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Kenneth Goodwin checked for oncoming traffic before guiding his motorized chair across Rivers Avenue. He had just rolled away from the grassy median that divides the six-lane highway when a 2013 Chevrolet Suburban smashed into his side, toppling his mobility scooter and tossing him to the ground. The next thing he remembers is waking up in a hospital to fiery pain shooting along his ribs and back.
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It’s dotted with businesses and neighborhoods, but only has scattered sidewalks and miles with no crosswalks at all. It’s also among Charleston County’s deadliest roads. Kenneth Goodwin holds the steering wheel of his scooter along the sidewalk of Rivers Avenue, Aug.
19, 2024, in North Charleston. A workplace injury to his back that didn’t heal correctly forced Goodwin to rely on his motorized chair. With no other means of transportation, he is left to roll along the road or make a daunting break across six lanes of traffic.
It may not be safe, but he says it’s his only choice. "I ain't scared of nothing, but know what I am scared of? A car hitting me again," Goodwin said. He isn’t alone.
Cars hit pedestrians, on average, almost every other day in Charleston County. Some don’t survive the impact. Another Patriot Villas resident died over the summer after a vehicle hit him in nearly the same spot on Rivers Avenue as Goodwin’s crash.
63-year-old pedestrian dies after being hit by vehicle off Rivers Avenue in North Charleston A Post and Courier analysis of recent pedestrian deaths revealed they’re mostly happening on the same five roads — all of which are owned by the S.C. Department of Transportation.
Experts say a safety overhaul is needed, with roadways redesigned to prioritize pedestrians and cyclists, as well as vehicles. But the to-do list is long. Any changes come with a hefty price tag and often take years to materialize.
The pot of money to make Charleston County’s roads more walkable and bikeable is the same size today as it was 20 years ago, even as the population has boomed, bringing more cars, more people and more danger to its streets. And those dollars could get nixed altogether by voters on Election Day. Even if the transportation tax referendum passes, many believe there’s still not enough money to address the issue.
As overwhelmed state and local agencies work to sort through the red tape, droves of pedestrians keep dying. Despite South Carolina being one of the smaller states in terms of total area, its Department of Transportation is the fourth-largest in the nation in terms of miles of roads owned. It controls 41,500 miles of roadways — the same number of miles it would take to drive round-trip from Charleston to Seattle seven times.
This leaves the state with a laundry list of projects that need to be done and local officials with less power to fix the roads that directly affect their residents. South Carolina is tied with Louisiana as the third-deadliest state for pedestrians, based on a fatality rate adjusted for population, a new report found . Only New Mexico and Florida have worse rates.
Why are so many pedestrians dying on South Carolina roads? Nearly 1,000 pedestrians and cyclists were killed in the Palmetto State from 2018 to 2022, according to the most recent data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Charleston also stands out among cities across the country. It’s the ninth-deadliest area for pedestrians in the nation, according to a report released this spring .
About 1,800 pedestrians and cyclists were injured by vehicles in Charleston County alone from 2018 to September 2024, the most recent data available, according to the state Department of Public Safety. That's enough people to fill the Charleston Gaillard Center to capacity. Drivers killed more than 150 people in Charleston County.
More than half of those deaths occurred on the same five state-owned roads that were all designed to move cars quickly, an analysis by The Post and Courier found. The deadliest roads are: No matter where the crashes occur, older, poorer people of color tend to be killed most often, according to national reports and local findings. Impoverished neighborhoods are often home to people who depend on walking and public transportation to get to where they need to go.
These same neighborhoods have historically been less likely to see investments in road safety improvements. Some skeptics are quick to note the behavior of pedestrians can contribute to the crashes that maim or kill them. In fact, the North Charleston officer who responded to Goodwin’s collision noted his actions contributed to the September 2023 crash.
But experts agree street design is a factor that contributes to high death rates. Bad road design can encourage unsafe behavior. It’s reasonable to expect people to make their own crosswalk on long corridors that lack them, said regional planner Kyle James with the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments.
There is “a larger policy discussion about if somebody crosses the street and gets hit by a car, is that the fault of the user? Or is it a result of the design?” according to James. Addressing infrastructure has the potential to save the most lives, he said. Though none of the deadliest roads are located on the Charleston peninsula, many pedestrian and bike collisions occurred there.
