Isle of Palms Connector
THE LATEST
In June 2023, SCDOT presented the results of their community survey to the Town of Mount Pleasant’s Transportation Committee. Those results indicated the highest public support for either keeping the Connector as-is, with buffered bike/ped lanes on each side, or removing the bike/ped lanes and adding an additional lane of traffic coming off the island (a narrower bike/ped path would be placed along one side only, and would necessitate removal of existing multi-use paths in Mount Pleasant). At this meeting, public safety officials reiterated that emergency access is not an issue with the current configuration, and in fact collisions have reduced in number since the current configuration was striped. Mayor Haynie made it clear that the Town supports the current striping, and changing it would be “a solution in search of a problem.” The same presentation was given to the City of Isle of Palms Council a few weeks prior, and Council voted to support the alternative (“option 5”) that would add a lane of traffic off the island. This vote was not unanimous. SCDOT is developing more detailed designs, impacts and a cost estimate for Option 5, and will return to both jurisdictions with that analysis.
DESCRIPTION
In 2021, SCDOT restriped the Isle of Palms Connector to better accommodate people biking, walking and running. The new configuration includes the first buffered bike lane in the region, and the first instance of the state utilizing green visibility paint. This restriping included narrowing the median and lowering the speed limit. Since installation, there have been fewer vehicle collisions.
