Bus Service in Myrtle Beach (rental car, rental, hotel)

[drsmiley06]

What in god's good green earth is wrong with the bus service in Myrtle Beach, SC. I just came back from alittle x-mas getaway in Myrtle Beach and the bus system down there is horrible, in fact, I'm not even sure if they know how to tell time down there. I had a rental car but wanted to try out the bus service in case I wanted to use it in the future. I stayed at the Holiday Inn Pavilion on Ocean Blvd which was very nice. Right in front of the hotel there's a sign for the Coastal RTA. I called the phone number, told them I wanted to go to Broadway and the service agent told me to go up two blocks and there'll be two buses that will come back, one at 10 minutes and 5 minutes before the hour. Sure enough, not one bus came by, and this was on Friday afternoon. I saw 4 or 5 buses drive by on the opposite end of the street but nothing my way. Finally I called the service agent again and even she couldn't believe it! After hearing her yell at one of the drivers to be at that particular location at a certain time I knew right away this was a mistake. Finally the bus came but it seemed like the driver was very new to the whole bus situation. After talking to a few locals and others up at Broadway I was told that the bus system in south carolina is absolutely horrible. Every person I talked to down there said that the bus agencies just can't get it right, and of course they are going to say that because they don't have enough riders they aren't going to be as good as places like Philadelphia or any other big cities. Any thoughts?

[baylovers]

First things first, You cannot compare MB to Philly or other big cities. It is a resort city that usually has more visitors than residents. So you cannot expect the same amenities.

Yes, the bus service is horrible. There have been many news stories ove the last year of how the RTA almost went under because of fiscal & logistic mismanagement. Supposedly, it is getting better. In my opinion, there are enough service industry workers who cannot afford to communte by car that a reliable bus service would be quite helpful but folks have done without it, apparently, that there is no outcry for it. Stick with the taxis.

[drsmiley06]

You know it's funny, I actually talked to a few taxi drivers when I was down there and mentioned to them about the bus system, most of them just laughed and said to call them instead, it'll be quicker! There's no way I would compare philly to MB but let's face it the bus system doesn't have to be that bad.

[rrufast]

MB has never really had a good 'public transportation' system outside of Taxi service. The bus service, IMO, should as well be disbanded altogether because they just can't get it together. Between not receiving the funding they need (and when they did, it was squandered away by it's former Director) and the overwhelming amount of traffic they must negotiate and still try and maintain some form of time schedule during the summer, it's just never going to catch on.
The fact that we have so many tourists who drive here don't really help matters much either. if one drives here, or flies in and rents a car, as the OP did, there is little incentive (at all) to use public transportation, such as a Bus system...

[le roi]

Originally Posted by drsmiley06

Any thoughts?

You need high density to have effective mass transit. Most southern cities aren't dense enough to have good transit systems. For cultural reasons, too, mass transit just hasn't caught on. I don't know of one southern city with a "good" bus line, or subway, or light rail.

Myrtle Beach is unusually sprawled out, so I would imagine it would have an unusually inefficient mass transit system, even by southern standards. It is one of the last places I would expect to have good mass transit... I would expect a nice, brisk day on the Ski Slopes of Myrtle Beach before I expected a good bus system!