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I think most of us are posting in regards to this post. Define “a lot”.
Tourists worldwide take subways, buses, taxis and Uber. A certain class of tourists come to Charleston. I have no doubt that a portion of the millions of tourists who come here annually will board our rapid bus transit system next to hotels when it is available and in their face. I can’t give you the percentage of those millions that we can expect to take advantage of the future RBT system. If too many take it the system will be adding buses to accommodate them. After all, there will be only so many buses, with only so much room.
Is there a city that even has a [rapid] bus system that is built especially for tourist/hotel stayers. I'm not talking a streetcar or hotel shuttle system, but an actual transit line? I cannot think of one, and ive been all over the place. I haven't seen this in Miami, which, would be one of the perfect cities in the US to put one.
They do have rail, but its for commuters. No tourist goes to Miami and gets on the rail, or on a bus. It's not practical, would take forever, and doesn't go to Miami Beach, the same way I doubt a Charleston bus would.
I think the additions to the airport are good, but this stuff for Charleston is just not realistic to me. I think airport/hotel shuttles can get the job done anyways. Why would a tourist want to sit on a bus - with luggage, when a bus would require multiple stops, and require them to probably have to walk when they get off? Rental car, Lyft, Uber, shuttle, taxi...all pretty Charleston friendly.
A train from the city to the airport, would be a dream. Even Salt Lake City has one of those, but, this is SC.
Keeping in mind my first mention of the rapid bus transit system was in response to a statement that North Charleston would take up the slack in new hotel construction:
“The line is also projected to spur mixed-use development along the route, and bring infrastructure improvements that include 18 miles of shared-use path, 34 pedestrian crosswalks, and 8.5 miles of reconstructed and new sidewalk.
“Councilman Sam Hart said the transit system is ‘badly needed’ to help address the region’s traffic woes.
“‘I think it’s a project a whole lot of people will benefit from,’ Hart said.
“The district, which is similar to the newly adopted Rivers Avenue South Overlay District that covers Durant Avenue to Success Street, includes building orientation requirements, an affordable housing incentive and a 12-foot-wide sidewalk.”
“Earlier this year, North Charleston City Council took the first step by adopting a new transit-oriented development zoning overlay for the section of Rivers from Durant Avenue south to Success Street. It calls for taller new buildings closer to the street, with a wide sidewalk area capable of providing for outdoor dining, small retail activity or better landscaping. The rezoning also provides a density bonus for development that includes affordable housing.
“Developers already are at work trying to figure out how to best take advantage of the new bus service, and make their investments appeal to those using the new buses.”
How much of this “game changer” new development will include hotels to “take up the slack” from downtown Charleston can’t be known right now, but wherever in the new development there are hotels, there will be a seamless option for guests to get downtown and back to see the sights, if they care to, and I believe many (lots) of them will.
And I apologize if no one subscribes to the P&C.
Last edited by Charlestondata; 08-13-2021 at 06:55 PM..
Keeping in mind my first mention of the rapid bus transit system was in response to a statement that North Charleston would take up the slack in new hotel construction:
“The line is also projected to spur mixed-use development along the route, and bring infrastructure improvements that include 18 miles of shared-use path, 34 pedestrian crosswalks, and 8.5 miles of reconstructed and new sidewalk.
“Councilman Sam Hart said the transit system is ‘badly needed’ to help address the region’s traffic woes.
“‘I think it’s a project a whole lot of people will benefit from,’ Hart said.
“The district, which is similar to the newly adopted Rivers Avenue South Overlay District that covers Durant Avenue to Success Street, includes building orientation requirements, an affordable housing incentive and a 12-foot-wide sidewalk.”
“Earlier this year, North Charleston City Council took the first step by adopting a new transit-oriented development zoning overlay for the section of Rivers from Durant Avenue south to Success Street. It calls for taller new buildings closer to the street, with a wide sidewalk area capable of providing for outdoor dining, small retail activity or better landscaping. The rezoning also provides a density bonus for development that includes affordable housing.
“Developers already are at work trying to figure out how to best take advantage of the new bus service, and make their investments appeal to those using the new buses.”
How much of this “game changer” new development will include hotels to “take up the slack” from downtown Charleston can’t be known right now, but wherever in the new development there are hotels, there will be a seamless option for guests to get downtown and back to see the sights, if they care to, and I believe many (lots) of them will.
And I apologize if no one subscribes to the P&C.
