Gas prices drive folks to take busMany more climb aboard CARTA buses to avoid taking cars The Post and Courier
Friday, May 2, 2008
Melissa Haneline Bus patrons line up to board the 7:39 a.m. CARTA Express bus Thursday at the bus stop on Rivers Avenue near Super Kmart in North Charleston. Go to www.ridecarta.com for a list of routes schedules and fares. Chara Williams stepped out of her 1996 Mitsubishi Galant early Thursday morning and watched her husband drive off, leaving her to wait for an Express bus to arrive at the Super Kmart in North Charleston. These days, the Ridgeville couple often carpools or she takes mass transit to work to save on gas costs. They have a 2002 Jeep Liberty, but they stopped driving their gas guzzler when pump prices hit $3 a gallon. "That's when we said enough is enough," Williams said. Nationally, gas prices are about $3.62 a gallon on average, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. South Carolinians are paying about $3.48 a gallon, up 34 cents from the state average recorded just a month ago. The Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority is seeing record ridership as pump prices continue to soar, largely because more penny-pinched people such as Williams are hopping aboard Express buses instead of driving to work. Ridership counts from October through February surpassed levels from 2001, when the transit system last saw its highest ridership levels before running into financial issues and cutting services drastically. From January to March alone, overall ridership counts rose from about 296,000 trips a month to nearly 313,000 trips a month. The commuter-friendly Express bus service is growing in popularity, as nearly twice as many trips were recorded in February, compared with the same time a year ago when the service launched. Williams decided to try out CARTA Express about six months ago when she and her husband ditched their SUV and bought an older-model sedan that she said is much easier on their pockets. They even canceled their insurance on the Jeep. "I parked it," Williams said. "It will not move." Express riders have reported saving as much as $200 a month by riding the bus instead of driving, transit officials said. "I haven't paid for gas in, like, two and a half weeks. It's nice," said North Charleston's Elizabeth Sneed , who boarded an Express bus at Citadel Mall Wednesday. She said she saves about $100 a month by taking the bus. Both Williams and Sneed work at the Medical University of South Carolina. The majority of Express bus riders are from the medical university or the College of Charleston. The schools buy bus passes in bulk. Howard Chapman, executive director of the transportation authority, said the medical school is offering monthly Express bus passes to its employees for $5, paying the cost difference for the passes to free up parking spaces. Chapman said several factors have helped boost the bus system's ridership, such as more reliability, outreach efforts in local communities and the addition of new services, such as neighborhood shuttles and CARTA Express. "The gasoline prices certainly have an impact, as they do on us," Chapman added. Transit officials are considering raising rates on all routes to help cover rising fuel costs. If approved, Charleston's transit authority would charge a base fare of $1.50, which is comparable with some other major Southeastern cities. But apparently transit officials don't expect ridership to dip much from the potential new rates. The bus system's board recently approved paying about $140,000 to buy 10 used commuter buses for the Express service. The buses would be added to existing Express routes approaching full capacity and would be used for expanding the commuter service to Summerville. Chapman said they hope to get funding for the expansion through federal money and possibly local matches. He said the Summerville route could be added as soon as this fall, if they secure about $240,000 to $270,000. Summerville Town Council and Dorchester County Council have declined to contribute toward the costs. Reach Tenisha Waldo at 937-5744 or twaldo@postandcourier.com. |
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Comments
This article has 19 comment(s)
Posted by suec on May 2, 2008 at 8:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I cannot waituntil the park n ride on Mointague is finished. I'll be on the CARTA eExpress too. Gas prices are not the only reason. It also means I get to sit back and let the bus driver deal with traffic and crazy commuters. I can read a book or just relax.
Posted by jk_newhard on May 2, 2008 at 8:08 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I ride the CARTA express bus and feel a few comments are in order.
"The majority of Express bus riders are from the medical university or the College of Charleston. The schools buy bus passes in bulk." Therefore, the institutions do support the express buses. Would you rather have 300 (conservatively - CARTA keeps adding "pusher" buses on the express routes due to demand) additional cars on I-26 every morning and afternoon?
I have never understood why more Americans don't avail themselves of public transportation. Who wants to drive in bumper to bumper traffic instead of reading or napping while someone else drives? It also saves money by conserving gas and preventing wear and tear on your vehicle.
Next of all, we do have oil/gas supply issues in this country that are due to a combination of factors from both the left and right. But the fundamental problem is that oil is a finite resource and demand has been growing exponentially.
Finally, illegal immigration is a non-issue here - does it have to be brought up all the time?
Posted by LadyTarHeel on May 2, 2008 at 8:09 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I ride the CARTA express at least three times a week! I LOVE IT!! I use the commute time to read those research papers that I dread so much before lab meeting or journal club. Or I can squeeze in one of those coveted power naps:o)
Early: You must be goin past the regular CARTA buses. They are usually empty, but the express bus, especially the one going to or coming from West Ashley, is usually packed. And MUSC does have it's own buses, but they are used to transport people from off site parking lots to the down town campus since parking downtown is at such a high premium.
Posted by theronce on May 2, 2008 at 8:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
We are in a country blessed with plenty of oil and will not drill for it. When the price gets high enough, that will change. Oh, it may be wise to plant a garden again.
