Greenville County is growing fast—new businesses, new residents, new jobs. But a growing economy is only as strong as its ability to connect workers to opportunity. Compared to peer cities like Columbia, Winston-Salem, and Greensboro, Greenville has historically underinvested in public transit, the infrastructure that makes that connection possible. Greenville Connects, a nonprofit coalition that has been making the case for better transit since 2014, had years of data on their side. But it was incomplete and in various formats. What they needed was a way to pull the data together, understand it, and make it actionable. Explore the Greenville Connects dashboard to see how transit connects Greenville County and possibilities for the future.
Greenville Connects partnered with the Shi Institute to build a custom interactive dashboard that translates complex ridership, demographic, and service data into clear, accessible insights. “It’s such a robust dashboard; it just blows me away whenever I look at it,” said Erin Predmore, executive director of Greenville Connects. “They saw all of the possibilities and included them all in this layered way.”
What the Dashboard Reveals
The dashboard is organized into five tabs, each designed to answer the questions that matter most to advocates, funders, and residents:
- Job Access maps how transit connects riders to employment in retail, office, healthcare, and education—showing businesses and policymakers which workers can get to work, and which ones can’t.
- Roads or Transit? compares the cost of road infrastructure investments against equivalent transit investments, giving advocates a concrete tool for budget conversations with decision-makers.
- Future Opportunities models what expanded service could accomplish if funding becomes available—giving advocates a data-backed vision for how many more workers and residents could be reached.
- Access to Essential Services tracks travel times by transit to grocery stores, medical facilities, childcare, and other essentials—revealing where gaps make it harder for residents to fully participate in community and economic life.
- General Access provides the foundation: where Greenlink’s routes and stops reach, ridership counts, demographic data, and how different areas and time periods compare—down to hyperlocal geographies like Special Emphasis Neighborhoods.
Built for Advocacy, Built for the Long Haul
The dashboard was designed with accessibility and longevity in mind. It works across devices—phones, tablets, and large monitors—supports keyboard navigation, accommodates color-blind users, and generates shareable URLs so advocates can send specific data directly to colleagues or elected officials.
The project brought together Greenville Connects, Greenlink, data provider Replica, and the Hollingsworth Foundation. As new data is integrated, the dashboard will continue to grow—supporting advocacy efforts for years to come.
A growing economy needs people who can get to work without spending hours in traffic. Dashboards that allow users from throughout the community to do their own analysis catalyzes the smart and creative solutions that will get us there. The Shi Institute builds custom tools that turn complex information into clear decisions for advocates, planners, and community leaders. Reach out to learn how we can help your organization make that case.
Story adapted from Melissa Charles, Furman Marketing.