CARTA

Charleston s public transportation system is n
Pratically non existent. If you live in goose creek, summerville, actually anywhere besides downtown, you won’t find a bus stop. Let alone they won’t travel to you, cause no stops exist. If you don’t have a car, well good luck trying to get to your job. Even the taxi cabs here are redicolous and over priced. Charleston is deff for the rich and well off

Even though the Nash Express Bus was 20 minutes late due to a traffic incident, someone came over and let us know that a traffic light had gone out and the bus was about five minutes late. The bus driver was absolutely fantastic! She apologized to everyone getting on the bus, explaining the situation. Safe as well. Thank you for making the experience as good as possible given the unfortunate traffic light mishap! Experience from 10÷26÷15, 8:26 bus from visitor’s center, bus number 4001.

As a frequent tourist of cities worldwide, I really appreciate a good public transportation system. Charleston’s got it with CARTA!
The #4 express bus ($ 3.50/pp) makes it really simple to get to/​from the airport and downtown. From the visitors center at John and Meeting, you can grab a free shuttle on one of 3 routes.
Two thumbs up, CARTA!

The trolleys around downtown charleston are awesome, help you take advantage of your day and cut down unnecessary walking, and they run fairly often depending on what color line you are taking.
I also rode bus 11 to and from the airport. It takes about an hour, but it’s $ 1.75 and comes on time. Also you get to see the real residents and grittier parts of Charleston to give you an all around perspective on the city.

FREE rides up and down and highlights of downtown Charleston. The only catch is if its full you gotta wait for the next bus. The buses are 15 – 20 minutes apart. 3 different lines goes to 3 different areas. The free bus takes you to the old market and also to the aquarium.
4 stars for it being FREE for everyone.

This review is based on my experience this evening, July 23, 2013, only as I think CARTA needs to be aware of exactly how put out I am about this situation. As a local I know Charleston is decades behind other similarly sized cities with regard to mass transportation and I’ve always advocated for improving the system. Given this mindset, since I am now working downtown I decided to at least given CARTA a chance. Tonight as I write this I am shaking my head wondering what winter wonderland I was in to think this was a good idea.
I can give the system a benefit of a doubt regarding the first 30 minutes of this fiasco as there was a tree down on Meeting Street near the Firehouse at Wentworth. However, I made it to my bus stop in time for connection and then my connection was late. Being late I can even understand given rushhour traffic. What I CANNOT accept is the fact the #2 Express that runs to Citadel Mall was booking down Meeting Street at least 30 MPH in the left lane without any attempts or consideration of little me sitting at the appropriate stop. This ticks me off!!! To simply tell dispatch you didn’t pick anyone up – you didn’t make one move to stop and see if anyone was waiting for you as you were driving entirely too fast and in the wrong lane to pick anyone is beyond the pale — is beyond the pale. I realize FEW people use this stop, but it is a marked option for this route and as long as it is an authorized stop you should ALWAYS make sure that those waiting are not waiting for you instead of assuming no one uses this stop. Otherwise, CARTA needs to remove this stop as an option.
The only reason why this review even deserves one star is dispatch was pleasant and the gentleman driving the 301 was kind enough to wait for me to walk to Mary Street from the Visitors Center so I was not stuck waiting another 20 to 30 minutes for the next bus.
CARTA and Charleston County need to wake-​up and smell the coffee. Yes, we need mass transit, but as long as behavior like this is tolerated locals will continue to avoid CARTA like the plague it apparently is.
I will admit this review is of one day and one driver whom I cannot ID since she (yes I could make out it was a woman driving) didn’t bother to pick me up. If I decide to try CARTA again instead of giving the remaining rides I have away I might upgrade my review if something like this doesn’t happen again.

Just a visitor, but I have to say I am impressed. Kudos to you, Charleston, for having the good sense to make your downtown buses free! It speeds up the process of embarking, clears up congestion in busy areas and improves bus’ timeliness. I’m in town to give a presentation on sustainability, so it’s exciting to see a move towards effective, sustainable transport.
Clean and early, I loved the ride in the trolly-​like bus. Only down side are the wicked uncomfortable wooden seats!

I’ve ridden various CARTA services for years. The #40 bus to and from Mt. Pleasant operates on time and is a reliable ride to and from downtown. It’s clean and the new low entry buses, which have lower floors than the older buses in the CARTA fleet are easier to get on and off of.
The Express Service is very efficient and popular. I don’t ride that often since I live close to the city, but many people do.
The Downtown DASH buses are now free, thanks to tourism tax funding from the City. The real advantage of this is that it speeds up operations since people don’t hold up things paying. One new trolley type bus has an interactive, location aware computer kiosk on it which informs visitors about what is ahead along the route.
Ridership on CARTA increased by 3% last year despite budget cuts and there has been a steady, determined effort to improve service, put in more stop shelters and improve on time performance.

I feel bad for anyone who depends on CARTA in any way, shape, or form.
CARTA is by far the worst public transportation system I’ve ever encountered– the last time I rode on a CARTA bus, I was coming back from the Folly Beach area, and while on Folly Rd, our bus driver just randomly decided to –without saying a word to anyone– stop the bus, get out, and disappear for about 20 minutes. The old lady in the back ogling her newfound thrift store finds and I were nowhere near where we needed to be and almost even became friends in our frustration. it was getting bad.
So, 20 minutes later, the bus driver comes back, with a bag from Chik Fil A. WHAT? I made an awkward joke about how he shouldve let me know so I could have him grab me something too, and he just sat there and ate his food, while Thrift Lady and I waited for him to finish. I got back about 35 – 40 minutes past the time I was supposed to get back and ended up being late to the event I was supposed to attend that evening.
CARTA, you kind of suck. A lot. Consider my one star for you generous.

wait, we have public transportation again? could’ve fooled me. remember when the busses just stopped running a couple years ago? somehow no one thought that was odd, and then we had to add a half-​cent to our sales tax just to bring public trans back (but due to the legal wording, that half cent didn’t actually have to be allocated to carta, so once again, carta, it’s a crapshoot).
although…i’m starting to think maybe we were on to something. after all, when those mega-​polluting death-​mobiles weren’t clogging up the roadway, zipping around traffic was a lot easier. so next time i’m stuck behind some giant belching slow-​moving box, i’ll console myself with the fact that there are only, like, five of them.
i’m sorry. i mean, it would be nice to live in a world where there’s reliable, clean public transportation (it’s called belgium), but this is charleston, where we think it would be «socialist» if we expected anything back for our tax dollars (that would be called «government interference»). no, we’d rather just throw our tax dollars away (i mean, give them to the government — i mean halliburton) and pretend our president’s looking out for us. god, white people are stupid.

I don’t have high expectations when it comes to public transportation. I just want to get to my destination on time. That’s it. With CARTA, consider yourself lucky if you’re only five minutes late. The frustrating thing is that it’s totally fixable, but nobody seems to care enough to do anything about it. I’ve been on buses that were still idling at Mary St. 10 minutes after the printed bus schedule in my hand indicated we should’ve left already. I’ve sat on a bus outside the Piggly Wiggly while the driver has gone inside to pick up something at the salad bar for lunch. I’ve had bus drivers drop their mail in a post office box. I’ve waited for buses that never came or were 25 minutes late with no explanation. Once in utter frustration, I walked home from Sam Rittenberg Blvd. I live downtown. It took me a hour.