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. 

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