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.

Schedule and route map - can be viewed on the CARTA website.

Right- Bus Pirate Day at the beach, June 2023

Isle of Pirates Day 2024 will be Saturday, July 13. Read the details and sign up on Facebook. 

Service Begins with a Boom- The Beach Reach Shuttle began running Memorial Weekend and carried twice as many passengers as it did on the same weekend a year ago. All available parking on the Isle of Palms was evidently occupied for most of the weekend. Many people drove out to the beach, searched for parking, failed to find any and ended up driving back to the mainland an hour or more later, never having seen the beach. Some found our bus and some, with disappointed children, gave up and returned home. If you have to search for parking the bus will always be faster. Your kids won't be bored in the car. They'll be having the adventure of a trip on the bus. 

#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. 

Pirates vs. Barbie/Kenergy- Our pirates will return to the beach this summer, probably on July 4, but this year they'll have rivals, the crowd from Barbieland, ready to beach under the leadership of Ken and the living doll herself. Doing something like this on a major holiday is always a space shot. If you would like to help, let us know. It's pink vs. black, so choose  your clothing to show your sympathies. The pirate crew seems pretty committed, so we'll need the Barbies and the Bros to come of the bench and out to the beach. We'll be burying treasure on the beach, doing some pirate games with the public. Ken and his friends will "beach." Pirates will challenge the Island's rum supply again while the folks from Barbie Land have specialty cocktails of their own. The bartenders of IOP have never failed us yet and the bus assures a safe trip home for everyone. 

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. 

left - Pitching our banner at the entrance to folly beach on Memorial weekend, 2018

Your Tax Dollars at Work- The shuttle is free thanks to contributions from the Tourism Tax funds of the City of Isle of Palms and Town of Mt. Pleasant. We've encouraged the support of IOP by awarding them the Key to the Sea, which resides in a wooden case at IOP City Hall. It's companion key was tossed into the waves last year to open the ocean and celebrate the restart of service on a cold, wet memorial day. 

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. 

Image right- A Bus Driver drink concocted by Coconut Joes on IOP as part of our July 2015 March to the Sea to help return Transit to the Atlantic. Has gold rum, red cherry and green lime (they ran out of limes that day) for the colors of the Best Friend train. 

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

The late Mary Smith appearing as Sylphide, our Transit Fairy

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. 

We hope when you crest across the dunes at IOP and you feel the cool, fresh breeze of the ocean that you will remember our departed friends. You can do that by scratching our symbol, taken from the Best Friend of Charleston into the sand, awaiting the return of the ocean to wipe it away. If you are there on a lucky day, you might be able to dig up some of our pirate treasure. 

Support our Work, More Information - To support the work of Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit you can contribute on Act Blue. For information or assistance contact William Hamilton at wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or 843-870-5299.

Queen Ruby, Sir Isaac Newton and the Decision to Engage

Chapter 4 

To read the full Narrative see the Tale of Queen Ruby and the Ladies in RaidingOn Board the Jeweled Princess

Something Radical Onboard

Something truly radical had been going on during the years since the Ruby and the Ladies in Raising had liberated themselves from Pirate Anderson’s Marauders. Members of the crew had come and gone, many returning to their homes. Ruby and those remaining aboard have been recruiting women of ambition and intellect. Within the wooden walls of the Jeweled Princess, the greatest treasure being sought and stored is human knowledge. 

While famed for their acts of charity and their fights against the cruel pirates and monopolistic West India Company, these women have been educating each other. Ruby began teaching the other women as soon as they were free. Her Admiral father was a member of the Royal Society when it was led by Sir Isaac Newton. Ruby has her father’s books and continues to cultivate some of his connections to intellectual life in Britain and Europe. The booksellers of London don’t know the heavy orders of scientific and philosophical literature being sent overseas to a number of fictional names end up in the library of a pirate ship. Over time, other exceptional women have joined the crew bringing what they know, learning and teaching others.

Sir Isaac Newton

The Jeweled Princess is the most advanced institution of higher learning in the Caribbean and equal to most colleges and universities in the Western Hemisphere. In a world where women are barred from formal higher education, these lady pirates are probably the largest collective of educated women in the New World. Their outfits and theatrics they delight in mask their true nature. Their mastery of Newton's calculus contributes to the exceptional precision of their artillery fire. 

Ruby also met and has read the writings of John Locke, who wrote, "The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only have the law of nature for his rule." 

Locke felt that women had the ability to reason, which entitled them to an equal voice. He wrote, "It may not be [wrong] to offer new... [ideas] when the old [traditions] are apt to lead men into mistakes, as this [idea] of [fatherly] power's probably has done, which seems so [eager] to place the power of parents over their children wholly in the father, as if the mother had no share in it; whereas if we consult reason or [the Bible], we shall find she has an equal title." 

