair without fighting traffic including the disabled, elderly, those without access to automobiles and those who prefer not to drive.
Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit, Inc.
Tuesday, October 24, 2023
Connect Future Lowcountry Transit to the Fairgrounds
Best
Friends of Lowcountry Transit will mobilize transit riders and supporters to
encourage the Exchange Club and associated organizations connected with the
management of the Fairgrounds to move quickly to resolve this important issue
during this year’s Coastal Carolina Fair, scheduled to begin Friday.
Members of the organization will be asked to hand in forms showing their support for a stop at the fairgrounds and an online petition will be run, which will be delivered to the Exchange Club at the end of this year’s Coastal Carolina Fair. Links to the form can be accessed from the group’s facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/BFLowcountryTransit online.
The Form
and petition read:
“As a
patron of the Coastal Carolina Fair, I would like to be able to travel to and
from our region’s fairgrounds by Public Transit using the planned Lowcountry
Rapid Transit System.
I am
disappointed that an agreement has not yet been reached to build a transit
station at the Fairgrounds to serve the community, make this location more
valuable to the region, increase fair revenue for local charitable causes and
to reduce traffic congestion associated with events held there.
Please
work diligently to reach agreement with local governments so we can all move
forward quickly to the day when everyone will be able to reach the fair without
fighting traffic including the disabled, elderly, those without access to
automobiles and those who prefer not to drive.”
William J. Hamilton, III
Ex. Dir. Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit
wjhamilton29464@gmail.com, (843) 870-5299