CURRENT ACTIONS BELOW

Charlestonians Demand Safe Streets

» Sign the petition » HERE

On March 26, 2026, a beloved member of our community, Annelise Simmons, was struck and killed by a motorist while walking in a crosswalk at the intersection of King Street and Broad Street in downtown Charleston. The driver was charged with failure to yield.

Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Annelise, as her loss has reverberated across our community. One fatality is too many.

In 2018, SCDOT initiated a downtown safety improvement effort based on corridor analyses of King Street and Meeting Street below Line Street, Calhoun Street, and St. Philip Street. Charleston Moves participated in these audits, proposing safety improvements for vulnerable road users. After years of disagreement between the state and locals, construction (sans King Street below Calhoun Street) is expected to begin this summer, with anticipated completion by fall 2027. You can learn more here.

It is unacceptable that proven safety measures, federally-funded and SCDOT-proposed, continue to be questioned, delayed, and sometimes blocked. This is happening not just on the peninsula, but across the region.

Our community cannot continue to endure these losses. It’s time for the City of Charleston to invest in pedestrian safety improvements to protect its people for a safer, thriving community. If you agree, please sign this petition, started by the citizen-led coalition Charlestonians Demand Safe Streets.

And take a look at the City’s Safety Action Plan as a resource for project prioritization, crash data, economic impacts, and solutions to our transportation safety crisis in the City of Charleston.

City of Charleston E-Bike Ban + Bike Confiscation Program

Charleston City Council
Thursday, April 23
3:30 pm: Traffic & Transportation Committee (agenda here)

5 pm: full Council (agenda here)

City Hall (80 Broad St, 29401) or Livestream here 

Please let City Council know that you DO support e-bikes on multi-use paths, and that you DO NOT support an expanded bike confiscation program! You can submit a public comment to City Council HERE. 

The City of Charleston’s Traffic & Transportation (T&T) Committee has been developing an e-bike ordinance since March. It bans e-bikes from multi-use paths, forcing those riders onto high-speed corridors (such as Highway 17 and Glenn McConnell Parkway), despite the existence of a bike/ped path running alongside them.

The latest draft also expands the City’s bike parking policy. In 2013, the City passed an ordinance to prevent bicycles from being parked to anything but designated bike racks on King Street. The City also recognized they needed to add bike parking if they expected folks to follow the new law.

This draft ordinance, which will be discussed at the T&T Committee meeting this Thursday, expands bike parking enforcement to citywide, and includes e-bikes. Further, the City has removed designated bicycle parking racks along King Street. Essentially, the City has reduced legal bicycle parking options, while simultaneously proposing to expand parking laws. 

The ordinance will be discussed at this Thursday’s T&T Committee meeting, and then is up for first reading at full Council later that evening. There is no public participation at the committee meeting, but you can provide comment at full council. Please submit comments to the public portal by this Wednesday (3/22) at noon OR sign up to speak in person during Citizen Participation (agenda item H.). The in-person sign-up sheet is available at City Hall on Thursday afternoon, before the 5 pm meeting. You can see some of our talking points HERE.

In summary, the draft ordinance:

• bans e-bikes from multi-use paths, requiring them to be on busy, dangerous roadways instead;
• allows law enforcement to confiscate e-bikes and bicycles in the public right-of-way citywide when they are not attached to designated bicycle racks.

Potential talking points you may want to consider including in your comments:

• E-bikes are often relied upon for commuting, and they offer people with disabilities and physical limitations a viable mode of transportation.
• True e-bikes (not e-motos) are capped at responsible speeds, and as such, should be treated like standard bicycles in this ordinance.
• Relying on “reckless operation” as a means of enforcement is sensible.
• It is dangerous to force people on bikes into lanes of travel along some of our region’s most high-speed corridors, such as Highway 17 and Glenn McConnell Parkway, especially when bike/ped trails exist adjacent to them.
• Prohibiting people from safely operating bikes and e-bikes on paths will contribute to our metro region’s staggeringly high rate of vulnerable road user serious injuries and fatalities.
• There are so few designated bicycle parking stations in the City of Charleston. Taking more away and expanding the confiscation program sends the message that people on bikes are not wanted in the city, and those who work or shop along King Street must do so by way of a motor vehicle.

Regional Safety Action Plan

» Online surveys here (open until April 23)

Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments (BCDCOG) is developing a Regional Safety Action Plan to identify high-risk locations and improvements to reduce roadway fatalities and serious injuries. Charleston Moves participates on the advisory committee. The BCDCOG has two surveys open right now; there is a targeted survey and a general survey. Please click here, then select the survey(s) you would like to take on the righthand column of your screen. Your feedback is important to the development of a useful plan.

From the project page: “Vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, and people with disabilities, face disproportionate risks. Missing sidewalks, inadequate lighting, and complex intersections make navigating our community not just a challenge, but a danger. It is time to shift our approach from reactive repairs to a proactive, regional strategy that prioritizes human life above all else.”

Regional Transit Update Meetings

The Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments (BCDCOG) and CARTA are hosting informal open houses to share information on the region’s transit projects and services.

The in-person meetings will be held as a drop-in format from 4-7 pm:

• Monday, April 27 – Downtown (Charleston Main Library – 68 Calhoun Street, 29401)
• Tuesday, April 28 – Mount Pleasant (Mount Pleasant Municipal Complex – 100 Ann Edwards Lane, 29464)
• Wednesday, April 29 – West Ashley (Cynthia Graham Hurd/St. Andrew’s Library – 1735 N Woodmere Dr, 29407)
• Thursday, April 30 – North Charleston (Michael Brown Wellness Center – 2920 Carner Avenue, 29405)

There will also be a virtual meeting specifically for the CARTA “Now & Next” initiative (see details below) on Monday, May 4 at 6 pm via Zoom.