John Locke

At this early stage of the Enlightenment, science and reason are on the rise. Many people look to the new world as a place where these ideas can be developed. Locke drafts parts of the fundamental constitutions which set up government in the colony of Carolina. Locke invests in the new world and is one of the stockholders in the “Company of Adventurers to the Bahama Islands.” Locke also invests in slave trading, which Ruby and the women abhor. 

Ruby had been attempting to discover how the key to the sea worked, but that is far beyond the science of her time and ours. A rigid separation between science, religion and magic hadn’t yet evolved, but Ruby is certain she can solve the riddle of its power. She has no idea why or how the power of a major hurricane has thrown the ship and crew 300 years into the future, carrying a boatload of the Kings Guard and Dread Pirate Anderson’s band with them. She doesn’t know how the key landed her back on the surface of the Earth when the planet and the sun had moved billions of miles through space in 300 years. 

Uneven Progress in the World of the Biscuit Which Mesmerizes

Everywhere that Queen Ruby and her ladies go in the modern world, she discovers how uneven human progress has been. Medicine is a wonder, though Ruby isn’t sure how they’ll access a modern hospital if one of them becomes injured or ill. There are computers, aircraft and electricity. Poverty, disease, and oppression are still everywhere, even in an advanced society like the United States. Though chattel slavery is gone, race and sexism are still huge issues. 

Having struggled to obtain books and scientific equipment in her time, Ruby is shocked to see how little universal instant access to all sorts of knowledge has contributed to human happiness. She resents “the Biscuit that enthralls,” her invented term for the smartphone. Everything necessary for human happiness can be found in this world, often in abundance. Much of it is wasted. In Charleston she finds huge libraries of books, videos, and access to electronic information, often nearly empty. In California she sees brilliant minds wasted and as companies seek quick profits and discard human talent. 

There is a rising tide of violence which could be avoided. Politics is as corrupt as ever. Ruby knows she can’t rob the massive corporations of this century and hand out necessities to the homeless around her and long survive. The ship’s store of treasure is large, but it won’t hold out forever. 

Wary of the risks of becoming entangled in the modern system of documents and identification with the bogus identities offered to her by her high-tech friends in California, Ruby and the Ladies in Raiding are locked out of large parts of the economy. They’re able to sell their antique doubloons for huge amounts of money, but since they’re limited to cash and some experiments with gift cards they can’t book a hotel room or rent an automobile. 

They’re riding transit and camping out with the homeless. Ruby notes that a trip around Charleston is slower on transit stuck in traffic than it would be on horseback. Nearly everyone has a car that can go 80 knots, but they’re sitting still in them. 

With the Key to the Sea thrown in the ocean for safekeeping, Ruby has to find a way forward for her and her ladies. They can’t hide out forever. Sooner or later, someone is going to make a mistake and law enforcement, or some government agency is going to discover there are women from 300 years in the past walking around the Holy City. Questions will be asked that can’t be answered. If that happens, Ruby’s ladies will need friends, people who share her hatred of oppression and long for progress. 

Ruby visited the VWF Post on the Coast on the Isle of Palms on Memorial Day using the Bus to the Beach (no way to use Uber) hoping those old warriors might be able to help her. She meets many women who have fought in the modern armed forces. As one of them tells her, the cannons and wooden ship thing sounds cool, but she wouldn’t stand that up against her RAH-66 Comanche Helicopter Gunship. The veteran lady shows Ruby a video on her “Mesmerizing Biscuit.” Ruby smiles when she thinks of what Comanche helicopter gunship could do to Anderson. 

Ruby has already made some friends who pay her fee to march in Charleston’s Pride Parade. She’s no stranger to issues of gender and sexuality. In the watery frontier of her time, she’s seen a lot and she and her ladies have accepted the variety of human choices. Ruby knows that given the staggering risks of modern existence racism and sexism have long outlived their time. Having fought these things her entire life, she and her ladies resolve to take the Ruby Flag down the streets of Charleston with hundreds of other marchers. 

They’re still undercover. Most people regard the Ladies in Raiding as a fun, but rather strange sorority with quaint mannerisms and an acute interest in severely dated social philosophies and scientific ideas. Sapphire is up to date on Isaac Newton, but she’s still working on Einstein and Quantum Mechanics. Locke is great, but the crew is still chewing through the Feminine Mystique and the Shock Doctrine. Nobody has heard of their favorite woman playwright, Ana Caro, whose romantic comedies they sometimes presented to each other on deck. To relax, the crew are big fans of science fiction. They prefer Picard to Kirk and Janeway to both of them. They hate pirate movies.

