About a week after a group of citizens launched a petition for safer streets, Charleston Mayor William Cogswell said he supports adding $1 million to the city’s budget to fund pedestrian safety projects throughout the city.
“Pedestrian safety is a top priority for Mayor Cogswell, and the city is actively working on a number of fronts,” city spokesperson Deja Knight McMillan wrote in an email Tuesday to the Charleston City Paper.
Cogswell’s support, McMillan wrote, is not related to the petition, which as of Tuesday had 1,705 signatures on the petition, which calls for a $1 million line item in the city’s budget for safer streets.
She said the mayor supported the $1 million budget line item, and he intended “to move forward with it in the budget (request to City Council). Those funds would also allow us to leverage additional dollars from the county and state.”
Charleston writer Gervais Hagerty, one of the citizen group’s organizers. said it was preparing to request a meeting with Cogswell sometime before the middle of May when she learned of his support of the proposal.
“Holy, wow!” said Hagerty, who describes herself as a scared mom who is worried about the safety of children walking through Charleston, in response to the mayor’s support. “We have not yet reached out to the mayor’s office. That’s amazing. That is incredible.”
The petition is intended to show city leaders that many peninsular Charleston residents want programs to improve street safety, but safety upgrades are needed throughout the city, she said.
Petition follows tragedy
The March 26 traffic death of 78-year-old Charleston resident Annelise Simmons led to the petition, Hagerty said. Simmons was fatally injured when she was struck by a pickup truck while in a designated crosswalk at Broad and King streets.
“Something about Annelise’s death really got the community talking,” Hagerty said.
About 25 concerned mothers who say they are terrified about the safety of their children as they walk through Charleston met informally on April 15. From that meeting, the petition grew and circulated throughout the city. On the petition, hundreds of people have commented about their “close calls” with cars and trucks, Hagerty said.
“We wish to honor the memory of all pedestrians who have lost their lives in traffic-related incidents in our city,” according to the petition. “This effort is pursued with respect for all families who have lost loved ones and with a shared commitment to making our streets safe for everyone. Sixty-year-old Edward W. Brown, a pedestrian in a wheelchair, died March 6 after being struck on Sam Rittenberg Boulevard.
The citizen petition cites a Smart Growth America study that ranks the Charleston-North Charleston area as the ninth most dangerous metro area for pedestrians in the nation. The study reports an annual average rate of 3.66 pedestrian deaths per 100,000 residents between 2018 to 2022.
Hagerty said a line item in the city’s budget for safety projects can give Charleston the flexibility to leverage funding from state and federal sources for improvements that could include speed bumps, curb extensions and leading pedestrian interval signals and complete already recommended projects in the City of Charleston Safety Action Plan.
Traffic data and proposals have been collected “so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” said Hagerty, a long-time safe-streets advocate. “The city has been so close to taking these projects to the finish line, but there has been a serious lack of funding to move things forward.”
The city’s plan
The city’s response to the petition also comes as city staff and council members were traveling Tuesday to Columbia to meet with Justin P. Powell, state transportation secretary, for the second time in a week.
McMillan said city officials are meeting with Powell “to advocate for additional pedestrian and bicycle safety investments in Charleston. The timing (of the meeting and petition) is not coincidental. We are pushing hard at the state level because much of the road network on the peninsula falls under” the state’s jurisdiction.
State and federal transportation partnerships, she explained, “are essential to moving these projects forward, and why the city has been deliberate about building those relationships.”
McMillan said the city’s safety improvements include a re-timing of every light and every pedestrian signal by June.
“This will add pedestrian intervals that allow pedestrians to cross before traffic lights turn green,” she wrote. “We installed AI cameras at every traffic signal on Calhoun Street that helps us collect data and make informed decisions.”
By September 2027, the city plans to complete pedestrian crossing safety features on Calhoun Street at Coming, St. Philip and King streets, at King and Market streets, and on Meeting Street at Market and Broad streets.
McMillan also reported that traffic signal upgrades are proposed across West Ashley, Johns Island, the North, South and East peninsula, pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements on the Eastside, pavement marking improvements on Fleming Road, and vegetation, signage and speed improvements on Brownswood Road and River Road. A federal transportation grant also includes a Charleston Moves subgrant for public education and outreach.
The petition describes people who signed it as “residents of Charleston who are deeply concerned about the lack of safety for people walking in our city.”
Hagerty said the citizen group is not affiliated with the safety advocacy group, Charleston Moves, but it has “leaned heavily” on Katie Zimmerman, the group’s executive director, for advice.
Hagerty said she hopes the petition can serve as a “surgical strike to cut through the bureaucracy to get things going. It is our strategy to show council members this is wanted throughout the community. A city’s budget reflects its values.”
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