Transit Questions for Charleston County Council Candidates 2022

Transit Questions for Charleston County Council Candidates

Feb. 14, 2022
Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit will attempt to have all candidates for Charleston County Council answers these questions before the primary. We will also be offering guided rides on the transit system to candidates and their campaign staff. We are a nonprofit 501c3 and do not endorse candidates for public office. We do encourage transit voters and empower them to make their own decisions.

Questions for the Candidates

1. When was the last time you rode a CARTA or LINK Bus and how many times have you been on local public transit in the past 12 months?
2. Would you like to take a guided ride on a bus running in your district with a member of Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit. 
3. How far is it from your home to the nearest marked CARTA bus stop. (Few if any stops for LINK are marked). 
4. Where in your district do you believe bus stops should be improved. What would you do to implement transit friendly "complete streets" which accommodate pedestrians, cyclists and transit riders safely? Please give specific locations. 
5. Do you support termination of the “pay go plan” adopted by the Committee controlling half penny sales tax funding which diverts current public transit funding to road construction and promises to return that funding in the future?

6. 

   Talking to a CARTA Board Member

   Do you support extending the Existing #10 Rivers Ave. Bus Line to downtown Summerville, SC?
7. What would you do to get the Lowcountry Rapid Transit Bus line constructed and operating sooner?
8. What would you do to improve performance on the South end of the Lowcountry Rapid Transit Line, which currently ends its dedicated lane bus way at Reynolds Ave. in N. Charleston?
9. The BCD COG did a 700k study on additional Bus Rapid Transit lines in the Lowocuntry. Which of those possible lines to you believe should be prioritized for construction and operation, when and why?
10. What do you think is the most significant problem with public transportation in Charleston County now and why?
11. Where on our existing and future transit lines would you choose to fund construction of affordable housing using Federal Covid Recovery funds if you were elected?
12. What steps should be taken to improve transit access to area beaches?

Further Information on these Issues

Further information on these issues can be found on our Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit Blog at https://bfltransit.blogspot.com/ online. Those wishing to support our work can contribute to supporting the supply and payment of stipends for our staff on Act Blue at https://secure.actblue.com/donate/best-friends-of-lowcountry-transit--inc--1 online. New information on our activities and upcoming events is posted first on our Facebook page, www.bfltransit.com

To contact us

Executive Director William J. Hamilton, III
(842) 870-5299 or
wjhamilton29464@gmail.co,m

Park Pleasantly, Play Downtown in Mt. Pleasant

Welcome to the best place to enjoy your visit to Charleston. Mount Pleasant is safe, clean and offers spacious accommodations with first class amenities.

We're located between charming, but cramped and congested, downtown Charleston and two beautiful beaches at the Isle of Palms and Sullivan's Island. We have our own award winning restaurants and attractions like the Old Village, Shem Creek and Boone Hall Plantation. 

How to get to Downtown Charleston and the Beach

Public transit links most of our hotels to the Visitor's Center downtown and the free DASH bus system which will let you get anywhere downtown you need to go for free, without fighting traffic in your car. You can also take the free #20 upper King Street bus downtown to reach locations in the Northern part of the historic city including Redux Art Center, the Brewery District and Rodney Scotts, BBQ.

Shem Creek, Mt. Pleasant

You can plan any transit trip to and from Charleston using Google Transit. Just select the Charleston Visitor's center or somewhere else as your destination downtown and click the bus icon to generated directions to the nearest stop and on the bus to where you want to go. 

You can also use the Transit App on your smart phone to locate the nearest stops, plan trips and get real time ETAs on the arrival time for your bus. 

Hotels located near Patriots Point and the Ravenel Bridge are linked to Charleston by the #40 Mount Pleasant and #41 Coleman Blvd. bus routes, with service running every 30 to 60 minutes, 15 hours per day. Hotels located near Mt. Pleasant Town Center can use the #40 to reach Charleston every hour. Hotels along Stuart Ingalls Blvd. can use the #40 and the #2 Express. Google or the Transit app will figure out your options automatically. 

Bus stop, Mt. Pleasant Town Hall

Image, Right, Bus stop at Mt. Pleasant Town Hall, (With a swing) used for travel to Charleston on the #41, Use the stop on the other side of the road to reach Charleston on the #40. 

On weekends during the summer the Beach Reach Shuttle will take you out to the Isle of Palms every hour, directly from the Hotels near the IOP Connector and Town Centre and Via the #40 Bus from hotels near the bridge and Stuart Ingalls. 

While the bus may take a bit longer, you avoid a lot of stress from beach traffic and the horrific congestion downtown. Even if you decide to stay late downtown, after bus service ends, an Uber home will still be cheaper and easier than paying for and fighting parking in Charleston's cramped parking garages. 