They still wear their pirate outfits some of the time. Most guys never see beyond the fishnet stockings and corsets. That’s very useful. They’ve gone thrifting and bought modern clothes as well.  They’re making friends, but it’s time to move.

Opening the Rolls for Enlistment of Modern, Remarkable Ladies

Queen Ruby and the ladies vote to open the rolls of the Ladies in Raiding to people who identify as modern women. They’ll sign them up to march with them in the Pride Parade. Another friend gets them a listing on Eventbrite, though Ruby would prefer a quill and parchment. She prefers clear, committed relationships to vague electronic entanglements. Someone has modern copies of their tattered ruby pirate flag made. Crystal’s new friends from Summerville are already on board. It’s cool to be a pirate. Dress shops are having run on black dresses and leather. They’re setting a style. In a time of uncertainty and oppression, it’s fun to pretend to be a pirate. 

On Saturday, June 3 the crew will march with their new friends who don’t know they are joining a hip new club with some very senior members. Some of the intellectual stuff sounds interesting. The crew’s already doing Yoga. Many of the modern women find the martial arts training a bit dated but functional. Emerald reluctantly agrees that cutting an overly handy man down in a Charleston bar with a cutlass really isn’t a practical option. They use less lethal defensive moves. Nobody touches a lady in raiding unless they want them to. 

Later in June, the crew will muster their new recruits on the Isle of Palms as Ruby figures out how to manage their new fight with their old ones. Anderson is still about and knows all about the Ladies in Raiding’s modern activities now. The King’s Guard is still stumbling about, disoriented, and getting no help from the British Government, who dismisses them as crazy people. The British Army won’t remit their pay. The men they claim to be disappeared in a storm in 1723. 

Summer’s heating up in Charleston. 

Queen Ruby of the Pirates and her Ladies in Raiding, the Cruise of the Jeweled Princess

Flag of Queen Ruby of the Pirates

© 2023 by William J. Hamilton, III

Ride the Bus, Join the Drama

This summer Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit invites you not merely to take the bus to the beach, but to use transit to access a summer island filled with adventure, drama, swordplay and romance. 

This is the first written chapter  in our pirate drama. We maintain a complete chronology with links to all the chapters and events 

When you encounter Queen Ruby of the Pirates or one of her Ladies in Raiding, you may be given a golden pirate coin which will allow you to win discounts, earn prizes or even participate in the dramatic contest between Queen Ruby, his majesty's royal militia, the fiendish Pirate Anderson or the venal operatives of the British West India company. 

Here's our story up to now. Join the next chapter on Memorial weekend when we open the ocean at 10:30 am on the front beach of the Isle of Palms and join the drama which will bring  excitement as well as better transit to the Lowcountry up to its conclusion of Labor Day Weekend.

After you have read the backstory below, read the latest chapter, the conclusion of which will unfold in Summerville on May 18. Read Crystal Goes A Roving, Pirate War in Summerville?

A Hard Life Come to a Dead End

Ruby was the beloved daughter of a famous Admiral of His Majesty’s Royal Navy. Middle age found her married to a rum ruined former ship’s captain and now tavern owner in the impoverished town of Port St. Phillip. Trapped in circumstance, peril and adventure yet awaited the handsome woman who believed her life was to be spent tending bar, scrubbing run sodden tavern floors and sloping pigs.

Peril from the Sea, Anderson's Pirates Raid Port Phillip

Peril came in the form of Anderson’s pirate band, who raided the town and carried off everything of any worth. St. Phillip was poor on a good day. The King’s taxes and the ruinous terms of trade with the monopoly of the British West India Company made life expensive and hard. With rations low and a pirate crew on the verge of munity, Anderson came to take everything Ruby and her neighbors had. The King and his fleet were, as usual, far away guarding the profits of the West India company.

Ruby’s husband was a sot, but when the door of his tavern was breached by the thirsty pirates he rose on his feet to defend his wife, whom he still loved, the only true treasure he possessed. The Captain's final battle was brave and short. He ended in a pool of his own blood on the dank, beer soaked floor. Ruby, unready, was taken prisoner as were the other ladies of the town. It took five strong men to drag Ruby to their ship.

On board Ruby and her sisters contemplated the horrors that awaited them in one form of slavery or another. They were hardship toughened women from age 12 to 80, subject to the various uses men might devise for them unless they freed themselves.

Ruby knew the uses of rum on sailors and proposed a party, a welcome surprise to  the pirates. The revels began, but the pirates quickly fell into a drunken sleep while attempting to prove to the smiling women which of them might hold the most rum.

