Can local partnerships improve public transportation in Beaufort County?

Without a car but need a ride to work or the doctors office?

Sometime in the not too distant future you might not have to rely on time-consuming bus trips or expensive Uber fares.

Staff with Beaufort County’s Human Services Alliance have unveiled a neighborhood-based transportation concept powered by local employers, nonprofit groups and churches operating shuttles or small buses that could connect far-flung portions of the county.

During a meeting with the Beaufort County Council’s Community Services Committee, human services director Fred Leyda compared transit networks to the human body’s circulatory system.

The aorta — the body’s largest blood vessel — represents transportation along major roads, such as U.S. 278. Mass transit on those routes is provided by Palmetto Breeze, he said. Branching off of the aorta are arteries, veins and capillaries, representing smaller residential roads.

As with housing, affordable transportation “is a topic that comes up over and over and over again,” he said.

“(W)e have nothing that acts as capillaries and veins,” he said.

Times and locations for existing bus routes are limited. For example, some routes in the Sheldon area pick up at just after 5 a.m. but don’t return until after 7 p.m., Leyda said.

And for the existing mass transit system, that’s not likely to change. Assistant human services manager Ben Boswell told county leaders it is “simply not cost effective to send a bus out to pick up a single person” in rural areas.

Widening the transportation network

To solve this problem, the Human Services Alliance is proposing a “neighbor to neighbor” transportation network of shuttles or small buses operated by local employers, nonprofit groups and churches.

It’s not a new idea in South Carolina. In Horry County, a network with more than 200 volunteer drivers is thriving, Leyda said.

Locally, the hope is to partner with organizations to shuttle passengers from hard-to-reach residential areas — the capillaries — to main routes such as U.S. 278.

The “neighbor to neighbor” concept is already operating in the county at a small scale through organizations such as Hilton Head Island Safe Harbor, Caring Neighbors in Bluffton, and a consortium of churches north of the Broad River, Leyda said. But the hope is to greatly expand the network by getting major employers such as resort and restaurant groups on board, he said.

Leyda suggested the possibility of partnering with the Technical College of the Lowcountry or the University of South Carolina Beaufort, “which have north and south campuses to operate a shuttle that could move (passengers) back and forth.”

The Human Services Alliance plans to pitch the concept to employers at the Sustainable Resort Development Conference this September on Hilton Head Island.

The aim is “helping them see the connection between their bottom line and the quality of life” of local employees, Leyda said.

The idea appears to have support from county leaders.

“I like the concept,” County Councilman Gerald Dawson said earlier this week. “It looks like a workable solution to some of our transportation needs.”

This story was originally published July 25, 2017 at 4:07 PM with the headline "Can local partnerships improve public transportation in Beaufort County?."