Please note that the stops you need to use to reach Downtown are

• Houston Northcutt- West Side of road, near Harris Teeter for the #40, In front of Town Hall with the swing for the #41. 
• Town Centre- All the stops with shelters will work fine. Be sure to board the #40. The #42 is for travel to locations further out from Charleston. 
• Stuart Ingalls- Use the stops opposite Walmart and on the same side of the road as your hotel. 
• Coleman Blvd, Shem Creek- Use stops on the North side of Coleman Blvd. In front of Moultrie Plaza and near the Shelter Bar/Common. 
• Johnny Dodds, use the stops on the North Side of the road for inboud travel to the City. 

You can also walk- While you certainly wouldn't want to use it for every trip, the walkway on the Ravenel Bridge takes about an hour and a half to walk to the city and is utterly spectacular. Once downtown, use the free DASH and #20 buses to get around and the regular buses to get back home. Be sure to walk South all the way to Chapel St. before turning West to complete your walk to the Visitors Center and make this walk only during the day. 

Make sure to take advantage of the bathrooms at the Visitors Center and in the basement of Charleston City Hall, which are the cleanest and best maintained in the old city. 

More Help

If the links in this post don't tell you what you need to know and your kids can't figure it out for you on their smart phones, contact Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit / Hungryneck Straphanger division and we'll talk you through it. Contact William Hamilton at (843) 870-5299 or wjhamilton29464@gmail.com 

You can also try contacting CARTA. 

Support us and Contact Us

• You can support our continuing efforts for better transit by making a contribution online on Act Blue
• You can reach us by emailing executive director William Hamilton at wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or by calling 843-870-5299.

Uninterrupted Public Transit Bus Service Between Summerville and Charleston by May 4, 2022

 

Begin Uninterrupted Public Transit Bus Service Between Summerville and Charleston by May 4, 2022.

Image, above, Civil Rights Shero Louise Brown and the late Julia Hamilton sign up transit supporters at a Lincolnville Town Council Meeting four years ago.

Actions Planned March 1 - We'll be at Charleston County Council on Tuesday, March 1, 2022 at 6 pm to demonstrate and to speak for this proposal during their public comment period. Come prepared to sing. 

See our events page on Facebook for upcoming opportunities to join our Transit Advocacy Efforts. 

We have a printable flyer for this issue ready for download in PDF

Charleston, SC- Uninterrupted public transit travel from downtown Charleston to Downtown Summerville could be operating this Spring, for the first time since train service ended in1962, if the BCD COG uses an 800-thousand-dollar Federal Transit Grant and other funds on hand to extend the existing $10 bus route from its current terminus at Health South on Highway 78 to downtown Summerville.  This bus service could use existing SC made Proterra Battery Electric buses and run past the Fairgrounds and through Lincolnville to downtown Summerville. On Friday, Feb. 4, Transit Equity Day and the Birthday of Rosa Parks, Best Friends of Lowcounty Transit began delivering a transformative demand for a effective improvement to local transit to local leaders, beginning with the Mayor of Summerville. This same statement was also posted along roadsides along the once planned, but now severely reduced route of the Charleston County voter approved, and taxpayer funded Lowcountry Rapid Transit System.

This demand will be presented to Summerville Town Council, Charleston County Council, Dorchester County Council, the CARTA Board and members of the governing board of the COG this month. Signed citizens potions will be circulated and served on local leaders later. Demonstrations and protests will begin in April if adequate progress is not being made. 

Over 10 million dollars has been spent over the past 25 years on studies which have thus far produced only plans no one used, broken promises and a few dozen, now faded arrow points painted on pavement. Over 40 million dollars in Half penny sales tax revenue dedicated to transit improvements and operations has been misappropriated by a to a secretly approved “Pay Go” plan to provide an interest free slush fund for sprawl inducing road construction. It is time for a Bus Start building on the strongest component of our existing transit system, the #10 Rivers Ave. bus line. 

Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit demands that CARTA, Tri County Link and the BCD COG, with the support of all local County and Municipal Governments initiate operation of uninterrupted hourly bus service operating 16 hours a day from Summerville to Downtown Charleston’s Visitors Center Bus Shed. Service should begin no later than May 4, 2022 on the route originally planned for the LCRT in the 2015 I26 ALT study and continuing to the North Side of downtown Summerville. 

May 4th was selected because it is the 155th anniversary of the day Mary P. Bowers won the right to ride for African Americans in 1867, when the Board of Directors of the Charleston horse drawn streetcar company voted to allow all Charlestonians to right the streetcars without regard to their color or former status as slaves.

Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit’s demand includes a plan to increase service to every half hour during the morning and evening commute when ridership reaches 15 riders per unit, per hour. Fare should be no more than $3, half price for seniors, free for disabled and students.

Image, right, the Katy parkway in Houston, Texas, the nation's widest roadway which takes longer to travel today after a 2 billion dollar expansion that it did before construction began. During the recent hurricanes Houston has been unable to evacuate because sprawl has made the cities traffic so hopelessly congested that the population has been forced to shelter in place. 

While CARTA, LINK and the BCD COG are certain to object to this plan, bus rapid transit systems approved by votes on the save day that Charleston County votes approved the referendum in November 2016 here have already been designed, constructed and have been operating for years. Some recent statements indicate plans for the LCRT have been moved back again, this time to 2030, by which time it’s quite likely the voter appropriated funds will no longer be sufficient to build the project. This would mean it could be cancelled and the transit funds spent on counterproductive road widening projects which would irrevocably sentence low country drivers to a future of irrevocably worsening congestion. This would violate a resolution passed by Charleston County Council in October 2016 which was the basis for Best Friends agreeing to support passenger of the referendum. The COG has already begin violating that resolution by reducing the amount of funds planned for the LCRT below that set out in the resolution.  

Lowcountry voters, tax payers and transit riders have waited ling enough. Start bus service to Summerville by May 4. Complete and initiate operation of the Rapid Transit line as soon as possible. Do not begin expansion of I526 until the rapid transit line is operating as proposed to voters in the half million dollar 2015 I26 ALT study, which has been removed from the COG’s website. 

Image, left, citizens on Hutchison Square on Summerville view a large diagrarm of what has to be dune to make the rapid transit line work. March 2019. 

In addition to the demand for better transit running to Summerville, Best Friends Delivered a two page Freedom of Information Act request to Summerville Town Government seeking detailed information about the Town’s decisions and actions regarding the cancellation of plans to bring the Lowcountry Rapid Transit Line to downtown Summerville. While Summerville leaders, including the Mayor, have told citizens they fought to retain the transit connection, other information indicates they did not. It is hope copies of the actual meeting minutes, correspondence and communications will reveal the truth so Town voters can be competently informed before the next election in November 2022.

Linda Saylor, leader of Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit’s Dorchester Unit, and Daniel Dewald, an experienced logistics and project planning consultant who lives in Sangaree and worked on expansion of the BART system in San Francisco will continue to work to organize the citizens of Berkely and Dorchester County to obtain better transit. Dewald has released a detailed list of problems and recommendations regarding transit in our area which can be found at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jijh63AwZSXVKk3FjrDKArfI8Wrghflv/view?usp=sharing

Image, right, Best Friends of Lowcountry Rapid Transit members marching to the sea at the Isle of Palms on July 28, 2017 to demand the return of bus service to the Isle of Palms which was achieved in 2021 and has been renewed for Summer 2022.

you can support this and other efforts to improve public transit in the SC Lowcountry by making a donation on Act Blue. 

For more information on the campaign to reconnect Charleston and Summerville with an uninterrupted bus route this spring contact Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit, William Hamilton, Executive Director. at www.bfltransit.com; email wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or phone (843) 870-5299. Zoom media appearances can be arranged upon request. 

END END END

FOIA Request to Town of Summerville Re. Lowcountry Rapid Transit, Feb. 4, 2002

Freedom of Information Act Request to the Town of Summerville Regarding Lowcountry Rapid Transit

Summerville Town Council Meeting

The following freedom of information Act Request will be served on the Town of Sumemrville by Linda Saylor and Daniel Dewald at 10 am on Friday, Feb. 4, 2022. . The group will also attempt to deliver a list of public transit demands and a pancake breakfast to the Mayor. This is beng done as part of a full day of activities  for better public tranist in the Lowcountry on Transit Equity Day, the Birthday or Rosa Parks.  For a full, updated schedule see https://bfltransit.blogspot.com/2022/01/rise-with-rosa-ride-with-rosa-transit.html

Freedom of Information Act Request
Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit and Linda Saylor
To the Town Government of Summerville

Transit Equity Day, Feb. 4, 2022

Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit, Inc., acting by and through his undersigned attorney would request that the Town of Summerville, it's authorized agents, Departments and Contractors creating or maintaining records prepared by or for the Town to produce and disclose the following information and documents, be that kept as paper records, electronic files or in other form as provided for in the SC Freedom of Information Act, SC Code 30-4-10 Et seq (1976, as Amended)

Carol Dotterer talking to CARTA Board Member

This request shall apply to records maintained in paper form, in electronic files or in any other way which can be read, processed or used by any person or data processing system.

Prior to the production of these records, we request an itemized, written statement setting out the approximate cost for the production of the materials and information set out herein. 

In the event that these records are maintained in electronic form, the requestor would ask that they be produced in electronic form either on CD Rom or by delivery an a removable memory drive, which we would be happy to provide. The preferred format for written documents would be PDF, but Microsoft Office files of all types are also fine.

This request is continuing and shall apply to any new records produced or coming into the possession of the City of North Charleston.

The materials requested are:

1. 

   Roadside Campaign, Ladson, Oct. 2016

   Meeting minutes, recordings or records regarding any meeting of Town Council, Town Staff or any other organization with which the Town has participated which discussed, decided or considered any issue regarding Lowcountry Rapid Transit in since January 1, 2018.
2. Any communications, correspondence, records or information received by the town discussing Lowcountry Rapid Transit since January 1, 2018. 
3. Any petitions, letters, recordings, records or material written, stated or presented by the Mayor of Summerville currently serving since November 1, 2019 regarding any attempt to retain, preserve, change or cancel plans to extend, run or connect the planned Lowcountry Rapid Transit Line to the Town of Summerville, located stops for said line in the Town of Summerville or operated Lowcountry Rapid Transit or any other public transportation service within the Town of Summerville since January 1, 2019.
4. Any communications received by the Town of Summerville regarding Lowcountry Rapid Transit including communications from the State Department of Transportation, US Department of Transportation, Dorchester County Government, The Berkeley, Charleston, Dorchester Council of Governments or Charleston County Government or any contractor, organization or association contracted with any of said governments for work on the Lowcountry Rapid Transit Project since January 1, 2018. 

The undersigned anticipates extending and renewing this request for information in the near future. The Town should also be advised that the materials being requested here are intended to be shared with the public and media.

Full information on our organization may be found at www.bfltransit.com.  

Respectfully Requested

William J. Hamilton, III
Attorney at Law, SC
32 Sowell St.
Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464
(843) 870-5299
wjhamilton29464@gmail.com

Transit Equity Demands for the SC Lowcountry, Feb. 4, 2022

Transit Equity Demands for the SC Lowcountry, Feb. 4, 2022

Our upcoming actions to push transit progress in the Lowcountry Forward are listed on our BFLT Facebook Events Page. 

Bus Stop- Mt. Pleasant, SC Town Hall

Goals for 2022

1. Extend the existing CARTA #10 Bus Line Northwest from its current terminus at the Health South Hospital on Highway 78, up Highway 78 through Ladson and Lincolnville to Summerville. SC before May 4, 2022 using the recent 800k grant from the US Dpt. of Transpiration. See details on this proposal. 
2. Secure another year of bus service to the beach. Double ridership. (Approve by CARTA Board at January meeting.) See detailed information  on bus service to the Beach. 
3. Increase CARTA Ridership by 30%. Get more middle school aged students on transit. We've already begun work on our Park Pleasantly Play Downtown effort in Mt. Pleasant.  CARTA's board voted in April to make May a fare free month as part of rebuilding ridership with our commitment to support the effort. CARTA Ridership is now up 13% over March 2021 to March 2022.
4. Push the future Lowcountry Rapid Transit line terminus back North to Lincolnville, near the Charleston County line, walking distance from downtown Summerville. Details on returning the line to Summerville.
5. LCRT before I526- Fight to get the promised Lowcountry Rapid Transit line operational before work begins on widening I526. Read our blogpost Transit First, 8 Lane Gridlock Later on this issue. Read the statement by Dana Beach founder of the Coastal Conservation League on why enlarging I526 will make congestion worse. 
6. Obtain 10 more lighted & sheltered bus stops on the CARTA system, 2 on the Sea Islands & 2 in Summerville. One great new stop on Houston Northcutt (image above) in Mt. Pleasant shows was a fully realized stop which emphasizes pedestrian safety on a busy road looks like, including a center island waiting area for pedestrians with lighting. 

Daniel Dewald has also compiled a list of problems and possible solutions for the failure to get functional transit operating in Dorchester and Berkeley Counties. Read Dewald's one page bullet list. 

Elections

We're also trying to help the needs of Lowcountry Transit Riders be heard during this year's elections b getting candidates to ride the bus and provide answers to our questions about local transit.  See our page on the Congressional election. We don't endorse candidates. 

Help Support Our Continued Push for Better Transit

Contribute to us through Act Blue (Tax Deductible)

For more information about Transit Equity Day

 See www.bfltransit.com or call William Hamilton at (843) 870-5299.