When they awoke with headaches the following morning, they were startled to find irons on their feet, shackled to chains run around the beams of the ship. Above them they could hear the sound of feet on the deck, hear the rasp of rigging running through the blocks and the high pitched voice of Ruby, directing the trimming of the main course. What had been their ship was under way. They were now prisoners locked in irons. Ruby and the women were in command of what was now the ladies’ ship.

Ruby had heard many stories of the sea, none more legendary and improbable than the tale of the key to the sea. Said to have been forged by Vikings, the large iron key to the sea was alleged to give the Captain who held it command over wind and wave. It was said the key was the power which allowed the Vikings to find Greenland and the new world. The key could put the wind behind your sails and turn it against your opponent. It could calm the storm for your vessel’s crossing but raise the gale against a ship in pursuit.

In the hands of the righteous, the key was the most powerful magic on the sea. However, in the possession of a murderous thief and kidnapper like Anderson it had been of no use, a relic that had cost him much and had yielded him nothing.

When Ruby and the ladies battered down the door to the captain’s cabin they found the key among his many treasures. Ruby knew what it had to be. She passed over the precious gems, gold and silver in the treasure chest to grasp its handle. She told the other women; “with this we shall be powerful and free.”

A Decision is Made, A Voyage Begins

At dawn Ruby donned Andersons worn pirate costume and fitted his oversized bicorn hat to her smaller head. She directed the women to work the anchor up with the windlass, lowered the sails and let the ship fall down into the wind. As what would be known as the Jeweled Princess of the Seas began to make headway and the rudder began to cut, Sapphire, who had taken up the work of the helmslady asked Ruby if they should return to the ruins of Port Phillip.

Ruby reached into the pirate jacket’s oversized pocket and touched the key to the sea with her fingers, feeling the waves tremble beneath the ship at her touch. She looked at the women before her rapidly become an effective crew. Ruby considered what their lives back in the power of others might be. More hardship, burials sure to be forgotten and the certain return of other pirates. They could expect forced, unfair dealings with the rapacious agents of the West India Company or the occasional press gangs of the erstwhile Royall Navy taking the men. That course did not promise freedom or happiness for them or the many others who suffered.

Ruby looked at Sapphire (all the ladies had taken to naming themselves after precious gems) whose hands rested on the huge wooden wheel of the ship. Assisting her was beautiful, raven haired Crystal, a young girl with her entire life ahead.

Ruby turned her face into the wind, feeling the air. The sea breeze opening with the morning’s warming heat brought the worn plume of Ruby’s hat up and into the sun. It was a fair wind for travels North to a convenient island where Anderson and his pirates could be marooned. Beyond that could be found the wealthy parts of the Caribbean, a sea of arrogant captains, greedy company agents, slavers and more pirates than a women should have to contend with.

Not the ordinary workplace of a lady for sure, but work which needed doing.

Ruby looked at Sapphire and Crystal, and beyond them to the blue sea and islands out to the horizon.

“I think not,” famously said Queen Ruby, adjusting her hat. “Easy over three points to starboard.” She touched the key in her pocket and the ocean beneath the keel yielded to the ship, the wind backed to her desired direction and the Jeweled Princess began its first voyage.

300 Years Later in Carolina

Pirate Queen Ruby and her Ladies in Raiding have been sailing for years. Crystal is now a young women and can hold down the poop deck in a storm with the confidence of any man. However, as Ruby possesses the key, no storm every overthrows the Jeweled Princess.

For the struggling people of these colonies, Ruby’s ship and its crew are a welcome sight. They bring help when needed. The women defend against pirates and recover some of the wealth the West India Company takes from these people tossed by hurricanes and often starved by poor, island soils. 

On the hot, still days after a hurricane, when everything is in ruins, it is the Jeweled Princess that often shows up first with assistance. If the crates of crackers heaved into the lighters bear the mark of the West India company, no one seems to mind.

Except of course, for the West India company, who profits for King and investors by buying everything the islands produce at prices of it’s choosing and selling everything needed there at a premium, standing on its royal grant of monopoly. The King gets his share of all. The Royal Navy’s first job it to be sure of that.  The sugar cane grown gets sold to the company for a pittance and the run later purchased costs dear. It does not profit the West India company to see it’s run and crackers donated to the poor for free, even after a Hurricane.

During one storm, when Ruby used the key of the sea to end a mighty Hurricane. The massive energy of the storm was concentrated and there was an exposion. She and her ladies find themselves in a strange world, 400 years in their future. A world of wonders, but also troubles. They have kept their distance up to now, attempting to observe this world of marvels from a safe distance, but their casks have run dry. 

