Rant Mode On:
I ride Carta Express from the Super Kmart parking lot on Rivers Avenue to downtown Charleston almost every day. I have been riding the bus service since it started up in January of 2008. All in all I have been a pretty satisfied customer especially since the service is free to MUSC and C of C employees. Our employers pick up the tab so that we can save gas and wear and tear on our vehicles. How can you go wrong? Of course there is an ulterior motive here in that parking spaces downtown are becoming as valuable as gold. It all goes back to supply and demand. The more cars and the less spaces to put them in drives up the cost of parking. Someone smarter than me figured this out long before I did and cooked up the Carta Express idea.
Since January the ridership of Carta Express has exploded. Now they are packing us in those buses like rats in a metal box. You can either cram your body into those small seats or you can stand on your feet with other folks while the bus makes its way downtown. You have to expect that to happen when Carta was not prepared for the ridership to explode like it did. Gas prices went through the roof and everyone saw Carta Express as the solution to saving some bucks on the gas expense.
Once the ridership started to expand it caused the spaces for people to park to diminish in the parking lot opposite of Super Kmart and Texas Road House. Not only that but some of us LAZY riders decided we could not walk for 3 minutes to go stand in line so we cheated and parking on the opposite side in the Kmart Parking lot near the middle driveway and just walk straight over to the line bypassing the semi long walk. Kmart got smart to our ways and started posting nasty grams on the offender vehicles and warned us that they would start towing. For some of us , like myself, I got wise and decided that walking for a few moments was a lot less inconvenience than having to bail my SUV out of the impound lot not to mention having to deal with whatever damage that might happen to my vehicle during the towing episode.
A few months ago an email went out to the College of Charleston warning us NOT to park on the Super Kmart side of the parking lot near the store because they would start towing us without further warning. Ok, we get the picture. Several weeks later we get another notice that Carta wants us to start parking all the way down to the end of the parking lot near the Japanese Steak House away from Texas Road House and the middle of the parking lot. Again, we all complied except for the few rebellious folks that insist on gambling with their vehicles on the wrong side of the parking lot.
Tonight when I get off the bus and walk a few moments over to my SUV I surveyed all four tires to make sure none of them were slashed. Some of the unlucky drivers who have been parking at the end of the parking lot by the Japanese restaurant have been greeted by flat tires around 6 pm after a long day at work. Just last night we got off the bus to find N Charleston PD on the scene because one of the nurses found her 93 Honda Accord missing.
When I got to my vehicle I find a nasty gram from Texas Road House telling me that I should no longer parking in their parking lot and that I need to cease and desist doing so. The only problem with that is that there were no other spaces any closer than where I was parked.
I went inside to the restaurant and found the night manager who referred me to the district manager who apparently became angry about all the Carta bus riders from filling up his parking lot. The only problem that I have with that is simple. There are no signs delineating which part of the parking lot is designated for what stores. Not only that but Carta gave us permission to park on that side of the parking lot to begin with. I think that Texas Road House management and Carta management need to figure out what they are going to do with parking since the ridership is only going to keep growing with the ever rising gas prices.
The girls at the front counter asked me if I would like to eat dinner there since I was already in the restaurant. HA!!! I was thinking, think again friend, I am already steamed about the nasty gram, I certainly am not going to stop and eat dinner now.
Rant Mode off:
http://www.lightourworld.com
james.moffitt@comcast.net
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment