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CARTA's free Beach Reach shuttle runs an hourly loop from Towne Centre in Mount Pleasant to Isle of Palms on weekends through the summer. The island pickup and drop-off is at the entrance to the county park on 14th Avenue. Brad Nettles/Staff

CARTA's free Beach Reach shuttle runs an hourly loop from Towne Centre in Mount Pleasant to Isle of Palms on weekends through the summer. The island pickup and drop-off is at the entrance to the county park on 14th Avenue. Brad Nettles/Staff

If you're realizing how much more difficult it's getting to reach a Charleston County beach on a nice summer day, don't fret. There's a new app for that, and it's pretty good.

The free Beach Reach app lets beachgoers easily check traffic conditions — specifically using live webcams — for congestion on main roads leading to Folly Beach, Sullivan's Island and the Isle of Palms. It also provides info on the communities' beach policies, parking sites, tidal conditions and just about everything anyone would want to know before heading out for a day of fun and sun.

And it's exactly the kind of innovation and creativity that's vital to meeting our growing challenge between Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends: Our region's population and tourist counts are growing, but our miles of beaches, available public parking and lanes of roads leading to them are staying pretty much the same. That's why the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments created the app, which gives us a new tool to avoid, or at least minimize, the time we spend getting to the beach and maximize our enjoyment once there.

A similarly innovative approach has been taken by the Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission, which operates several beach parks, including the increasingly popular Beachwalker Park on Kiawah Island. The agency has signs miles away to warn when Beachwalker's limited parking lot is full, and it operates a system that uses text messages to work with motorists who arrive after its parking lot is full. Vehicles are put into a virtual queue, and visitors receive a text when a space has opened up. Likewise, a digital sign at the Folly Beach boat landing updates arrivals on parking availability at Folly Beach County Park. The agency also has hired an off-duty officer to monitor and direct traffic near its Isle of Palms County Park, and the office can manipulate the nearby traffic light as needed.

Meanwhile, the Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority is bringing back its free Beach Reach weekend shuttle between Mount Pleasant Towne Centre and the Isle of Palms' public beach access at 14th Avenue and Ocean Boulevard. That began service Saturday and will run on weekends through Sept. 5.

While CARTA ran the shuttle last year and didn't see big ridership, the shuttles were fuller toward the end of the summer after word gradually got out, according to CARTA Chairman Mike Seekings. This year, the agency is doing more to publicize it and also synching up its shuttle times to match connections with the rest of its bus system. "I have every expectation that the ridership will be up, particularly since it’s difficult to park at the beach and it costs money,” he tells us.

The agency will continue to evaluate the potential for shuttle service to Folly Beach and possibly others, but that service is not on the immediate horizon. As parking gets more difficult and expensive, however, that may change.

Last year, frustrations over beach communities' parking restrictions, particularly on the Isle of Palms, led to a new state law that clarified that beach communities can't change the way they handle public parking on state roads without the consent of the S.C. Department of Transportation. While that was viewed as a win for inland residents who make day trips to the beach, the law really only codified what the state already had thought was its policy. It didn't create more parking, nor will it necessarily prevent any further restrictions. As for the "Palm Republic" recently formed in protest, we're still not sure about the powdered wigs and flip-flops.

The best answer to the parking shortage is for all of us to get smarter and more creative about day trips. Besides the apps and shuttles, we might consider carpooling when possible, timing our beach trips earlier or later in the day and keeping cool, at least in the figurative sense.

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