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Johns Islanders and everybody else who travels along the island's main roads
are frustrated with the bumper-to-bumper traffic and number of accidents.
Traffic engineers have for years been studying possibilities to solve the
island's traffic woes. But while most residents agree there is a traffic
problem, there's never been a consensus on a solution.
And the latest traffic projections show Johns Island would benefit most from
a new cross-island parkway, but everyone living on the island isn't
convinced.
In October, Charleston County's Roadwise and its study consultants,
TranSystems, held a public input session where residents could share their
thoughts. The meeting was held to update an outdated 2001 traffic study to
include zoning, development and population changes.
Roadwise and TranSystems took the comments from the previous meeting and fed
information into the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments'
digital maps that project future conditions and calculated traffic volumes.
They came up with about 50 alternatives. The top three options for
alleviating traffic and the findings from the October meeting were presented
at a public session Wednesday at St. John's High School. More than 100
people attended.
TranSystems engineer Christopher Carlsten said they got about 350 comments,
nearly half from Johns Island residents. Eighty-four percent of respondents
agreed there is a traffic problem on the island.
Carlsten showed charts of the results, which indicate more people support
building a new corridor than widening Bohicket or River roads; that they
favor the proposed Mark Clark Expressway extension and widening Maybank
Highway and Main Road; and thing the county shouldn't just do nothing.
Johns Island resident Elizabeth Hanahan said she thinks I-526 is necessary
but that Bohicket and River roads should be left alone. She said if a
hurricane tore across the Lowcountry, they would need a main artery to
evacuate. "We will save a lot of lives," Hanahan said.
But lifelong resident and farmer Thomas Legare said even if they evacuated
using the Mark Clark, they'd be stalled as soon as they hit Interstate 26
toward Columbia.
Legare also argued that the 300 or so people who left comments in favor of a
new corridor at the October meeting were not representative of the thousands
of people living on Johns Island.
"How many more times are we going to have to stand up here and say no to a
cross-island parkway?" he said. Ideas for a cross-island expressway were
originally proposed in 1995.
But the study's maps projecting traffic in 2030 showed a cross- island
parkway would alleviate traffic most as opposed to widening River or
Bohicket roads, or doing nothing at all. However, if the Mark Clark is
extended and the cross-island expressway is built, there would be poor
traffic conditions from the intersection of River Road and Maybank Highway
to near Plow Ground Road.
Legare and others talked about the results from a design charrette hosted
last month by The Concerned Citizens of the Sea Islands and the Coastal
Conservation League. Traffic consultants found it better to develop a grid
system for roads that would diffuse traffic than to build new main streets.
Safety and the environmental impact of building new roads were key issues
other residents brought up. A few residents shared their frustrations about
whether the county would be building new roads to accommodate the planned
four-day PGA Championship on Kiawah Island in 2012.
Several residents said they didn't want to see the island lose its rural
feel and wouldn't want a parkway that would make Johns Island look like
Johnnie Dodds Boulevard.
County Councilman Paul Thurmond said he gathered by the end of the meeting
that "it appears the best option is a cross-island, limited-access parkway."
Councilman Curtis Inabinett also attended.
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