Streets on the historic peninsula were designed with horse-drawn carriages in mind, so they’re quite narrow by today’s standards. This helps slow cars down, which can help stop collisions from turning fatal. But it also means there is no additional room to make new accommodations for pedestrians as residents and tourists pour into the area.
Posters made by Lynette Ranz after her daughter was killed as a pedestrian in Charleston 10 years ago sit in the living room of her home, July 25, 2024, in North Charleston. Lindsey Taylor Ranz was a happy, outgoing College of Charleston junior. The 21-year-old who bartended for extra cash had recently completed a modeling gig.
And she was a creative artist who loved dance and theater. But she would never return home after setting out on a jog one January evening in 2014. A pickup truck struck her as she crossed the dimly-lit intersection of Coming Street and the Septima P.
Clark Parkway, a section of U.S. Highway 17 that is better known to locals as the Crosstown.
Ranz was the second CofC student to die at that intersection in less than a year and a half. A memorial in honor of Lindsey Taylor Ranz sits at the corner of Coming Street and the Crosstown. Her mother has advocated for pedestrian safety since her death 10 years ago.
The DOT, which owns the Crosstown and the sprawling Highway 17 it's a part of, launched a safety audit after Ranz's mother rallied lawmakers. There were plans for big changes, including a new pedestrian bridge that would safely straddle the six-lane highway. But they never materialized.
Instead, officials adjusted the timing of traffic lights and made largely cosmetic charges . And pedestrians kept dying. Next came the deaths of 57-year-old Dwayne Stanley and 25-year-old Benjamin J.
Fricke. They died at the same intersection as Ranz in 2016 and 2018, respectively. Then James Watterson, 26; George Liles, 65; and Belinda Prim, 66, died at nearby intersections along the peninsula's deadliest road, which stretches from Coming Street to the medical district.
The DOT was conducting a road audit when Prim was struck in June 2023 by a Folly Beach police officer on his way to work. The audit is still underway. Completed in the late 1960s, the Crosstown sliced through a predominantly Black neighborhood, destroying about 150 homes and drawing a clear line through the peninsula.
It was later renamed the Septima P. Clark Parkway in honor of an educator and activist Martin Luther King Jr. called "the mother of the civil rights movement.
” A pedestrian bridge stretches over the parkway near Rutledge Avenue and the Mitchell Playground, but the pathway was built in 1975 when pedestrian traffic patterns were different. The entrance is tucked away from the main road and easy to miss. Some who traverse the Crosstown called it “unhelpful” and “obsolete.
” Today, that section of Highway 17 separates the main campus of the Medical University of South Carolina from parking lots and food options. It's common to see scrub-clad medical students and personnel dart across the lanes of traffic. Belinda Prim's picture sits at the corner of President Street and the Crosstown.
She was hit by an off-duty police officer while crossing the street in June 2023 and died two days later. The design is “negligent,” according to Ronnie Richter, an attorney suing the DOT on behalf of Prim's family. "While politicians and the SCDOT hold meetings, conduct studies, publish statements and point fingers, the Crosstown remains a killing machine," he alleged in a pending lawsuit that was filed in the spring.
The DOT held a drop-in style public meeting on Oct. 29 to share its plans for the corridor. Proposed improvements along the entire Crosstown include refreshing faded and worn pavement markings, installing reflective borders to traffic lights, fixing existing lighting, wrapping utility cabinets at traffic lights with safety messaging, repairing sidewalks and trimming vegetation.
Specific changes will also come to eight intersections, including Coming Street, where Ranz and others were killed. That intersection will get a concrete median for right turns, a traffic signal for left turns and a repaired guardrail. The final design is expected to come in 2025.
Construction is planned for 2026. Lynette Ranz, who attended the meeting, said most of the changes sound "fluffy" or like routine maintenance. Though she feels like there are "not enough" improvements, she still supports anything that could prevent people from dying.
Even if, for her, the changes come more than a decade too late. Nearly 11 years after her daughter's death, Ranz’s grief remains fresh. She still can't force herself to smile while holding photos of her youngest child, unable to plaster joy on her face as she is reminded of Lindsey's sudden death.
"As time goes on, you never forget," Lynette Ranz said. "You carry it everywhere, 24/7." Lynette Ranz holds up a framed photo of her late daughter Lindsey, who was killed as a pedestrian in Charleston 10 years ago.
Relatively few deaths — but still some — have occurred in Mount Pleasant, compared to the rest of the county. The town has been proactive in trying to make its streets more walkable and bikeable for more than 20 years . It launched an initiative in 2023 aimed at reducing traffic-related fatalities.
