[Nfbofsc] Super Awesome Really Pertinent Public Meetings from The COMET!

Sun Sep 2 22:16:09 UTC 2018

Please see attached and below.  

Boris did a good job outlining some relevant changes and take special note
also of the COMET on the Go! Section that  outlines pilot program
subsidizing Uber/Lyft rides to grocery stores within a 5 mile radius and
late-night trips.   

Thanks for passing along! 

Cali Sandel, CPM GCDF 

Employment Services Coordinator 

Phone: 803.779.5121, Ext. 228 

From: Boris Klaric 

Good morning Columbia office peeps!

Everybody's favorite local regional transit authority, The COMET will be
making a number of route, fare, and DART changes in the coming months and to
prepare for this rollout they'll be holding a series of public meetings
building up to a public hearing. Throughout the month of September, there's
going to be multiple opportunities for the public to attend meetings in
various locations to discuss the changes and most importantly to get
community feedback. If you or your consumers are interested in attending one
of the public meetings, the currently announced locations, dates, and times
are as follows:

Location

Date

Time

Transit Center

September 5th

5:00 P.M. - 7:00 P.M.

Richland Library St. Andrews

September 6th

5:30 P.M. - 7:30 P.M.

Richland Library Eastover

September 6th

2:00 P.M. - 4:00 P.M.

Richland Library North Main

September 7th

2:00 P.M. - 4:00 P.M.

Richland Library Blythewood

September 12th

5:00 P.M - 7:00 P.M.

Transit Center

September 13th

7:00 P.M. - 9:00 P.M.

Richland Library Sandhill

September 17th

4:30 P.M. - 6:30 P.M.

Richland Library Main

September 22nd

3:00 P.M. - 5:45 P.M.

Please note that in addition to the meetings The COMET is requesting public
comments so if you have interested consumers or you yourself are interested
please direct all comments to john.andoh at catchthecomet.org
<mailto:john.andoh at catchthecomet.org>  by Friday, September 21st at 12:00pm!
The final public hearing will take place at the Lowell J. Spires Regional
Transit Facility, 3613 Lucius Road, Columbia, SC 29021 on Wednesday,
September 26, 2018 at 12:00 p.m.

For the sake of convenience and for any consumers who would like to know
some of the changes The COMET plans to make, I've attached a flyer released
by The COMET. Some of the more notable changes are as follows:

*	There will now be a bus route that travels down Gracern Rd! Starting
in October 2018, Route 84 will now use Greystone and Gracern instead of
I-126 - outbound.
*	There's going to be a new route into Lexington! If they can get
funding for it, Route 92X will run from Columbia to Nephron Pharmaceuticals
twice a day, 7 days a week.
*	There's going to be a new route into Newberry! Route 93X will
connect Columbia and Newberry through Chapin, Little Mountain, and
Ballentine twice a day, Monday through Friday.
*	DART services are changing! As more routes change to ReFlex service,
they won't be ADA-specific routes because any person in that area could
schedule rides through DART and would not need to be eligible for
paratransit in order to do so. The proposed route changes will impact routes
31 and 62 in October 2018 as well as routes 46 and 47 in May 2019. 
*	DART riders will be able to use fixed route for free! DART eligible
riders will be issued a DART ADA ID card will grants them free fare for
fixed route transit! 
*	The cost of DART rides is going up! One-way DART rides will now be
$4.00 instead of $3.00. However, there will be a Buddy Fare system - if 5 or
more eligible riders are travelling to or from the same location, their fare
will be $2.00 per person! This may be particularly helpful for getting large
numbers of DART eligible consumers to public meetings or events! 

Boris Klarić, MSW MPH

Community Access Specialist

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