Ruby and her ladies have been forced to land at the Isle of Palms after scouting the Lowcountry to obtain that most precious treasure, water, to fill the casks of the Jeweled Princess. They will distribute some largess, get help hauling the water out to their ship and be quickly off over the waves leaving the pirates, royal navy and company agents in their wake, who have somehow also reached the future with her. 

The casks are full. The Jeweled Princess is ready to make sail, but Crystal, now the flower of young womanhood, cannot be found. Ruby must remain ashore with the other ladies in raiding to search for her sister. As the island fills with summer visitors, the Ladies in Raiding are not unnoticed. Reports have reached the King guards. The West  India Company has offered rewards: 20 pounds for a lady in raiding, 100 for Ruby and a thousand for the Key to the sea.

Crystal is rumored to be in Summerville, reveling in the opportunities this new century presents to an experienced 16th Century Pirate Maiden. Our next chapter unfolds in Summerville on May 18. Read Crystal Goes A Roving, Pirate War in Summerville?

Ride the Bus, Join the Story

The Royal Navy, as always, is far away protecting the king’s profits, but Anderson and his pirates are close. They escaped their lonely island years ago and stole a new ship. They are bearing down on Ruby, the Isle of Palms and the King’s small guard, a friend to none of them. It is the beginning of summer. While visitors revel and sport traveling from the mainland on the free bus service, Ruby and her ladies must act to save all.

On May 27, 2023, starting at 10:30 am on the Isle of Palms, take the free CARTA Beach Shuttle from the mainland and join the story.  

More Information

For more information, see our main page on the 2023 bus to the beach or contact William Hamilton at (843) 870-5299 or wjhamilton29464@gmail.com

 

Summerville, Lincolnville, Ladson Transit Update Feb. 2021

 Summerville to the Sea on Transit- Feb. 2021

Louise Brown and the Mayor of Summerville

Sun, Feb. 21- Join us at the Black History Celebration on Hutchison Square in Summerville on Feb. 21 starting at 2 pm. Come learn about local Transit Equity Heros Mary Bowers and Esau Jenkins, make a button and join our new Dorchester Unit to make sure Transit runs all the way to the Atlantic from Flowertown. 

Image, Right, this month we honor Best Friends Staff Member Louise Brown, (shown here with the former Mayor of Summerville) who has been working for transit equity and social justice in the Lowcountry for over 50 years, starting with the Hospital Strike of 1969 when she and 11 other African American women stopped tanks in the streets of Charleston with their bodies and singing voices. She rode the train between Summerville and Charleston for decades, sometimes hopping a freight to make the trip as a girl. We call Louise the Mother of the Movement. You can view a photo gallery of her advocacy work. 

Thanks to the effort of our new Dorchester Unit, working with the rest of Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit, better transit is coming to Summerville, Lincolnville and Ladson. However there are challenges we must address now as the effort to undermine the long promised rapid transit service to Summerville has been abandoned with the tacit agreement of local officials.

Good News: Buses to the Beach, Electric Buses, More Shelters, Improved Service and Complete Streets

Thanks to your support, CARTA will restore weekend bus service to the Isle of Palms this summer. It will be possible to ride on LINK and CARTA all the way to the Beach on Fridays. Saturday and Sunday will require traveling to a #10 Rivers Ave. Bus Stop on Highway 78 near the Hospital since Link does not operate on the weekend. Service begins Memorial Weekend. We'll be helping Summerville access this new opportunity. Here is a preview of our plans, which are attracting national interest. 

Proterra Electric Bus made in SC

CARTA is electrifying it's bus fleet, starting with ProTerra buses made right here in South Carolina. More shelters are being constructed in Charleston county, most with solar lighting and soon, electronic bus arrival data. Full real time data on bus arrival times is now available for the region, with trip planning on Google Maps and the Transit App, as well as a dedicated app for Tri County Link. GPS data is transmitted from the buses and combined with Google's massive archive of travel and road data to give you accurate arrival times for your bus. CARTA bus service on James Island is having it's frequency doubled. View a video primer on how to plan your bus trips online with Google. 

Thanks to decisions made ten years ago in response to the SARs epidemic in Asia, our newer Transit vehicles were pandemic ready with improved air circulation systems, surfaces engineered to isolate biohazards and non touch doors. Locally produced hand sanitizer and masks (required) are available for free on board. Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit worked with a nationwide advocacy effort to get emergency federal Covid funding to pay for making buses ready for the pandemic and keeping service operating when ridership fell. Ridership is now increasing again.

Rep. Marvin Pendarvis

After two years, the SC DOT finally adopted a complete streets policy requiring road safer for pedestrians, transit riders and cyclists thanks to the effort of State Rep. Marvin Pendavis, who represents the Summerville east of the railroad tracks, Lincolnville and Ladson. Pendarvis is looking for citizens willing to sit on the new advisory board called for in the policy. Please contact Marvin Pendavis if you would like to serve. You can learn more about the new complete streets policy. 

