Charleston, SC- Transit in the Lowcountry needs your support today. While we’ve been working to plan a better system for the future long standing problems and exposure to the dysfunctions of our national politics threaten the survival of CARTA bus transit service here.
On May 31 the current Federal funding authorization for public transit runs out unless it is renewed or extended. As we’ve seen for the past few years Congress is capable of shutting down the entire government for weeks. The once unthinkable interruption of essential government services is now common. Mark Sanford’s bill to end federal funding for public transit is still pending in the US Congress despite his assurance he only introduced it to spark debate.
We don’t know how long CARTA could operate if Federal Funding was interrupted. We expect another round of bus route cuts in June that have been under study for six months. This will be the fourth round of route and service cuts in Seven years during which CARTA has managed to increase total ridership on its remaining service. However increased ridership is nothing to celebrate for the riders on nights, weekends and in areas which have lost bus service.
We’ve been preparing for these challenges for four years, since a federal transit budget cut slashed support for public transit across the United States. We’re now part of a growing network of public transit rider’s groups in hundreds of cities. We supported the effort in Columbia, SC to bring their transit system back from the dead through our connections in the SC Progressive Network. Locally we have pro transit neighborhood groups forming on James Island, N. Charleston and in Summerville as well as Truckers for Transit.
We’re not where we need to be and frankly, now isn’t the best time for the work with cities in an uproar and summer coming, but we have to push forward now.
We’re asking everyone we’re in contact with to sign our online petition opposing Mark Sanford’s bill to cut federal funding for public transit and to ask your friends to sign online. http://www.gopetition.com/...
We’ll be at Charleston City Hall this evening (Tuesday, April 28) at 5 pm to speak out about the irresponsibility of building a huge new residential development West of the Ashley without building transit in. We would use help leafleting the crowd. We can have prosperity, development and community, but we can’t continue to build and develop if every new household adds a dozen additional car trips a day to the road system. A world where every trip to work, shop, go to soccer practice or attend church requires two car trips and two parking spaces in impossible. There will never be the space or the money to build that many roads and those roads will be of little or no use to our working poor, disabled and elderly populations who can’t drive. Please read up on the proposed development and join us at Charleston City Hall at 4:45 pm today. http://www.live5news.com/...
I know you’re tired and you don’t have much confidence in the system any longer, but last week a US Congressman interrupted his day to wait on us and hold a 20 minute skype conference on public transit. When we get loud, things move. This work is hard, but sitting still in traffic on I26 while our cities burn will be harder. If I’m lucky, we’ll reach some people today online and at city hall. Hopefully, I’ll be able to catch the #40 bus home so I can tend my tomatoes. They’re up two feet and the grow in compost made out of the stuff we threw out of our kitchen last year.
You can turn garbage into fresh tomatoes and you can turn the problems we have no into a great new regional rapid transit system too. Let’s help each other.
11:31 AM PT: We've drafted a one page memo about the West Ashely development and how transit should be implemented there. We'll be handing out copies this evening. https://drive.google.com/...