As many communities across South Carolina grow, local governments seek to improve pedestrian infrastructure and help residents travel without relying solely on cars. Sidewalk expansions, multiuse paths and other pedestrian improvements are becoming a key part of transportation planning, often connecting neighborhoods with schools, parks, jobs and commercial areas.
Few places have been as enthusiastic about addressing the transportation challenges that come with substantial population growth as the Town of Mount Pleasant, where sidewalk projects are part of a broader strategy to connect neighborhoods with other parts of the community.
“All of this comes down to safety and the ability for people to walk and bike and recreate in their own community,” said James Aton, the town’s deputy director of capital projects and transportation.
One major example is the Mathis Ferry Road project, which will extend safety improvements for pedestrians and cyclists from Eagle Street to U.S. Highway 17. The corridor, which serves a large residential population, is a key segment of the “Mount Pleasant Way,” a townwide network of shared-use paths. The project received federal funding through the SC Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets and Roads for All program.
“We do a comprehensive plan and update every five years and we go to the citizenry and we ask them, ‘what do y’all want to see?’ Of course, the first thing that comes up is improvements in traffic. But closely behind that is the ability to walk and bike in the community,” Aton said. “So that really spurred this idea of the Mount Pleasant Way.”
Mount Pleasant also prioritized projects that improve access to schools and community facilities. In the Brickyard Plantation area, a sidewalk installation project will create safer routes for students walking to Laing Middle School and Jennie Moore Elementary School. The Ben Marino Way Micromobility Project will allow residents to safely walk or bike between the Carolina Park Recreation Facility and Oceanside Collegiate Academy, where activities often require walking between the two. Oceanside is providing part of the funding for the project.
Other planned large-scale projects include a shared-use path for the Isle of Palms Connector, replacing the existing sidewalk with a wider multiuse path and improved lighting.
On Coleman Boulevard, the town is adding more than 2,300 feet of dedicated bike lanes separating cyclists from pedestrians and vehicles. Beyond completing a bike lane along the boulevard’s entire length, the project will include specialized signals that detect approaching cyclists and give them their own dedicated green light — similar to pedestrian crossing signals, but fully automated. Thermal cameras at intersections will detect cyclists in the bike lane and temporarily stop vehicle traffic to allow cyclists to proceed safely.
“We are also planning more mid-block crossings — those are those rectangular rapid flashing beacons that are pedestrian activated — that help incentivize [walking,]” Aton said.
These projects are supported by the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments and the SCDOT, which have helped the town secure funding for several major improvements, including $1.2 million for the Coleman Boulevard project and nearly $500,000 for the Isle of Palms Connector path.
In nearby Moncks Corner, officials are preparing for one of their most significant pedestrian infrastructure efforts yet. The town recently secured more than $1.2 million in funding from the SCDOT to build a new sidewalk corridor along R.C. Dennis Boulevard and Stony Landing Road. The project will add about 8,600 feet of 6-foot-wide sidewalk.
“There were four or five neighborhoods that were built with a sidewalk network, but their network didn't connect to the rest of town,” Town Administrator Jeff Lord said.
Those disconnected systems created challenges for residents who wanted to walk to nearby destinations.
“In the neighborhood closest to the elementary school, students couldn't walk to the school without stepping off the sidewalk,” Lord says.
The sidewalk will connect four residential neighborhoods — three within town limits and one just outside — to schools, parks and existing pedestrian infrastructure that leads into the downtown area.
“We really wanted to try to connect those neighborhoods, to the school and to the network that leads you into downtown,” Lord says. “So the sidewalks in these neighborhoods just weren't for people who wanted to walk within the neighborhood, they wanted to go somewhere.”
The Moncks Corner project is funded through the Transportation Alternatives Program, which supports local projects that expand pedestrian and bicycle access. Town officials invested nearly $120,000 into preparing for the project.
“Before we did the application for the grant, we completed all of the engineering, we got all the right-of-way easements, so that when we did the application, it was as ready to go as it could possibly be,” Lord said. “The TAP grant program is very, very competitive. Going in with engineering done, easements done, you're handing in a complete project. It positions you to be able to get the grant.”
Like many infrastructure projects, pedestrian improvements can involve partnerships with residents, property owners and developers. In Moncks Corner, officials worked with neighborhood associations and developers to secure support and ensure connections between existing and future developments.
In the Upstate City of Clemson, it was residents who were behind one of the largest — and longest-coming — sidewalk projects, City Engineer Nathan Hinkle said of the Riggs Drive project.
The years spent bringing the project to fruition illustrate a critical issue in adding sidewalks to established neighborhoods — exactly where do they go, and on whose land? Disagreements among residents stalled the project many times, but it ultimately became the first project to successfully complete the city’s sidewalk petition process, which requires a two-thirds favorability among residents.
The key, Hinkle said, was when petitioners who supported adding sidewalks went door-to-door asking neighbors to add their names to the petition. Once the petition met the required threshold, the project advanced through the city’s planning process and was added to the capital improvement plan. The city combined the project with an American Rescue Plan Act-funded sewer project — reducing disruption and helping ensure improvements are completed in the proper order.
“We have a utilities-first program where we try to replace the utilities before we pave,” Hinkle said. “We had already done water work. We had already done sewer work, and we're getting ready to pave here later this year.”
The Riggs Drive project also demonstrates how developer partnerships can help to expand pedestrian networks and reduce costs to the city.
“Part of our requirement for any development, any commercial development is that they are required to install sidewalks. We had the developer of this parcel, that's adjacent to the work that we were planning, execute that portion of the work on the behalf of the city,” Hinkle said. “It actually gave us the ability to extend the sidewalk up to city limits.”
The City of Clemson also pursued other pedestrian projects driven by safety concerns and community needs. The Abel Road and Raven Lane project, for example, grew from a simple observation by city staff.
“There's a community center that is about 900 feet from one of the city parks and they were walking students from the community center to the park in the middle of the road,” Hinkle said.
Initially, the city planned a short sidewalk segment connecting the facilities, but grant funding allowed it to expand the effort.
Clemson also uses data-driven planning to identify areas most in need of sidewalks. The city evaluates factors such as bus stops, buildings and other “pedestrian generators” to determine priorities as well as community input.
“We've worked with some of Clemson University’s engineering students and developed a needs-based assessment,” Hinkle said. “I think it's really just listening to your residents and then explaining the benefits to everybody.”