BCDCOG Kicks Off Regional Park-and-Ride Study

The Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments (BCDCOG) has kicked off a Regional Park-and-Ride Study which is intended to produce a comprehensive plan identifying suitable sites for permanent satellite parking locations in the region.

Over the next nine months, the study team will compile and analyze data to identify up to 25 sites for park-and-ride facilities in Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties. Locations will be reviewed based on access to transit, facility types and various site selection criteria, such as availability, cost of acquisition, environmental impacts and more.

“The ultimate goal is to take vehicles off the road and relieve traffic congestion,” said BCDCOG Executive Director Ron Mitchum. “Roads can only be widened so much and we have to think as a region about how to make the best use of available capacity.”

Once the sites are selected, the study team will prioritize locations to identify short- and long-range programming based on cost estimates and available funding. The study is scheduled to be complete in summer 2018.

The City of Charleston, Charleston County, BCDCOG and CARTA are currently partnering on a temporary solution for the lack of affordable parking for hospitality workers on the peninsula with a pilot park-and-ride location on Morrison Drive. The site is set to be operational early in 2018.

“The Morrison Drive project is a great start, but we’re determined to develop long-term solutions for transit and multimodal access for all employment types throughout the region,” said CARTA board chairman Mike Seekings. “This is an incredibly important issue that is only going to become more crucial in the months and years ahead.”

For more information on the Regional Park-and-Ride Study, contact Sharon Hollis, BCDCOG Principal Planner at (843) 529-0400 x 258 or sharonh@bcdcog.com.

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This is an unedited press release

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