The S.C. Department of Transportation (SCDOT) estimates it will cost $2.2 million to make safety improvements for walkers and bikers along the Septima P. Clark Parkway in Charleston where eight people have been killed since 2012.
After a year-long delay, the agency recently released a 70-page Septima P. Clark Parkway Road Safety Assessment as a planning tool for future improvement projects along the six-lane, mile-long parkway.
Safety recommendations include an upgrade to signs, signals and pedestrian crossings as well as eliminating hazards, such as debris, overgrown vegetation and making crosswalks more accessible for people with disabilities.
A draft of the report was completed in November 2023, but the agency delayed releasing it when Charleston voters last year elected a new mayor, said Kelly Moore, the agency’s director of public engagement.
“It was important to provide the new administration an opportunity to review the draft plans and provide input,” she said.
Two fatal accidents occurred in 2023 while the study was underway.
Moore said the projects would go through a design phase next year and construction could start in 2026. The agency is taking public comments until Nov. 13, she added. SCDOT presented the recommendations during a recent public meeting at Bethel United Methodist Church on Pitt St.
Reaction to the plan
North Charleston resident Lynnette Ranz attended the meeting, but she said the study does not go far enough to eliminate the conditions that led to a January 2014 accident that killed her daughter, College of Charleston student Lindsey Taylor Ranz.
Ranz is focused on the Crosstown’s intersection at Coming Street where her daughter was fatally injured. She said the study is recommending a right-hand turn lane at that location.
“They didn’t focus on the problem of the crosswalk” where her daughter was killed, she said.
The plan calls for spending $300,000 at the Coming Street intersection.
Katie Zimmerman, executive director of biker safety advocacy group Charleston Moves, said although the meeting at Bethel United Methodist Church was poorly attended, the public still has time to comment.
Zimmerman concedes that improvements won’t make the Crosstown safer for bikers and pedestrians because the roadway is used heavily by speeding commuters. She said her group’s focus is on making it safer for pedestrians to cross in the medical district where several accidents have occurred.
Elevated crosswalk
SCDOT reported that from July 2017 to June 2022, there were 1,118 crashes along the Crosstown. Four of them were fatal accidents.
The Charleston City Paper, using Charleston Police Department and news media reports, compiled a list of eight traffic deaths along the parkway from Nov. 18, 2012, to June 26, 2023. The report does not recommend an elevated crosswalk, an idea endorsed by S.C. Rep. Wendell Gilliard, a Charleston Democrat who works in the mayor’s office in Charleston.
“If you are doing a report, I think you should be complete,” he said. “The elevated crosswalk has been an issue for years not only on the Crosstown” but also at the Calhoun-St. Philip Street intersection. “We need elevated crosswalks in certain areas of Charleston.”
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