Charleston, South Carolina – Several concerns have been raised about pedestrian and cycling safety when driving across the North Bridge to and from West Ashley and North Charleston on Cosgrove Avenue.
A new resolution may include modifications to the North Bridge or possibly replace it entirely.
The Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester Council of Governments, along with its Charleston Area Transportation Study Committee, addressed pedestrian and cycling safety problems on the bridge.
“Every single time I’ve been through there a thousand times, and it’s well travelled every day, I always end up seeing one or two people on a bicycle or a just by foot weaving their way through those little lines in between them and the median, and I’m always looking to not hit them,” Bryan Evans, a resident of West Ashley, told me.
South Carolina State Sen. Ed Sutton, who represents District 20, said such measures are long overdue.
“The topic has now switched to how horrible this bridge is overall. Instead than attempting to build a single bridge, let’s simply replace the entire bridge. Because 70 years is a long time for a bridge, particularly in an area with a lot of salt in the air,” Sutton explained.
Charleston Moves, a non-profit organization that fights for infrastructure safety, reports that five individuals have died while riding their bikes over the bridge in the last five years.
“What we have, unfortunately, is people dying ever year on that bridge because they’re going down the median-you see it every single day and sometimes they’ll get hit by a vehicle and unfortunately lose their life,” Sutton told the crowd.
According to Sutton, several of individuals who died while walking this bridge were likely on their way to or from work.
“I’ve seen them in a state of war quite often. “It appears that one little trip results in an accident for one person and possibly a pile-up for everyone,” Evans added.
Traffic and growth concerns
As the Lowcountry grows, traffic has become an issue for the majority of inhabitants. Sutton believes the project has the potential to provide more than just safety benefits.
“Because if we can create multiple different ways for people to get around and everyone’s not relying on their car, that does lead to less congestion on the road,” he told me.
Evans expressed his desire to see sufficient infrastructure for a city like Charleston, citing the fact that expansion is inevitable.
“With everything going in, we need a lot of different little tiny changes to the traffic instead,” Evans pointed out.
The project is still in its early phases, but it has the potential to change this section of the Ashley River. Sutton expressed hope after reaching this milestone.
The next stages could include receiving approval from the South Carolina Department of Transportation, as well as other municipal governments.
