Free rides for pump dumpersBy Anna Harmon (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Friday, June 20, 2008
Ashley Garner Anissa La Porte glances out the window of a CARTA bus Thursday on 'Dump the Pump' day. Video
There was another day of traveling the bus for free, so Anna Harmon went for a ride ... Watch » Free bus rides anyone? OK, let's try again. Who wants to save more than $1,800 a year? According to the transit savings calculator on CARTA's Web site, drivers who have a 24-mile round-trip commute, with gas at about $4 a gallon, can save that much by riding a bus. So, to observe national "Dump the Pump" day Thursday, all rides were free. Green tape blocked coin slots and ticket readers. Bus drivers handed out "I rode CARTA today" stickers. "Put your change in your pocket, man!" a bus driver shouted to a passenger who was jangling quarters outside the bus. The Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority's "prize patrol" cruised randomly by bus stops, passing out free water bottles and bags. But behind this celebratory facade, there's a real question: Will freedom-loving drivers sacrifice their car-fueled independence to save money? According to Christine Wilkinson, transit administrator for CARTA, there has been a 20 percent increase in ridership in the past year. Carolyn Page, a first-time rider, came all the way from McClellanville to a park-and-ride lot in Mount Pleasant. She said she'd been thinking about trying out public transportation and, because it was free, thought, "Why not?" "I'm figuring I could save half my gas," she said. Chris Simpson, headed for Blue Ion downtown on the bus, said he's pleased to think that he and his wife are saving at least a couple hundred dollars a month by taking the bus. "Ever since the gas went up, it's been packed. Standing room only," he said as he stood in the aisle. Angela Gathers, who said she's been riding the bus all her life, enjoys time to "get her mind together" while riding to work. "I think a lot of people have a problem with the routes," she said of why some don't ride the bus. Dolly Hope of the Medical University of South Carolina, who has been riding an Express route regularly since last July, said she has called the CARTA office many times for late or "missing" buses. Yet when asked if riding CARTA was worth it, she said, "Oh yeah." According to Wilkinson, as of 2007, CARTA finally is running to its full potential. Local funding is giving the system a chance to grow, she said, which hopefully will result in more state funding. Maybe one day, CARTA can work on clearer communication of routes, stops and timetables. Or precise arrival times. But for riders, despite complaints or qualms, the pluses can outweigh the minuses — savings at the end of the month and no driving. Reach Anna Harmon at 937-5502 or aharmon@ postandcourier.com. |
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Comments
This article has 11 comment(s)
Posted by JourneyOn on June 20, 2008 at 6:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Would love to save the money but it would take my wife 3 hours to get to and from work instead of 40 minutes. Surely they can come up with some more direct routes. Just follow the stream of traffic every morning.
Posted by flowerchild55 on June 20, 2008 at 9:21 a.m. (Suggest removal)
During the 1950's and 60's we rode the bus everywhere. My mother did not drive so it was our only form of transportation. You knew the routes and where you had to transfer. While the commute may have been longer, it was still convenient.
The system now is not as efficient as it used to be. If more people utilized the transit system, it would become self sufficient and they could offer more options. With the gas prices rising, we need to find alternative means of transportation. Until we show a need and support this system it will not improve.
Posted by suec on June 20, 2008 at 9:37 a.m. (Suggest removal)
You can't please everyone.
Posted by ashleyatwork on June 20, 2008 at 2:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Cities were more concentrated back then. Everyone worked "in town" now a days with sprawl we work and live in thousands of different places, miles and miles apart.
It cannot work without a MAJOR revamp and 100's of pickup and drop off stops.
Posted by STREETLAW on June 20, 2008 at 2:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)
CARTA is socialized wheelfare. It's the taxpayers who are being taken for a ride, and there is nothing free about it. Thing about mass transit is that you need a mass that wants to be transited.
As it stands now the Charleston Area seems to extend to wherever the Columbia area begins. Anyone who thinks CARTA is behaving responsibly is delusional.
Ah, but I could be wrong. Let CARTA give an accurate accounting to be published in the Post and Courier every month that shows the cost per passenger mile after deduction of fares. I don't expect CARTA to actually turn a profit, but I bet the cost of operations is 10 times the amount taken in fares. Perhaps more.
And if CARTA won't do this voluntarily, perhaps the Post and Courier might request the information under FOI and publish it for the world to see.
Posted by zoomru on June 20, 2008 at 4:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Using machines at www.startech.net to SELL our trashes energy and harnessing OUR coastal winds with windturbines from GE and www.superturbine.net plus using the 34 tons of nuclear fuel in AIKEN; we would have the power to run OUR statewide elevated MAG-LEV mass transit system found when you google "SKYTRAN". We need teamwork in this state and a VISION from all LEVELS of Government working TOGETHER?!
ARE WE GOING TO LEAD THE NATION IN SOMETHING???? ONE THING?? WHAT???
Posted by jeff61 on June 20, 2008 at 8:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Yea, I need to get from Goose Creek to the Weapons Station and back with in a reasonable amount of time. Can This service offer that. If not then what is the point.
Posted by charlestonnative1963 on June 20, 2008 at 11:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Will you idiots stop gripping about taxes...what exactly do you want...in order to pay for services that you can either take advantage of or not most have to subsidized. All industrialized nations have tax payer trasnportation. This state pays LITTLE in taxes compared to others across the US. But on the other hand they have good public transportation, good schools, good roads, a library that does not close at 8:00 PM when most people cant get to it. If it worked out with routes and time I would love to pay $5.00 a day to ride a bus rather than the 20 bucks i am paying daily now. But why dont you just whine some more
Posted by charlestonnative1963 on June 20, 2008 at 11:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
PS::: I can more than afford to pay to drive, but with the crazy drivers we have now--its better to take a bus than risk riding around with the nuts on the road today
Posted by STREETLAW on June 21, 2008 at 12:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Yeh native, but like the old saying goes, if ifs and buts were candy and nuts we'd all have a Merry Christmas. And as to someone who hides behind a nom de plume and calls people idiots because they want some accountablility from the bureaucrats, I'm not sure that is the kind of civil discourse the Post and Courier had in mind for this venue.
Posted by rollo on June 21, 2008 at 7:18 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Flowerchild55
The "Golden days" of rapid transit you refer to were provided by a private entity, SCE&G. CARTA has never been efficient or prompt with their service because they don't have to be. It doesn't help their cause either when they get in the way (riding in the passing lane on I-26) of other traffic.