Mount Pleasant, SC- On September 23rd. the last in a series of Public Meetings on SC plan for transpiration for the next 25 years will be held on Daniel Island.
The meeting is being held on an Island that has virtually no public transit access and can't be reached on bicycle or on foot. We're going anyway because Charleston needs to be sure the progress and energy behind making the car optional here gets communicated to our autocentric State Government. We'll be providing rides from CARTA Superstop in Charleston to the meeting. Details on the meeting and plan can be found on the Hungryneck Straphangers Website: http://hungryneckstraphangers.com/...
The SC Coastal Conservation League has generously offered to help fund the cost of the shuttle. Offers of support have come in from all sorts of environmental and mobility organizations to help promote and support the effort, which will include a press event the previous day on Charleston's historic Market Street with horses and carriages in the background.
This series of meetings begins in Columbia, on Tuesday, Sept. 8 and the Midlands Transit Riders Assn. will be sending a delegation. The SC Progressive Network is assisting in notifying activists across the state.
While the public transit component of the plan contained dozens of pages of detailed data on where public transpiration in SC was in 2011, the elements addressing what the actual need in SC is or how mobility for the half of our population which does not drive an automobile lacks commitment and detail. The two year old information being relied on, misses hundreds of thousands of additional rides taken on transit here in the past two years, including approximately a million additional rides taken last year in the Charleston Area and the huge progress made in the Midlands after activists helped pass a referendum to rebuild their now busy transit system. The future recommendations, aside from some citizen's comments included, are largely generalized aspirations. A solid set of priorities backed by a commitment or resources is missing.
When contrasted with the sections of this plan devoted to automobiles, it's clear the State DOT isn't preparing to shift our system to one where some of the population can choose to live free of the burden of operating and paying for an automobile, a staggering expense for families dependent on our state's low wages. This massive shift will be taking place across the United States over the next quarter century, at the end of which full time ownership of a gas powered automobile may just be an expensive hobby for some people, like owning a horse is today. It appears the SCDOT wants the streets of our Towns and Cities crammed with gasoline powered vehicles until the ocean covers them in about 100-175 years, depending on where exactly you are.
It's a safe bet sea level rise isn't as big a concern in Columbia as it is in the Lowcountry. I suppose they plan to drive to the beach at Orangeburg when it is 110 degrees in the future.
We're planning several events to highlight the need to change direction in transpiration planning in SC in response to this statewide process..We hope to use this opportunity to help focus the many different groups working on transportation alternatives here in the Charleston area in a way which reaches the planners at the Department of Transportation and our elected office during an election year.
Please share this with your fellow activists, elected officials and neighbors. We'll update our web page as the date approaches for the meeting, which we believe we'll be able to help everyone get to who is able to use CARTA to travel to Superstop.
We've just updated the webpage with links and a downloadable, printable flyer which we've already distributed to over 300 people at events around the Charleston area.
Full details at: http://hungryneckstraphangers.com/...