Posted by desspec on May 2, 2008 at 8:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Gas prices are up 25% in a year; CARTA will raise their rate to $1.50. Nothing was said in the article of a percentage increase in the number of riders ...
Posted by Beerkrugul on May 2, 2008 at 8:32 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I would like to see a bus service from Moncks Corner to Kmart on rivers ave.
Posted by toastchee on May 2, 2008 at 9:10 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Those of us on daniel island/clements ferry are SOL. can we please get a route that stops on clements ferry ?
Posted by suec on May 2, 2008 at 9:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)
There is a park and ride in Mt Pleasant.
Posted by Girleygirl on May 2, 2008 at 10:34 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I will be the first person in line when the bus comes through Summerville. I will gladly drive my car from Ladson to wherever in Summerville and hop my happy tail on this bus to get me to my job downtown.
Posted by Rebel_Yell on May 2, 2008 at 10:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)
There are some bitter and ignorant people on this thread who don't know what it means to be American. They would prefer to be isolationist and ignore all global trends. They should never have any power over anyone. Keep flipping burgers and blaming everyone else for your problems, see how far it gets you in life. Know it alls who really know nothing.
Posted by Donna920 on May 2, 2008 at 11:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I ride the bus everyday to work, and I do appreciate the savings, however the service is getting worse. Every day there are standees every afternoon going from downtown to N.Charleston, and 3 busses with a handful of people going from downtown to Mt. Pleasant. CARTA never answers our calls or e-mails, yet whenever they're quoted in the paper they make it sound like they know how we feel and are doing something about it.
Early: Either your seeing the city bus, or the express going to Mt. Pleasant.
Posted by theronce on May 2, 2008 at 12:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Bus routes are limited now. However, there is nothing to stop anyone from putting together a car pool. Just one more person halves the cost of gas.
Posted by prosperous_hb on May 2, 2008 at 1:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Beerkrugul....you may want to checkout RTMA in Moncks Corner. I think they have routes that go to Charleston. I think there is also something called Tricounty Link.
Posted by Reader on May 2, 2008 at 2:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)
JK_Newhard was right on the money on some comments. But let me add something. JK wrote, "I have never understood why more Americans don't avail themselves of public transportation."
The answer is that urban planning prevents it these days. In major cities, public transportation is comprehensive - you can take a bus/tain/subway from any point to almost any other downtown point with not more than a mile of walking and on a very frequent basis. But even in New York or Washington, the system falls apart if you get outside the dense sections of town.
Suburban sprawl makes public transportation impossible. Imagine if a bus had to go up and down every cul de sac in the Brickyard Plantation. When you then think that there has to be a relatively direct route to all of the possible destinations, you can see the problem. Big cities achieve that with lots of intersecting routes.
If Joe wanted to leave his house in Charleston National, shop at the Tanger Outlets, and visit a friend in some new cookie cutter development on Johns Island, it would take him three days of bus travel and walking to and from stops. If he wanted to shop at a random store on Rivers Ave., the matter would be even worse.
As a result, the best the local public transportation can offer is a few feeder lines that collect people at remote lots and get them to major destinations. Once you are at a major spot (like Towne Center in Mt. Pleasant), there are almost no other options for getting to nearby communities.
Posted by scienceguy on May 2, 2008 at 2:45 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Girleygirl:
An RTMA bus goes from Monck's Corner through Summerville and to the K-Mart Monday through Friday every week. It gets to Summerville Town Square every day about 7:00 a. m.
Posted by Girleygirl on May 2, 2008 at 3:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Thank you Science guy- I will check that out!
Posted by letstakeawalk on May 2, 2008 at 4:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Archdude
The CARTA buses run on diesel. If we could get them to switch to a less polluting fuel, I would be all for it. The soot collects on my siding, and I have to wash it off a couple times a year. Nasty, gritty, particulate crud. When I'm behind one on my bike, I sometimes wish a had a gas-mask on...
Posted by rmsems on May 2, 2008 at 5:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
well guys, I work in Europe right now. Gas costs me 13.91 per gallon. I wrote the following to CNN where the so-called journalist came up with 8 USD for a gallon here:
I have no clue how you arrived at a lousy 8 USD for a gallon of gas much around Europe. Here in Germany we pay 2.45 EUR per liter. 1 liter is .264172051 gallons and 1 gallon is 3.7854 liters. Now, just use 1.5 to convert Euro into USD. Let's see, that makes 3.675 USD per liter gas and 13.91 USD per gallon.
We all would be very happy for you to show us 8 USD/gallon gas prices. They do NOT exist, unless you travel to Poland or one of the other newer European Union Nations and there is no more regular gas in most of Europe, only super or super plus.
I must say, thank God for public transport here. I costs 100 USD to go to Berlin from here and takes 1 hour and 15 minutes with the high speed train, takes me 3.5 hours with the car and I spend about 300 USD in gas.
I hope public transport will come more widely available, more efficient. Just think if we had high speed trains going to NY in less than five hours?
Posted by blk_avenger on May 2, 2008 at 8:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)
tripsa,
I'm not claiming to be a political expert,but why are you always blaming the leftist. If my memory is correct, didn't we have a majority republican senate and house and yet nothing changed. Stop following the talk radio nonsense and realize none of those guys in washington care about us. They only care about lining their own pockets before they retire.