CARTA customers still driving long distances

EDWARD C. FENNELL
The Post and Courier

Reid Melton of Summerville hands out fliers aboard a CARTA Express bus picking up passengers in North Charleston. Melton is organizing Summerville residents to push elected officials to provide funding for two express routes linking Summerville to Charleston. Chiquitta Douglas (left) lives in St. Stephen but said she has co-workers at MUSC who could use an express to Summerville.

EDWARD C. FENNELL
The Post and Courier

On a chilly morning, with dawn just beginning to break, a CARTA Express Bus headed to Charleston fills up at the Super Kmart parking lot in North Charleston. Many who catch the bus in North Charleston drive to the bus stop from Summerville, which may get its own express bus line if funding plans come together.

It's predawn at the Super Kmart parking lot in North Charleston, but scores of people already are waiting for CARTA Express buses that will ferry them to jobs in Charleston.

Though these commuters say they take the bus to avoid having to drive to work, many of them drive long distances each day just to meet the bus, from places including St. Stephen, Ridgeville and Summerville.

"I don't really save any time, but it saves me a lot on gas," Summerville's Beth Rhoton, whose destination is the Medical University of South Carolina, said while waiting in the darkness for a bus.

She said she rises each day at 4:40 a.m. in order to get to the North Charleston bus stop on time. When she drove herself to work, she could sleep a little later and get on the road by 6 a.m.

"It does lengthen my day a lot," she confided. "I am saving gas and not having to deal with the frustration of driving. I can sit back and relax while the bus driver has to cope with the traffic."

John Scott, whose daily destination is Roper Hospital, also drives from his Summerville home to the bus connection in North Charleston. It simplifies the commute and the hunt for scarce and expensive downtown parking. It reduces gas consumption "and the stress from driving in the traffic," he said.

Scott said that before he chose to ride the bus, he had to not only navigate rush hour traffic, but "park at The Citadel, take a van to a bus and then take a bus to work."

Reid Melton of Summerville is retired from federal civil service jobs and doesn't have to commute to Charleston or anywhere else. But his wife, Tricia Melton, an occupational therapist at the Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Administration Medical Center in Charleston, still faces a daily commute.

Reid Melton, who has launched a campaign to get at least one and maybe two commuter bus lines for Summerville, said it's crazy that his wife and hundreds of their neighbors have to drive 15 to 20 minutes into North Charleston to catch a bus.

Although Summerville Town Council and Dorchester County Council both declined to provide local matching funds needed to expand the CARTA Express to Summerville, funding from other sources may be falling into place.

About $430,000 is needed to put the Dorchester Road Express into service, said Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority Executive Director Howard Chapman.

Chapman said CARTA hopes to get half the money needed from the Federal Transit Administration's Job Access and Reverse Commute program, which the state Department of Transportation announces in May.

The $43,000 in local matching funds needed to secure the federal money has been approved by the S.C. House, but the state Senate has not acted on the funding, Chapman said.

On April 16, CARTA approved $140,000 to purchase 10 used buses from the California-based Golden Gate Bridge and Transit, and transport and refurbish the buses for use on a Summerville/Dorchester Road express route. CARTA has leased a park-and-ride location in the Oakbrook area at Trolley and Dorchester roads, he said.

If CARTA gets all the money needed by this summer, buses could start serving Summerville this fall, Chapman said.

For about $96,000 more in matching funds, a second Summerville bus route, operating from the Heritage Square shopping center on U.S. Highway 78, could be arranged, Melton said. But people need to advise their elected officials that they think the expenditure is worthwhile, he added.

Elected officials are the hardest to convince that money should be spent on mass transit, Melton said. "We need a grass-roots movement to tell elected officials that it's OK to do what they think is the right thing anyway," he said.

Melton, who said about half of the 300 cars he counted at the North Charleston bus stop come from Summerville, is convinced that "the perfect storm is coming together for mass transit."

A sluggish economy, soaring gas prices, worsening traffic congestion and concerns for environmental issues together all point to public transportation as the answer, Melton said.

Melton, who served in the Army and became familiar with European mass transit systems before entering careers with the Veterans Administration and the Bureau of Prisons, spoke this month at a Summerville Town Council meeting. He has met with Chapman and spoken privately to town and County Council members.

Last week, he contacted commuters at the Super Kmart parking area and passed out fliers aimed at revving up support for twin park-and-ride bus stops in Summerville.

"We are looking for people who are willing to help fill up the chambers at town and county council meetings," to sign petitions and e-mail, telephone or write to their representatives supporting CARTA Express, his fliers state.

As the need for mass transit grows nationwide, Melton said, there will be more and more competition for scarcer federal dollars needed to make it possible. Summerville needs to get in the game now and be open to the idea of a commuter rail link to Charleston, he said.

Some commuters will never take the bus, he conceded, but even they will be happy that the bus is getting more cars off the road.

"The day of dependence on the auto for jobs and school is over. If we don't provide an alternative, the values of our homes and farms start to die," he warned.

For more information on CARTA, see www.ridecarta.com, or call 724-7420. Contact Melton at summervillebus@live.com.