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 Design Division, Department of Planning, Preservation & Sustainability, and 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.

We participated with designs for Huger Street between Meeting Street and Morrison Drive. 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. Find our 2022 bike/ped count report HERE.

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, but will likely just be sharrows after the City favored parking over bicycle infrastructure), Bee Street (Design Division report HERE), Hagood Avenue (Design Division report HERE), Morris Street, and Ashley Avenue, as well as several intersections in the upper peninsula.

The Meeting Street Road road diet, part of an SCDOT resurfacing that will include buffered bike lanes connecting the City of Charleston and City of North Charleston, is under construction now.

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.

AUDITS: Calhoun Street, St. Philip Street, King Street (south of Line; Line to Huger), Meeting Street (south of Line), Septima P. Clark Parkway

Find details for peninsula safety audits and reviews on our Road Safety Audits page.

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.

In December 2025, the City of Charleston hosted a groundbreaking event to start construction of the Lowline phase 1, which will connect to the Brigade Street improvements. 

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.