Folly Beach looking into bringing new transportation service

FOLLY BEACH, SC (WCSC) -

The City of Folly Beach is talking about the possibility of bringing a new transportation service to the Edge of America.

The Mayor of Folly Beach said it would be catered towards the workforce on Folly Beach, and would bring employees off and on the island without the struggle of finding parking and adding to the traffic.

“We’re very early in the process of working with the town,” said CARTA spokesperson Daniel Brock.

Mayor Tim Goodwin said he met with CARTA a few days ago about the possibility of bringing a park and ride service to Folly Beach, similar to the HOP transportation service that recently began for employees on the Charleston peninsula.

In the last month Brock said HOP has had 9,300 riders and averages 300 riders per day.

“The type of bus service that would most be likely on Folly Beach would be a park and ride where you have a parking area on the mainland that people can take a CARTA bus from over to Folly Beach which would help with the parking situation and free up space,” said Brock.

Goodwin said it would be an advantage for people live off Folly Beach, and provide a way for people who use the transportation system to have a way on and off the island.

Goodwin said it would also help alleviate parking issue.

“When you try to keep everybody concentrated on Center Street, it gets real tough to find and parking space,” said Goodwin.

Goodwin said this will also keep more people off the road, in turn helping with the issue of traffic.

“In the south, using public transportation has never been one of those things,” said Goodwin. “As more and more people move here and the roads get more and more congested and people say what’s happened, we need to build more roads or more public transportation. Now it’s time to start thinking of our friends to the north who use trains and buses." 

One Folly Beach manager said this type of transportation system geared toward workers could benefit employees who work on the island.“I think it would help out a lot. We always have issues getting employees to the beach. It would definitely help with traffic,” said Taco Boy Manager Chris Jump.CARTA is in the early phase of starting research and studies, in the form of a survey to see if there’s a need or want for the transportation system.From there, it will come down to funding and resources.“We’ll have to see what the data and survey says perhaps there isn’t the appetite that we think there is for it, perhaps there is but let’s get those numbers in first and we’ll go from there,” said Brock.There is no word on a timeframe of when the surveys would be administered.

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