All details, including links to register, can be found on the project website.

The meetings will cover the following transit initiatives:

• CARTA Now & Next: This project is CARTA’s plan for short- and long-term improvements to transit services throughout the greater Charleston area. The project team has developed draft recommendations for potential services changes based on a system assessment and initial community input in December. This open house is an opportunity to review the draft proposals, ask questions, and share your feedback with the project team to help refine recommendations.
• Lowcountry Rapid Transit (LCRT) 100% Design Completion: Learn more about this major milestone, which brings LCRT one step closer to entering the Construction phase of the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) Capital Investment Grants (CIG) program, and get updates on the system’s construction preparations.
• Current Transit Services: BCDCOG and CARTA staff will be available to discuss additional services in our area, such as Tel-A-Ride paratransit and CARTA OnDemand.

City of North Charleston Safety Action Plan

» Interactive map + survey here

The City of North Charleston has embarked on the development of a Comprehensive Safety Action Plan (SAP). This document will ultimately provide a data-backed set of priority projects, informed by public input, to address safety for all, with an emphasis on people walking, biking and accessing public transit. According to the City’s project page: “Data alone can’t show every close call or place people avoid, but you can. Your feedback will be combined with safety data to set priorities and shape projects so they reflect real experiences on North Charleston’s streets. By speaking up, you help direct investments to the locations and issues that matter most to you, your family, and your community.”

An interactive map and brief survey is open. Please take some time to weigh in!

Charleston Moves is on the Steering Committee for this effort. What’s more, we have been advocating for the development of a Bicycle & Pedestrian Master Plan for the City of North Charleston since 2022. We applaud the City of North Charleston for getting this effort underway. The Comprehensive Safety Action Plan will be a valuable tool to not only identify priority projects, but also enable the City to draw down the necessary federal dollars for implementation.

Also, we have an ongoing petition and survey; if you’ve yet to weigh in on those, please do.

SC Bicycle Safety Stop Bill

The SC Senate passed bill S.812, which would make bicycle safety stops legal (these are also known as “Idaho Stops”). Big thanks to our senators! Now it goes to the SC House’s Education and Public Works (EPW) Committee. That meeting is TBD.

In the meantime, please let our Charleston-area EPW Committee members know you support this bill:

Rep. Tom Hartnett
Rep. James Teeple

The bill requires a person on a bicycle to come to a full stop at a red light, but allows them to proceed when the intersection is clear and safe.

The bill allows a person riding a bicycle to treat stop signs as yield signs, slowing down and yielding to traffic before continuing when safe to do so.

Why we like this bill:

• it simplifies existing SC bike laws (right now, we can proceed on a red light after two minutes)
• it’s backed up by data (Idaho adopted this bill in 1982 and has seen a 14.5% decline in injuries to people on bicycles; Delaware adopted a similar law in 2017 and has seen a 23% reduction in crashes and injuries at stop sign intersections; USDOT has documented the proven safety benefits)
• personal experience — we’re sick of motorists running us off the road when we are stopped at a stop sign, and sensors not detecting us at red lights

City of North Charleston Safety Action Plan

» Online survey + interactive map here (open through July 2026)

Over the next few months, the City of North Charleston wants to hear from you! The team just kicked off their safety planning process, and Charleston Moves is serving on the steering committee. We encourage you to take the City’s survey and use their interactive map to show where you feel unsafe walking, bicycling, driving or rolling, and suggest changes you’d like to see. This Plan will ultimately provide a data-backed set of priority projects, informed by public input, to address safety for all. It will be a valuable tool that enables the City to draw down the necessary federal dollars for implementation. On-the-ground improvements start here — please weigh in!

For those of you who have filled out our survey and petition over the past few years, don’t worry — we’re providing all of it to the City. If you have some time, please also fill out the City’s materials.

Sam Rittenberg Redesign Plan

» Petition HERE

If you were unable to attend the City of Charleston’s public information meeting in December 2025, you can review the conceptual designs and analysis report here, and provide comments via the project’s interactive map here. The concept uses existing right-of-way to create a more functional, welcoming and comfortable street through the use of landscaped medians, updated signalization, wide paths for walking and bicycling, and improved lighting.

The City’s next steps are to complete 30% of the design for two phases, from Charles Towne Drive to Ashley Hall Road, and Ashley Hall Road to Ashley River Road. At that point, the project will be a solid candidate for grants. We at Charleston Moves want to encourage continued forward momentum, so we have started a petition. Please add your name! We hope the City will be able to use this to demonstrate widespread support in their grant applications.

Highway 61 Safety Improvements

» Sign our petition

Following Road Safety Audits conducted by SCDOT in February and March of 2023, in partnership with stakeholders including Charleston Moves, the agency presented findings and recommendations for the public’s review and input. While the comment period has closed, our petition in support of separated bike lanes and an improved crossing at the intersection of 61 and the Maryville Bikeway is still open.

We submitted signatures received so far along with our comment letter to SCDOT. We will resubmit the signatures (as well as new ones) to the agency once SCDOT revises their concepts and brings them back for further review.

North Charleston Needs Safe Transportation Access

» Sign our petition

Where Do You Want To Walk + Bike In North Charleston?

» Take our survey

We want to know where you currently walk and bike in North Charleston, and where you want to see improvements made to enable more and safer multi-modal trips. Thanks in advance for your input!

Cross the Cut

» Sign our petition