HISTORY

2025: The City of Isle of Palms and BCDCOG draft a Mobility Study to evaluate existing bike and pedestrian infrastructure on Isle of Palms, and identify gaps and deficiencies that create safety, connectivity, and maintenance concerns. Council states that study will not include the IOP Connector. 

2024-2025: Isle of Palms City Council continues to discuss alternative designs to the Connector, and whether the County, Town, and state should contribute funding towards traffic studies. 

Summer 2023: SCDOT gives presentations on IOP Connector survey results and alternative designs to both the City of Isle of Palms and the Town of Mount Pleasant. Mount Pleasant sees the alternatives as “a solution in search of a problem” and supports the configuration as-is. Isle of Palms requests SCDOT further study adding a lane of traffic coming off the island, shoving all bike/ped to one side of the bridge, and removing one of the Town of Mount Pleasant’s existing multi-use paths. 

Early 2023: SCDOT puts forward five alternate configurations for public comment. All of the new concepts shift bike/ped to one side of the Connector, cut the overall dedicated space for vulnerable road users nearly in half (putting bi-directional bike/ped traffic together in a smaller space than Wonders’ Way and without a physical barrier), require the Town of Mount Pleasant to remove an existing multi-use path between Rifle Range Road and the Connector itself, and prevent planned upcoming projects that would add bike capacity and vehicular efficiency along this segment. The current configuration is one that did not take away from legally usable space for motor vehicles — nothing changed about where people should drive before, and where they may drive now.

From SCDOT’s summary report of the public survey: “Based on the near identical high ratings garnered for both the existing conditions and Concept 5, the majority of comments received for the vision of the bridge and the priority ranking of existing conditions, it may be difficult to support making any changes to the bridge solely from the results of this survey.”

2022: The City of Isle of Palms expresses concerns about emergency response capabilities following the restriping, and requests SCDOT commission a third-party analysis of both operations and alternate designs for the Connector. Following presentations of the analysis to Isle of Palms and the Town of Mount Pleasant, we learn that the restriping did not impact emergency response times, and the overall number of crashes have actually decreased. IOP Councilmembers note that motorists are following state law by slowing and moving to the right upon hearing sirens.

Spring/Summer 2021: SCDOT completes the IOP Connector restriping and users send Charleston Moves testimonials.* 

Early 2021: SCDOT publicly releases their proposal to add bike and pedestrian infrastructure to the IOP Connector, including

• SCDOT’s first buffered bike lanes, which offers 3’6″ separation between the motor vehicle lane and bike lane
• demarcated pedestrian lane of 5′ and bike lane of 4’6″ on both sides
• intermittent segments of green paint with bike markings to draw attention to this people-oriented space and enhance safety
• reduced speed limit from 55 mph to 45 mph

SCDOT presents to the City of Isle of Palms’ Public Safety Committee, and the Committee advertises the opportunity for public comment in advance and during the meeting. The majority of public comments received support SCDOT’s restriping proposal. 

Separately, the Town of Mount Pleasant finalizes and adopts the Mount Pleasant Way Master Plan. 

2020: Kris Cotton and Captain Wayne Magwood are killed along Charleston County’s portion of the East Coast Greenway within a span of two weeks. These tragedies spur regular conversations between Charleston Moves, the East Coast Greenway Alliance (ECGA) and SCDOT leadership about how South Carolina’s portion of the ECG could be improved to safely accommodate people walking, biking and running. We specifically talked about what opportunities there might be to address several areas, including the Isle of Palms Connector. Making the Connector comfortable and accessible has become even more important during the temporary closure of the parallel shared-use path along Ben Sawyer Boulevard. 

2019: The Town of Mount Pleasant’s Comprehensive Master Plan and Long Range Transportation Plan, which includes the development of the Mount Pleasant Way walking and biking system, identifies the importance of safe infrastructure leading to the Connector itself. 

2017: The IOP Connector is identified as part of a regional walk/bike route (ECG), and for proposed improvements as a high-stress corridor, in Walk Bike BCD (the tri-county’s master bike/ped plan)

*IOP Connector User Testimonials

[Spring/Summer 2021]

“A hot 5 miler with the one who always says yes to a run with me. Also, please note, we are not the only ones braving the heat out on the connector today! Thank goodness for those improved lanes keeping us just a bit safer. Now if they could just get a good cleaning.”

“Cycling is a part of my life, so safe bike access in my community means a great deal to me. Getting around pedal-powered on two wheels is my preferred method of transportation, but it has become more and more dangerous. As people move to Charleston in droves we become a more diverse and dynamic city, but with that influx brings more cars on the road. And the advances in technology these days are amazing, but the technology creates more distracted drivers. This combo is not great for cyclists. Which is why it is so important to create a safe way for bicycles to get around, and why I am a HUGE fan of Charleston Moves – the organization is steadily pushing for and creating safe and connected bike/ped access all over Charleston County. I love the new dedicated bike lanes on the IOP Connector, they are but one piece of a much greater vision for an interconnected network of bike lanes, crosswalks and sidewalks that canvas the entire county. I am anxiously awaiting the day that I can ride on a protected and safe bike path from IOP all the way to my home on Johns Island.”

“This is sooo nice! You made a lot of folks happy with this!”

“…Several of our riders said they feel safer riding their bikes over the connector now that there is a bike lane. The buffer zone between the car lane and the bike lane is especially appreciated.”

“As an avid and regular cyclist, having safe, visibly marked and ideally, separated, bike lanes means that I can ride with much less worry. More importantly, it means people who are much less confident on a bike than I am will feel comfortable and be encouraged to ride instead of drive. But I urge SCDOT and local jurisdictions to ensure lanes are not only marked, but cleaned regularly, do debris and trash does not further jeopardize safety.” 

“I felt very safe using the bike path as this is only the second bridge in Charleston that welcomes bikes and peds. In addition, the green bike lane markers are constant reminders to vehicle drivers that bikes and peds are ‘legally’ on the bridge – be careful.”

“When I ride the IOP connector now, compared to the past, I experience a peace of mind that I’m safe. This is how it should be, for everyone, everywhere.”

“I did 32 miles Sunday on my bike (I’m 51, type 2 diabetic, and trying to live more healthily), across the connector, and I do love the newly painted lanes.  I definitely feel safer knowing that these changes make the delineation more visible to cars, decreasing the chance that they’ll be complacent with the lines on the road.  I even used this new improvement to convince my wife to be ok w/ me making the trip as we are both very concerned about distracted drivers.”

“Thank you for this amazing opportunity for Charleston! This was not for nothing…this was everything today! I felt safer than I ever have on the IOP connector and am so thankful to be able to get out!!! This beautiful city needs more green paint. In July we bought a Peloton because I have a family and was starting to feel less safe everyday. I am so grateful for this opportunity to get back on my bike!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!”

“The new lanes with a divider that creates space away from the cars make it so much safer to ride the IOP Connector. It also helps that the cars are no longer going 60+ mph…”

“Just me and the bike lane symbol enjoying a Sunday Morning spin across the marsh on the IOPC. SUPER work y’all are doing to give cyclists and pedestrians some more safe space”