The Challenge for Dorchester

Original plan for BRT service to Summerville

Summerville must fight for it's transit connection to Ladson, N. Charleston, Charleston and the Beach.
For 25 years very possible option was explored. Best Friends was instrumental in getting an improved weekday Tri County Link Service connecting downtown Summerville to CARTA in N. Charleston in 2019. In 2015, the half million dollar I26 Alt Study promised bus rapid transit connecting downtown Summerville to downtown Charleston in 59 minutes. Voters in Ladson and Lincolnville, and Charleston County approved a half penny sales tax in Nov. 2016 to fund 250 million dollars to build that bus rapid transit system and 350 million dollars to improve bus service.

Summerville's Leaders stood by while the Council of Government facilitated secret meetings at which it was decided to end the new transit system at the Fairgrounds in Ladson instead of making the long promised connection to Summerville and Lincolnville. While most Dorchester leaders claim to support a complete system, it's likely some worked behind the scenes to truncate the system to preserve the status quo from which they benefit. They like a Summerville where many people are immobile and time trapped in the car eats up more of everyone's life. Tired people and people who can't move are easy to ignore.

Our Logo

A major infrastructure and recovery bill is now being developed by the President and Congress. This may include the federal matching funds needed to build a real rapid transit system like what voters were promised from Summerville to Charleston and a seven day connection all the way to the sea. Our lives are too precious to be wasted sitting in traffic and hauling children and relatives around because we don't have buses that work.

To get involved for better Transit in Dorchester, Summerville, Lincolnville and Ladson contact Linda Saylor at lindasaylor1963@gmail.com or (843) 873-2436. 

When Honeysuckle and Crepe Myrtle bloom, We will rise!

 When the Honeysuckle and Crepe Myrtles bloom, we will rise! The coming end of the Pandemic and the end of the Trump administration this summer makes it likely that the energy and activity of the Lowcountry's progressive community will increase and an opportunity to recruit new resources and participation will arise.

Lowcountry Unity Flag honoring the late Mary Smith.

The losses of the last year and a half are drastic. We have buried some of our best people. Others have lost their homes or income. Our mental and physical health has declined. Personal relationships have ended and failed. Some of us have been forced into seclusion. Others have pressed on in their activism with little support and incredible levels of stress, confronting opposition (sometimes armed) of incredible aggression. We have lost crucial elections for US Senate and Congress with most of our grass roots organizing capacity siezed up in lockdown. The local progressive effort is more fragmented than ever. 

If we are to renew our struggle, we must refresh our courage and community. Our conservative opposition is deeply entrenched and remains empowered by it's culture of cruelty, perverted religion and vast economic support. 

If we are to retake some of the civic and social space we need to operate and live in, we must gather up the mutual support and joy that gives us power. If we do so, this summer presents the greatest opportunity to regenerate ourselves presented in our lifetimes. 

Starting in May

A series of community events, some already planned, give us the chance to take in the fresh air of hope.

It appears likely that at least a limited Spoleto Festival will take place in late May and early June and the Memorial weekend (marred last year by a Trump boat parade) may be our first real community Holiday in 15 months. Something coordinated with the Piccolo Spoleto Finale in Hampton Park Sat. June 12), a shared picnic would be simple and practical. 

Juneteeth celebrations across the Lowcountry give us an opportunity to bring people together. Several are already planned. We'll need to consciously emphasize the need to include and affirm the people isolated by the pandemic and to celebrate, as oppressed African Americans did in the first Juneteenth celebration, our survival. 

July 3, a major opportunity

Holiday memorial concert for Julia Hamilton, Musician Activist, 1958-2020. 

The Independence Day Weekend provides an important and necessary opportunity to redefine patriotism and America with a celebration which provides an alternative to the jingoistic, militarized and often politically weaponized gatherings most of us find ourselves joining family at. 

We would propose a diverse celebration on July 3 at a relatively secure inland location within Charleston County that combines food, art, dance, music and activism in ways which connect us in the manner we've been unable to enjoy for the last year and a half. This event would begin in late afternoon and conclude shortly after dark. Rather than emphasize speeches and express political and policy oriented activity, this would be a celebration of creativity, relationships, mutual validation and hope. If you can't do it on Zoom, this would be the place to try it. This should be a celebration which engages the hands, the body and the physical presence of each other, which cherishes the reality that we can share each other's space again. 

