Pee Dee transit system providing extensive service to passengers

By: Traci Bridges | SCNow
Published: October 22, 2009

The Pee Dee Regional Transportation Authority provided 323,771 passenger trips in the six-county Pee Dee region during 2008-09.

The PDRTA provided 105,058 “fixed route” trips, a service that includes the Florence transit system; Lake City-Myrtle Beach; Marion-Myrtle Beach; and Chesterfield-Cheraw-Bennettsville routes.

“The majority of passengers on those buses are people going to and from work,” PDRTA Executive Director Janice M. Baroody said. “Without bus service, most would be unemployed.”

The remaining 200,000 trips are part of our demand-response service, which provides individualized rides without a fixed route or timetable. Most are medical trips done in cutaway type vehicles.

“We take people to and from doctor appointments, clinics, agencies and hospitals,” Baroody said. “We also take people to work, shopping or wherever they need to go when fixed route service is unavailable. Florence is the medical hub of the Pee Dee. Every day, we have vehicles coming into Florence from Darlington, Cheraw, Dillon, Marion, Lake City and more.”

In May, the PDRTA received a flawless triennial review by the Federal Transit Authority. The triennial review is a comprehensive examination of how recipients of Urbanized Area Formula funds meet statutory and administrative requirements. The extensive audit is performed on transit systems across the country every three years.

The review looks at every aspect of a transit system’s performance, covering 23 areas that have strict requirements for federal funding including finance; legal; technical; maintenance; procurement; Americans with Disabilities Act requirements; safety; security; equal employment opportunity; drug and alcohol programs; and fares. This is the first time since the audits began in 1992 that the PDRTA has achieved a review with no findings of noncompliance.

In addition to the perfect review, PDRTA was named as one of the top 50 paratransit agencies ranked by the unlinked passenger trips in the America Public Transportation Association’s 2009 Transportation Fact Book.

“Most of what our paratransit service does is medical transportation,” Baroody said. “There is a huge demand for people to get to the services they need, and many have no other way to get there.”
Each year, the APTA, a nonprofit association of more than 1,500 public and private member organization, compiles data covering six operating statistics for transit agencies across the country. PDRTA is the only South Carolina agency to achieve a Top 50 ranking.

— Copy editor Traci Bridges can be reached at (843) 317-7325.