THE LATEST

As of October 2025, Charleston County staff reports that Phase 1 improvements (from Ellis Creek to Wilton Street) went out to bid again, and the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program paperwork was not filled out correctly. USDOT is requiring the project to go out for bid yet again.

On January 14, 2026, the Rethink Folly Steering Committee held its first meeting of the new year, electing a new chair (Charleston City Councilmember Skardon) and vice chair (James Island Town Councilmember Drayton-Crumblin). These council members and Charleston Moves staff will develop a draft work plan for the committee for the year, in order to encourage forward momentum. 

As of January 19, 2026, SCDOT has also updated the Folly Road RSA website to include refined safety concepts after last year’s second public input session. As a reminder, the local benefits of raised medians can be found HERE (“Raised Median Safety Data” presented to the Town of Mount Pleasant’s Transportation Committee, starting at 5:47:32).

DESCRIPTION

Rethink Folly Road is a multi-jurisdictional plan to improve the Folly Road corridor from the Wappoo Cut Bridge to Folly Beach, developed with the community and officially adopted in 2016, with zoning overlay amendments made across jurisdictions over the following years (find the Town of James Island’s language HERE, which is consistent for the City of Charleston, Charleston County, and City of Folly Beach from the intersection of Tatum Road south to Folly River). This new vision for Folly Road focuses on making the street safe, connected, sustainable, actively commercial, and coordinated. With the plan in place, implementation is guided by the Rethink Folly Road Steering Committee. Charleston Moves serves on this committee, alongside property and business owners, partnering nonprofits, and staff and elected officials from the Town of James Island, City of Charleston, Charleston County, City of Folly Beach, BCDCOG, and the state legislature.

HISTORY

Rethink Folly Road was approved in 2016. The Steering Committee began meeting immediately, and by November 2017, identified Phase 1 as the segment of Folly Road with the highest collision rates. Phase 1 begins at Ellis Creek, and extends just past Wal Mart to Wilton Street. Working together to earn funding from the 2016 Half-Cent Sales Tax (TST), federal dollars, the Town of James Island and the City of Charleston, a design has been developed for wide sidewalks, three improved intersection crossings, wider bike lanes with intermittent green paint, and an improved transit stop. The improvements are now ready for construction.

As part of the Folly Road zoning overlay (passed by the Cities, Town and County), the Steering Committee developed an updated requirement for redevelopment projects to install a 12’ multiuse path along their parcel’s frontage. This requirement was updated into the Overlay, and is flexible depending on each property’s context. Because of this overlay requirement, many parcels along the corridor now have paths that will someday link together. As each redevelopment opportunity goes through required permitting, Charleston Moves staff monitors the project and ensures each property owner does their path.

In May 2023, Charleston Moves staff joined the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) and their consultants, as well as FHWA, the City of Charleston, Charleston County, Town of James Island, James Island Public Service District, and the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments (BCDCOG) for a Road Safety Audit of Folly Road from Old Folly Road to Old Folly Beach Road. We’ve proposed various bike/ped improvements, including the likes of a multi-use path, better CARTA access, access management (eliminating driveways and slip lanes), people-oriented intersections, narrowed travel lanes, and more. This section of Folly Road experienced 2,103 vehicular, 15 pedestrian, and 21 bicycle crashes from January 2018 to December 2022. A total of 525 crashes resulted in injury and 6 crashes resulted in a fatality. 

The audit is a separate but related process to the Rethink Folly Road Plan. 

In November 2024, SCDOT hosted a public input meeting. Despite participation in the audit process, specific municipalities requested an additional public input session, which took place in May 2025. After two public input drop-ins, SCDOT refined the concepts and updated the project website in January 2026, with the latest concepts found HERE.