Everything sounds good until this last statement:
"How much of this “game changer” new development will include hotels to “take up the slack” from downtown Charleston can’t be known right now, but wherever in the new development there are hotels, there will be a seamless option for guests to get downtown and back to see the sights, if they care to, and I believe many (lots) of them will."
I do believe that commuters, mainly workers who can't afford to live downtown, might use a rapid bus system. I just don't see a lot of tourist/visitors doing so for most of the points already made. Maybe it would alleviate traffic downtown to a small degree and maybe it's worth the expenditures (I doubt it) but I think it's a fools errand to think it's going to be used much by tourists.
All I can say is that if I were staying in a hotel next to a nice, well advertised, express bus system with a covered station sitting there in my face in a strange city, and the advertising explained clearly with state-of-the-art graphics where to get off to spend my day touring historic Charleston by foot or by horse carriage, I would take advantage of it. But I am more cosmopolitan and more optimistic, including about Charleston’s future way of doing things, than the average person. I have to wait several years to see if 1) hotels will indeed be in the mix of new development there, and 2) reports say users of the RBT include guests in those hotels. I have no more to say on the matter.
Excuse me. I’ll only add that stops will include Meeting and Huger, the Charleston Visitors’ Center, and Calhoun and Coming, according to the latest map. I’d jump on it. That is all.
- what city in the US have you seen where you see this and it works? Again I brought up Miami and Miami Beach, which would be perfect, and Miami already has transit, and yet: no one does this. Rapid transit works best for commuters, even then its hard to get them on it.
Ive rode the light rail train from DEN to downtown. It was super convenient and beat taking a uber. But once I got downtown I was done with the train. I was not taking that, or a bus, around Denver, way too complicated and - time consuming. I cant think of any city where tourists are happily riding buses, even if theyre rapid, and I dont see how or why Charleston would be the first.
- Also where are these RBT lanes supposed to go? Since the point of rapid bus is to not get stuck in traffic, where are they putting these lanes? Theyre going to add lanes on I-26, especially on the overpass Neck section - just for a bus? You can say Rivers Ave, Savannah Hwy, Jonnie Dodds, King, Meeting, but...stoplights? Sidewalks? Right of ways? Taking a bus, rapid or not, from N Chas to Folly Beach...we seriously believe someone would actually do this? And that the government would actually put the infrastructure in place to make the trip not take all day? And that's not even considering all the stops along the way.
- Speaking of: all the stops, which rapid still has. Having to stop at everyone of those places sounds more annoying than interesting. And while downtown is obviously the main attraction, people still come to Charleston to go elsewhere. Seems like a car would, solve all of that.
Charleston will never be a NYC/Chicago/DC type, or even Miami type, and that's just how it is. But it can still get more "cosmopolitan" anyways, it just has to do it in ways that actually fits Charleston.
- what city in the US have you seen where you see this and it works? Again I brought up Miami and Miami Beach, which would be perfect, and Miami already has transit, and yet: no one does this. Rapid transit works best for commuters, even then its hard to get them on it.
Ive rode the light rail train from DEN to downtown. It was super convenient and beat taking a uber. But once I got downtown I was done with the train. I was not taking that, or a bus, around Denver, way too complicated and - time consuming. I cant think of any city where tourists are happily riding buses, even if theyre rapid, and I dont see how or why Charleston would be the first.
- Also where are these RBT lanes supposed to go? Since the point of rapid bus is to not get stuck in traffic, where are they putting these lanes? Theyre going to add lanes on I-26, especially on the overpass Neck section - just for a bus? You can say Rivers Ave, Savannah Hwy, Jonnie Dodds, King, Meeting, but...stoplights? Sidewalks? Right of ways? Taking a bus, rapid or not, from N Chas to Folly Beach...we seriously believe someone would actually do this? And that the government would actually put the infrastructure in place to make the trip not take all day? And that's not even considering all the stops along the way.
- Speaking of: all the stops, which rapid still has. Having to stop at everyone of those places sounds more annoying than interesting. And while downtown is obviously the main attraction, people still come to Charleston to go elsewhere. Seems like a car would, solve all of that.
Charleston will never be a NYC/Chicago/DC type, or even Miami type, and that's just how it is. But it can still get more "cosmopolitan" anyways, it just has to do it in ways that actually fits Charleston.
I’m not in the Charleston, North Charleston or RBT planning department, nor in the hotel industry, so I’ll just wait and see how it plays out in a few years, since I’ve already been “that guy” who said more on this topic after I said I was done.
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