DESCRIPTION

The downtown bike plan, called People Pedal CHS, is the City of Charleston’s vision for a minimum grid network of connected bike infrastructure on the peninsula. The plan is a collaboration between Charleston Moves and the City of Charleston: namely, the Civic Design Division, the Department of Planning, Preservation & Sustainability, and the Department of Traffic & Transportation. A portion of the data for the system came directly from the 1,300 citizens who participated in the route mapping survey when work began on the plan around 2015. View the system maps and the report booklet HERE.

Several improvements identified in People Pedal CHS have been completed or are underway, with details outlined in the project history below.  A high profile proposal that is still under debate is the King Street bike lane. On September 12, 2023, Mayor Tecklenburg shared with City Council that he is still in discussions with SCDOT, but it’s possible the agency will agree to proceed with safety improvements on Meeting, St. Philip, and Calhoun Streets, and implement a pilot project for lower King.

In addition to potential improvements to Meeting, St. Philip, Calhoun and King Streets, we participated with SCDOT and other stakeholders on a Road Safety Audit for US 17, from Coming Street to Lockwood Boulevard in January and February of 2023. SCDOT will host a public input meeting with recommended improvement concepts in the first quarter of 2024.

Designs for Huger Street between Meeting Street and Morrison Drive are also being finalized. In September 2021, the City of Charleston hosted a community meeting on their proposals, during which we advocated for a more appropriate design that includes wider bike lanes with green paint, and proper connections through the intersections. In January 2022, City staff and Charleston Moves met to further incorporate our design suggestions. On-street parking has been removed from the design to avoid dooring.

Discussions are underway with City staff to design improvements to Romney Street (a bike lane is funded by the County at the request of the City), Bee Street (Design Division report coming soon), Hagood Avenue (Design Division report here), Morris Street, and Ashley Avenue, as well as several intersections in the upper peninsula.

History

The People Pedal Plan

Based on an idea brainstormed by City of Charleston and Charleston Moves staff, the team spent years putting together the plan for a minimum grid of safe bicycle infrastructure on the peninsula. In March 2018, Charleston Moves hosted a kickoff event to celebrate the completion of the maps and design toolkit, during which attendees could review the plan up close, interact with us and city staff, and learn about next steps. In May 2018, the Citywide Transportation Plan (CTP) passed through the City’s Planning Commission, including the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee’s recommendation that People Pedal CHS be incorporated into the CTP.

By June 2018, the first round of improvements from People Pedal had been installed on select City-owned streets: sharrows on Vendue Range, Hester Street, 10th Avenue, Grove Street, Radcliffe Street, Bee Street, Carolina Street and Fishburne Street.

In August 2018, Charleston Moves hosted our first Fresh Paint Ride to celebrate the sharrows, and then the Citywide Transportation Plan, which People Pedal CHS is incorporated into, got the green light by Charleston City Council.

Calhoun Street, St. Philip Street, King Street (south of Line) + Meeting Street (south of Line):

In 2018, the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) shared that Meeting Street, King Street, Calhoun Street and St. Philip Street are the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th most dangerous roads in the state for people walking and bicycling, respectively. The agency, in coordination with stakeholders including Charleston Moves, the City of Charleston, the College of Charleston, BCDCOG, the Medical District and others, conducted Road Safety Audits for the four corridors. After developing reports and conceptual designs, SCDOT hosted a public meeting and 30-day comment period in August 2022. You can see SCDOT’s concepts that were reviewed by the public HERE. You can also review the audit data HERE (link to wherever the RSA reports for King, Meeting, St. Phil and Calhoun end up).

Many of you participated in that public process. After it closed, concerns were raised by a small number of constituents with specific opposition to SCDOT’s proposed buffered bike lane on King Street, that would run from Calhoun Street to almost Broad Street. From December 2022 through March 2023, a new concept was developed by the City of Charleston, BCDCOG, College of Charleston, the King Street Business Improvement District (BID), lower King Street business owners, and the Charleston Downtown Alliance without public engagement or engagement with other entities that participated in the audits.

On July 18, 2023, SCDOT gave brief presentations to the City of Charleston’s Traffic & Transportation Committee, then full Council. This was followed by a discussion among Council of the City’s new concept, which had not previously been made public and still was not shown publicly during the meeting. Because of pushback from the public and members of council, the Traffic & Transportation Committee hosted a public comment opportunity on the new concept, which was revealed as a 14′ shared use lane with no bicycle infrastructure — unprecedented and unsafe. The public overwhelmingly opposed the new concept (98% of the comments supported or did not oppose the bike lane), as did members of council. Nonetheless, the Committee recommended the unsafe concept to full Council. At the August 15, 2023 Council meeting, despite majority support for a bike lane, Council deferred to receive more information. Two councilmembers in particular wanted to hear from the “stakeholders,” who they define as business/property owners on lower King, and who already met privately with the City to develop the unsafe 14′ travel lane plan. (we should link to the drawings we ended up getting) Mayor Tecklenburg is now coordinating with SCDOT to determine how to proceed.

King Street (Line to Huger)

On March 26, 2021, SCDOT convened Charleston Moves, City of Charleston and the BCDCOG to assess King Street between Huger and Line Streets. SCDOT will be preparing a formal report over the coming weeks, that includes observations and recommendations discussed on our walk. There isn’t money set aside for these improvements yet, but having this assessment on hand, agreed upon by these agencies, will help government and advocates be nimble in leveraging opportunities through other projects, as well as making new requests specific to the safety review’s findings.

On August 10, 2021, the Charleston County Transportation Committee (CTC) approved funding for SCDOT’s safety and traffic operations study for King Street between Line and Huger, as recommended in the Safety Review. Charleston Moves and business owners submitted letters of support.

Brigade Street

In June 2018, Charleston Moves hosted a rally with nonprofit partners, businesses, community leadership and residents in support of a safe intersection at Brigade/Meeting Streets. Our vision was to connect Bridgeview Village Apartments to the existing I-26 underpass path and future LowLine, and link to existing bike lanes along Morrison Drive. Click HERE to hear from our community about the dangerous and unacceptable existing conditions, and their plea to make it safe and connected. We began working with the City and SCDOT on a design for bike lanes, curb bulbouts, pedestrian activated RRFBs, green paint, and high visibility crosswalks for people on bikes and foot.

In May 2019, Charleston Moves sat down with the City of Charleston Transportation Department, elected officials, and neighborhood leadership to discuss the status of the Brigade Street improvements project, and next steps. In January 2020, the Brigade Street improvements project received another stamp of approval to move forward, thanks to a supportive North Central and East Central neighborhood meeting.

In March 2021, the City of Charleston held a ribbon-cutting celebration to announce the completion of the Brigade Street improvements project … the City’s first protected bike lane! The infrastructure includes: bike lanes on both sides of Brigade; a wide buffer with physical delineators; green paint through the Brigade/Meeting intersection; curb extensions to shorten the pedestrian crossings over Meeting; bike and pedestrian signage; audible signals and ADA-compliant detectable warning surfaces at Brigade/Meeting.

Line Street

March 2019: Line Street is converted to two-way traffic. Sharrows have been installed along the corridor (King Street to Rutledge Avenue), as well as a raised crosswalk at Percy Street.

Rutledge Avenue

August 2018: we completed a walking audit of Rutledge Avenue to see how the corridor is functioning (and failing to function) for people on foot and bike. We were joined by neighbors of North Central, Westside, Hampton Park Terrace and Wagener Terrace.