Collaboration is key to fill gaps in local transportation
Transportation may be the most crucial challenge facing the Upstate’s growth and prosperity.
Our communities need better connectivity and mobility between affordable housing, available jobs, and important daily activities. Years ago, a major city transit leader identified the key for successful public connectivity:
“One hand must wash the other.” Collaboration is necessary.
Key players in Greenville agree on the importance of mobility, including employers, human service agencies, university and workforce leaders, and the County Redevelopment Authority.
Carolina RIDES+[i] is a proactive consortium working to improve moving people from housing to first/last mile destinations using rideshare to deliver missing transportation solutions. RIDES+ leaders work to make mobility better for everyone, especially underserved people with low incomes or special needs. The RIDES+ team includes collaborative innovators, dedicated volunteers, and essential workers to deliver simple, yet audacious mobility solutions with long-term impact.
Workforce leaders see needs. An employer representative told me recently that if RIDES+ could provide convenient, dependable, cost-effective rides, he could fill the vehicles’ seats.
As the Upstate’s largest provider of services to people experiencing homelessness, Miracle Hill Ministries serves 400 guests daily through its facilities in Greenville. Tim Brown, VP of Adult Ministries, said: “Once our guests become stable and ready for employment, our greatest challenges are affordable housing, employment, and transportation. It is important to have affordable transportation options for our guests.”
Greenville could be a leader in multimodal mobility innovation research and development. A local university professor has described potential for his students to study RIDES+ trip data, assess different technologies and human behaviors, validate improvements, and identify standards for equipment safety and performance to improve mobility for all.
Greenville’s local governments, agencies, and charities identify fantastic goals for our community on websites and in local media. They express desires to create strong pathways to career opportunities that pay a living wage and uplift low-income residents. Providing reliable, efficient transportation is often identified as the missing key factor. Many acknowledge a common problem: Public transportation hasn’t kept up with our county’s growth. Distances to bus stops, long wait times and limited hours of availability make it difficult for many to use available public transportation. We need more investment in transit options to connect our neighbors to education, jobs, support systems and a brighter future.
Increasing transport and funding options improves connectivity and helps families overcome barriers to economic success.
The Greenville County Redevelopment Authority (GCRA) is one community organization that sees the necessity of a solution. Executive director John Castile is a leading voice on Greenville’s affordable housing needs. He reports GCRA’s primary focus is creating affordable housing units throughout the county, but limited accessible public transportation is a major problem. Castile sees Carolina RIDES+ rideshare solutions as providing much-needed options to bridge the gap between affordable housing and vital services like jobs, education and child care.
Some area organizations are committed supporters. Upstate Warrior Solution, Sustaining Way in Nicholtown, Miracle Hill Ministries, and World Relief Upstate have teamed with RIDES+ to improve client services and help people needing rides to important activities. Our agency needs more community collaborators to improve our network of support.
Improved transportation options means employers get more employees to work, medical providers get better access for employees and patients to health care facilities, educational institutions get students to schools, child-care centers get little ones dropped off, and social service providers connect constituents to essential services. Everyone wins.
Former County Councilman Fred Payne is the chair of nonprofit CA4 Innovation Charities, dba as Carolina Rides+, which leads a collaborative consortium proposing to deliver innovative mobility for all in Greenville. For more information, contact Fred.Payne@ca4i.org.