Call

Blog

Law
02

Blog

“New Mobility” in Charleston

Charleston Bicycle Accident Attorney Timmy Finch reports on the future.

On Monday night I went to listen to Gabe Klein present recommendations for the City of Charleston to help the city move forward with a “New Mobility.” Right away, Klein proclaimed that he is not so much a fan of proposals and studies as he is in “getting things done.”

Good. We need some of that in Charleston and many other places around the country—especially when it comes to the changing transportation needs of growing cities.

Some of the things that Klein proposed were simple and effective; inexpensive street dividers/signs that remind motorists to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks where walk signals do not exist. Where signals do exist Klein proposed pedestrian “lead times” for crosswalk signals designed to give pedestrians a “head start.” The lead times would also help to clear the intersections and keep automobile traffic rolling. Bicycle signals could also be added later.

Another idea to clear crowded intersections is a “Barnes Dance” crossing at designed to have pedestrians moving diagonally across the streets while vehicular traffic is stopped in all directions. All of these things are being done in other cities.  One would think that there would be little debate about adding them to Charleston’s existing infrastructure.

[Ed. Note: We have been begging the City for years to have an Barnes Dance intersection at Calhoun and St. Philip.]

Other ideas have been bandied around for years; the light rail system from the airport to downtown. Adding a trolley loop to move people throughout the peninsula. We used to have a trolley. Interestingly, we would be going back to the future if the city resurrected the rail.

It all goes to the same goal: Changing the kind of congestion in this historic city. The goal for the city is to have congestion, but the right kind of congestion. We want the streets full of people and the sidewalks, too. We want the economy to continue to grow and for all users to be able to enjoy the streets of Charleston.

Charleston is very unique. It still has old, narrow streets that will never be paved through with thoroughfares. The internal structure of the city has remained intact. What needs to change is the way people move in and out of the city’s heart—the peninsula.

Activity is the future of transportation. In peninsular Charleston there must be an alternative to driving or “the city will choke on its own fumes.”

One change is about to be rolled out: a bike share similar to others in the country.

Some wonder if just putting people on bikes will make the problem worse. Many are familiar with cyclists that blow through lights, ride “upstream” and generally flout traffic laws.

Klein says the answer is more people on bikes, though. He explained that with a growth in the number of cyclists and the rise of a bike share program, there is a natural peer pressure for people to obey laws.

The accord with the traffic laws that frustrated drivers say is lacking from cyclists can be fixed. The answer may seem like a reward to bad behavior for drivers, but better cyclist behavior will come from changing the infrastructure to accommodate cyclists through dedicated bike lanes. “People ride differently when they feel like they have their own space,” said Klein.

In a city like Charleston with its narrow streets and historic architecture the answer comes from a less is more approach. The roads need to go on diets. By eliminating lanes for cars, dedicating them for cyclists and converting former travel lanes to turn lanes where appropriate, the cars will actually move more freely—alongside cyclists.

It’s time for the changes to start happening, though. Let’s hope the City’s leaders are more interested in getting things done rather than just being satisfied with the studies and proposals.

Comments

Ann Groninger Jan 04, 2024

Many of our cycling clients find themselves having to interact with the criminal justice system. Typically, it’s because the driver who hits them (or their family member) is charged with a crime or traffic offense. Occasionally bicyclists themselves are charged with traffic offenses! Every state’s criminal laws are different, but there is a lot of […]

Read More
Bike Crash Road Defect Georgia
Peter Wilborn Jun 14, 2023

We recently shared the story of a trial victory from the State of Texas where a bicyclist was injured due to a defect in a road maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation. Texas Road Defect   We now can tell the story of another huge win in a road defect case, this time from […]

Read More
Road defect dangerous to cyclists
Charlie Thomas Mar 14, 2023

Recently, attorneys with the Bike Law network took a case to a trial against a titan of a defendant: the Texas Department of Transportation. TxDOT was represented by the Attorney General’s Office, one of Texas’ largest legal teams. We had a great client, but it was a tough case to prove. So tough, in fact, […]

Read More
bike path charlotte
Ann Groninger Jan 13, 2023

  2023 got off to a rough start for Charlotte, North Carolina, particularly in the context of road safety. Within about a week, we lost a young woman who was riding her bicycle, a pedestrian killed in the same area of town, and four people were killed in a car wreck on I-85 in the […]

Read More
North Carolina Bike Crash
Ann Groninger Dec 06, 2022

Unless you’re a very recent follower of ours, you’ve heard us talk before about “contributory negligence.” To recap: “pure contributory negligence” is the law in North Carolina and only 3 other states (Alabama, Virginia, Maryland). In pure contributory negligence states, if a person is injured by someone else’s fault and the injured person contributes even […]

Read More
Is It Illegal to Ride Your Bike on the Sidewalk bikelaw
Peter Wilborn Aug 01, 2022

The laws dictating whether you can ride your bike on the sidewalk differ depending where you live. Different states have different laws on this matter, and local ordinances also vary. Let’s take a look at the legal framework behind various state laws related to cycling on sidewalks. The laws of sidewalk-riding can be very complicated […]

Read More
Ebike crash
Bruce Hagen Apr 26, 2022

DRIVER ON METH KILLS 17 YEAR OLD BICYCLIST, BARROW COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY REFUSES TO CHARGE DRIVER WITH FELONY.   On August 23, 2020, at approximately 8:40pm, 17-year old Obianuju Osuegbu was on her way home from her summer job working at a grocery store. She had earned enough money that summer to buy herself a […]

Read More
Stop as Yield
Brian Weiss Apr 25, 2022

Finally, “Stop As Yield” (the much sought after common sense traffic law for bicyclists) is coming to Colorado in 2022, likely July 1st.   Stop as Yield, aka the “Safety Stop” After the Governor Polis signs the law and the Safety Stop becomes effective, anyone who rides a bicycle or scooter on public roads will […]

Read More
Contributory Negligence
Ann Groninger Apr 25, 2022

It took losing at trial and a long appellate process, but it ended in a blow to contributory negligence in North Carolina. We just won an appeal on a bicycle crash case that happened in 2016 and came to us in 2018. The case went to trial during the spring of 2021. Our client was […]

Read More
Load More