We're fairly confident that the pandemic will be largely resolved by July, with most of the population having it's second dose of vaccine. The July 3 event would be sponsored by a coalition of local organizations, with coordination being facilitated by Up is Good, Inc. 

If we have a strong, community affirming event on Saturday, July 3, our friends will either be equipped to move through their family celebrations with their Qannon uncle or have support to continue the celebration on July 4 while avoiding them. 

Hopefully other events can follow in July and August, including something celebrating the fact that transit service has been reestablished to the beach here for the first time. However logistical and strategic considerations make the beach an unattractive location for large scale progressive activity in an atmosphere where right wing groups might target the activity. Other groups will have the opportunity to step forward into leadership and the transformation of our remembered pain into love, courage and will. 

Finish with Pride

Food and clothing collection for pandemic victims, Dec. 2020.

The arch of events can wind up with Charleston Pride in the late Summer, an event which has long functioned as a well organized celebration of diversity and an opening for the Fall civic season. Like all local efforts, Pride will be recovering from the stress of the Pandemic and benefit from our organized support. It's parade and festival don't really require any adjustment from their established model to serve as a great finale to this effort. 

We hope to carry through this effort with branding that includes T-shirts, Buttons, Stickers and Flags so our presence can be seen and joined. We would present this to the Lowcountry with a simple, socially distanced press / social event in May. 

Mary Smith, in costume as Sylphide, Charleston Pride, 2017.

Each of these events should build on previous efforts and support the next. As the only major progressive enclave in South Carolina, a robust Summer season is essential to rebuilding the impulse for Equity, Equality and progress on the coast here.

We invite input and discussion about these ideas on the Lowcountry Up is Good Facebook Page.   You can also call William Hamilton at (843) 870-5299 or email him at wjhamilton29464@gmail.com. 

Opportunity in an Epidemic - Transit Funding in the Covd 19 Stimulus Bill

If you act now, we can get better transit here and complete our planned rapid transit years sooner that was previously possible.

A two trillion dollar Covid 19 bipartisan infrastructure stimulus bill is expected to be introduced in the US House or Representatives on April 20. Lowcountry Congressmen James Clyburn and Joe Cunningham are both working on it now and we’ve been in contact with their staff about transit. While the current draft of the bill wastes far too much money on sprawl inducing road construction, the bill could include the funding needed to improve public transit across the US.

Please sign and share our online petition calling for the 25 billion in transit funding for Covid 19 response already approved and the trillions of dollars in future funding be used, in part, to improve transit in the Lowcountry. https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/support-covid-19-infrastructure-recovery-act-funding-for-lowcountry-public-transit.html?fbclid=IwAR3KNfHFEYTc4HTgken8qJrRmKvxI3-SkC6hRNInKSUx2I2tpLPLTREIDfQ

We just got off a national teleconference with transit equity organizers in over 20 cities. We plan to complete preparation of materials and launch our advocacy effort on Wed. April 8.

This bill could improve the quality of life and mobilty for every American, build affordable housing and needed infrastructure to deal with sea level rise and climate change, all critical issues to the Lowcountry.
These investments should be controlled and owned by the public. However there are well organized forces trying to influence the bill that want to move the US to an ownership, equity, wealth creation model where our roads, transit systems and affordable housing are privately owned and publically subsidized without accountability or transparency to the citizens. They’ve been planning a privatized transportation system which eliminates public transit and public controlled roads with free public access  for years. You can read one such Typical call for privatization of public roads, transit and infrastructure, in Forbes Magazine- https://www.forbes.com/sites/waynecrews/2020/03/31/phase-4-coronavirus-infrastructure-spending-to-start-at-2-trillion/#421c178a7099

Please sign the petition now. We know it’s a detailed document, but elected representatives will only respect the informed and precise input of voters under emergency conditions. A meaningless make public transit better blurb will only obtain a meaningless we love public transit response. Details are the mother of ac-countably, demanded and delivered.

Please feel free to contact Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit with your ideas and input. Contact Executive director William Hamilton at (843) 870-5299 or by email at mailto:wjhamilton29464@gmail.com?subject=Public Transit in the Lowcountry

Transit Equity Day, Feb. 4, 2020 in Charleston, SC

Transit Equity Day, Feb. 4 in Charleston, SC

Update- We need to interview people who were passengers on the bus service run by Esau Jenkins in Charleston, SC or on the sea islands  during the civil rights movement. If you were a passenger or know someone who was, please contact William Hamilton at (843) 870-5299 or email wjhamilton29464@gmail.com

Transit Equity Day is on Tuesday, February 4th to honor Rosa Parks on her birthday. Her act of resistance by refusing to give up her seat on the bus in 1955 was a catalyst for the civil rights movement. It affirmed that everyone has the right to equal access to public transit. The principles that guide our work for transit equity and justice today are set out in the statement below.

