FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCSC) - Folly Beach residents came out to an informational drop-in session Thursday night to review the city’s Safety Action Plan and had the opportunity to provide feedback on the study.

The goal is to come up with a plan of potential opportunities to enhance safety on Folly Beach roads for pedestrians and drivers.

The city started developing the Safety Action Plan earlier this year and since then they have been collecting and analyzing data based on crashes that happened in the city between 2017 and 2023. The study goes into more detail about where the crashes occurred, how severe they were, what kind of crash it was whether it be vehicular, pedestrian or bicyclist, as well as when it happened.

The transportation planner for Kimley-Horn who is helping conduct this study, Laura Kelly, said that they have looked at various areas to help improve roadway conditions.

“SCDOT has a traffic-calming program that we would consider partnering with and doing speed cushions along the island in low speed and low volume areas,” Kelly said. “Indian Avenue and Center Street as kind of like a mobility project, so we did sketch a roundabout here as a potential opportunity, but we definitely wanted to engage the public at this point and hear from them what they’d like to see.”

Along with improving mobility, additional bicyclist and pedestrian safety measures are a key part of this plan. Some potential ideas include a multi-use path, pedestrian refuge spaces, which are safe designated areas for pedestrians to cross the street, as well as additional lighting.

“Looking at pedestrian and bicyclist crashes things are pretty spread out throughout, so we’re of course taking a focus on Center Street where there are the highest traffic volumes, but we’re also looking at both ends of the island and then also the causeway,” Kelly said.

Residents and community members who went to the meeting mentioned concerns of bicyclist and pedestrian safety along various parts of the city, especially Ashley Avenue and Center Street.

“Coming to Folly is such a fantastic place to walk around and bike around, but we do have a history of crashes and being able to mitigate those and reduce them and hopefully get rid of all injuries and fatalities over time would be great,” Folly Beach resident Kyle James said.

He said that he heard similar comments from other residents who came out to the meeting as well.

“Talking with residents who have been here even longer than me. Getting kind of the history and what they want their city to feel like over time and how it’s shifted and that the need for more biking and pedestrian infrastructure has grown and it’s kind of come to the forefront,” James said.

After Thursday’s meeting, Kelly said that they will take the feedback that they got, put together a final list of potential projects and submit a grant application for them in the spring to the United States Department of Transportation Safe Streets and Roads for All Program.

If that grant is awarded Kelly said the city could then begin putting some of those projects under contract.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCSC) - The City of Folly Beach has been working on developing a plan in hopes of reducing car accidents and creating safer roads for pedestrians and drivers.

In April, the City approved a contract to develop this Safety Action Plan and leaders have been working on taking the necessary steps to create the most beneficial plan possible ever since.

Some steps they are taking to develop this plan include meeting with community members and stakeholders to get a sense of what improvements should be prioritized. They are also gathering data and audits about the roads, speed limits, and incident locations in the city.

Their hope is to collect all this information, create the Safety Action Plan based on it and then implement those plans.

The city has gathered crash statistics and data regarding pedestrians in the area so they can look at what improvements are needed as part of this comprehensive plan. Thursday evening the city is hosting a public meeting to present this data to the community and gather feedback on what safety improvements they would like to see.

The city is looking to narrow down the necessary projects and problem areas. For example, there have been several pedestrian incidents near Center Street, so that may be a project area they choose to prioritize.

Katie Zimmerman is the executive director of Charleston Moves, an organization that works toward building a safer and more accessible community for pedestrians and cyclists.

She says she anticipates this plan will take a year to complete before they can take action, but she shared how important this process is for community members to express their feedback.

“The best thing from the community is just to continue to participate in the process and make sure folks are letting the planners know what they’ve experienced, and also what their ideas are for safety improvements and where,” Zimmerman says. “You know, most of us are not engineers, but we certainly have experienced the situation in the community, not just Folly Beach, but throughout the county. It’s pretty dangerous for those of us who are biking and walking.”

Zimmerman says that pedestrian safety is a major issue across not just the Lowcountry, but throughout South Carolina.

Many other cities and municipalities have chosen to also develop Safety Action Plans and Zimmerman hopes those can help bring more of these changes to the Lowcountry and encourage a connected, safe environment for pedestrians.

Zimmerman says that, to bring these plans to fruition, the council must implement certain policies aimed at eliminating pedestrian fatalities and develop the plan so they can qualify for federal funding for the actual installation of these projects. Those also help them to better leverage future project plans.

One of these policies is a “Target Zero Plan,” which would set a goal to get the number of traffic fatalities down to zero by a certain year.

Zimmerman says pedestrians, and human beings in general, need to be the top priority.

“Everywhere pedestrians should be No. 1 in transportation planning,” she says. “Human beings are the most vulnerable, especially when they’re not in a car and obviously cars are now being built to be safer for people in the cars and not as safe for people who are outside of the cars, so we have a situation on our hands. South Carolina is a dangerous place for vulnerable road users.”

To Zimmerman, intersections, bridges and paths should be designed so well that it is safe enough for an 8-year-old to cross it, and she hopes that is what comes of the Safety Action Plan.

Thursday evening, the City of Folly Beach will be hosting its last scheduled informational drop-in session to gather community feedback on the development of the Safety Action Plan.

The meeting will be from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and will take place at the Folly Beach Community Center located at 55 Center Street. The meeting is open for anyone to come and provide their input.

More information on the meeting as well as some of the crash data that will be presented can be found here.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.