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Transportation in Greenville County should be designed for ALL Greenvillians. Providing a system that all people WANT to use, and including sustainable funding for it within the County budget, should be the top priority.
A mass transit system works if it gets people where they need to go, when they need to get there, and in a reasonable, predictable amount of time.
Our Greenlink bus system provided about 856,275 rides in 2018, according to the Greenville Transit Authority 2018 Agency Profile. Those rides are vital to our economy, neighbors’ livelihoods, and access to education and healthcare.
But as stated in a GreenBiz article from 2018, “if a person or family cannot remain in a gentrifying neighborhood . . . the egalitarian and social cohesion benefits of a sustainable mobility system are being lost."
Our Greenlink system is robust and expanding, but its primary service area is in downtown Greenville, which is already gentrifying, and has limited service to our towns in D24 like Mauldin and Conestee.
In fact, Greenlink’s routes run from 5:30am-7:30pm Monday-Friday, and 8:30am-6:30pm on Saturdays, with no Sunday service. This limits the employment opportunities of everyone outside the city limits.
If our primary system of transportation only ensures access to those living in-town, then our mobility system has forgotten our neighbors on Butler Road or near the old Greenville Braves stadium.
This is why we need to ensure that every person living in District 24 and all of Greenville County has access to good transportation that allows them to hold jobs and return home when demanded and desired.