In Charleston our observance will focus on recognizing our own local Transit Heros: Mary Bowers, who forced desegregation of Charleston’s horse drawn streetcars in 1867 and Esau Jenkins, who operated a transportation system with buses during the Civil Rights movement that brought rural residents to educational and employment opportunities and provided lessons in voting rights and citizenship on board.

Some transportation agencies mark a seat with a sign remembering Rosa Parks on this day, making her a symbolic presence on one of their buses. We hope CARTA will consider doing this.

National Transit Equity Day Declaration 

Public Transit provides basic mobility for many in our communities.  It is also essential infrastructure – just like roads, bridges, tunnels and utilities – that is crucial to the economic, social and environmental well-being of all regions.

Everyone has a right to a public mass transit system that includes:

1. Safe, reliable, environmentally-sustainable and affordable transit that is accessible to all, regardless of income, national origin, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, religion, or ability.
2. An affordable public transit system that reliably connects people in all communities to the places we need to travel: home, work, school, places of worship, shopping, health, and recreation in as efficient, and timely a manner as possible. We must ensure that all communities have access to transit. No community should be left behind. Providing public transit in rural, less densely populated communities poses special challenges that must be addressed in any master transportation plan.
3. Living wages, benefits, safe working conditions, and union rights for transit workers, including those who manufacture transit equipment, and access to family-sustaining transit jobs and training opportunities for people from underserved communities.
4. A just transition for workers and communities who are dependent on our current automobile and highway-centered transportation system, to ensure that no one is left behind as we transition to a more public, accessible, and cleaner transit-based system.
5. Rapid transition of our transit systems to electrified, non-polluting transit powered by electricity from renewables. This transition should be made for school buses also.
6. Safe, healthy and livable neighborhoods that are connected by public transportation and by bicycle pathways and sidewalks, and that are planned to expand safe access to transit and reduce single occupancy vehicle miles traveled.

For more information contact: William Hamilton, wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or
(843) 870-5299.

Join us at COG Transit Oriented Development Meetings Dec. 10-12

This page is in development- Please return for updates 

Join members of Best Friends of Low country Transit and our new Dorchester Unit to participate in the Berkeley, Charleston, Dorchester Council of Governments public participation session on planning Transit Oriented Development (TOD) along our future rapid transit line.

There will be three meetings, Dec. 10, 11 & 12

Summerville, Lincolnville, Ridgeville & Dorchester

Tues. Dec. 10, 6 to 8 pm Facebook Signup

Alston-Baily Elementary School

820 W 5th N St, Summerville, SC 29483 

Summerville Contact, Linday Saylor- 

6:00 pm– Presentation

6:30 to 8:00 pm Interactive Placemaking and Visioning

Special Note- 8:00 pm– Join our Independent After Discussion and Dutch Treat Dinner Nearby
If you live in these areas and want better transit, contact Linda Saylor, our Dorchester Summerville organizer. 

North Charleston
December 11, 2019
6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Facebook signup for this meeting
North Charleston Transit Center
4565 Gaynor Avenue
North Charleston, SC 29405
(Accessible via CARTA routes 10 & 104)
Presentations on LCRT & TOD will start at 6:00 p.m.
with interactive and visioning exercises from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Charleston - Downtown
December 12, 2019
6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Facebook Signup for this meeting.
Citadel Alumni Center
69 Hagood Avenue
Charleston, SC 29403
(Accessible via CARTA routes 102 & 213)
Presentations on LCRT & TOD will start at 6:00 p.m.
with interactive and visioning exercises from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

TOD allows communities to plan and build places along a transit line which are walkable and connected by transit so using a car is optional. This opens up options for people who are elderly, disabled, do not or cannot drive a car. It’s important for such communities to be safe and include affordable housing.

Even if you don’t ride transit or live in a TOD community, you benefit from reduced traffic congestion as your neighbors choose a home and lifestyle which reduces their need for car travel.

It’s about choice, particularly for senior citizens and the disabled, who can enjoy independent living without relying on loved ones or expensive ride sharing services to remain independent.

Transit Oriented Planning  in Lincolnville

Background Information on TOD:

• Our overview of Plans for the Bus Rapid Transit line.
• We've been advocating for TOD development around the site of the Old Navy Hospital in N. Charleston for a Year. 
• Tour the Lowcountery's Futureacape- A look at how autocentric planning in the Lowcountry is destroying our communities and culture
• A proposal for Transit Oriented Development at McMillian and Rivers
• Our Opposition to inappropriate and wasteful Gas Station Plan on the Transit Line
• The BCD COG has a web page on the TOD issue.