As part of this, the town completed a safety action plan later that summer that outlined plans to make streets safer for nonmotorists. It also is aiming to create a network of multiuse paths that will link key portions of the town. “It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy in the sense that you have these facilities, more people are using them and drivers expect to see pedestrians,” said James Aton, Mount Pleasant’s deputy director of Engineering and Development Services.
While cities and towns can choose to wield their own budgets to fund pedestrian safety projects, the county plays an integral role in doling out cash and leveraging what it has to get more from other levels of government. “It’s driven from the top and the bottom,” Aton said. The county receives $3 million from a gas tax each year that goes toward a variety of projects.
These projects can be related to pedestrian safety, but aren’t exclusive to it, according to Devri DeToma, deputy director of Charleston County Public Works. The transportation sales tax funds $1 million that is dedicated to bike and pedestrian projects each year. But the amount has remained the same for the past 20 years, despite changes in inflation.
While this tax will continue through at least 2027, residents will decide its future this election cycle. It is rolled into a larger referendum that seeks to continue a half-percent sales tax to raise $5.4 billion over 25 years.
The tax would primarily fund the controversial Mark Clark Expressway Extension across Johns and James islands, but also includes funding for pedestrian and cyclist safety projects. Pro and Con: Both sides getting vocal on Mark Clark extension, transportation sales tax referendum Even if the referendum is passed, the tax “doesn’t do what we need it to do" in terms of addressing the full scope of necessary work, according to DeToma. But it's a welcome step, she said.
The tax proceeds would give the county a stable pot of money to work with, in conjunction with project-specific federal funding and its share of $10 million that DOT distributes throughout the state each year. But it’s still not enough to address the need, said Katie Zimmerman, executive director of Charleston Moves, a group that lobbies for roads that are safe for all types of users. Charleston County finalizes project list for sales tax referendum.
Here's what's on the ballot. As an average of 30 people move to the region every day and more than 7.9 million tourists flocked to the Charleston area in 2023, traffic is only getting worse.
Tim Keane, who was selected by Charleston Mayor William Cogswell to head the city's planning, permitting and engineering section, believes it's imperative for the county to make sure more people can walk and bike safely, as well as use public transportation or drive each day. "If we don't, traffic congestion will be phenomenally worse. If everyone has to drive to do everything, we're doomed," Keane said.
So much of the county has become a hot spot for pedestrian-auto crashes you could almost "throw a rock and pick a project" that needs to be done, according to James, the regional planner. Across the state, there are nearly 80 high-priority locations that need improvement, according to DOT’s 2022 pedestrian and bicycle safety action plan . There's so much to do in Charleston and elsewhere, the work can seem overwhelming, Zimmerman said.
In general, Keane recommends focusing efforts on bridging the gaps between existing infrastructure, roads that have the most interaction between pedestrians and quick-moving cars and streets that are in places where people depend on other forms of transportation. But that’s expensive and takes time, and the list of streets that need to be fixed is long. It also means the state is largely responding to issues.
“(The DOT) wants to be more proactive, but they can’t,” Zimmerman said. “It’s such a big problem to address all these safety measures, they’re just trying to keep their heads above the water.” The S.
C. Department of Transportation declined interview requests for this story, agreeing only to answer specific questions over email. The DOT did start focusing more on bike and pedestrian safety in 2021 when it adopted a “complete streets” policy that requires the design, construction and maintenance of all state roads to consider accommodating pedestrians and cyclists, and explain when it cannot.
But the policy is not a fail-safe. Charleston County leaves off anticipated pedestrian bridge for US 17 project. Here's why.
A proposed bike-and-pedestrian bridge was set to be built adjacent to the Limehouse Bridge over the Stono River. It was cut from a larger project aimed at relieving traffic congestion between West Ashley and Johns Island. DOT said it would not maintain the standalone bridge, calling it a “special feature” in a letter to Charleston County that was provided to The Post and Courier.
The county then removed the bridge from the project, citing a struggle to secure construction bids amid rising costs. This leaves behind a multimillion-dollar project with no proposal to accommodate non-drivers. In the world of transportation funding, cars still come first.
Plans have also stalled along another bridge in West Ashley. Kenneth Goodwin points across Rivers Avenue to the location where a friend of his was hit by a car when crossing the street in North Charleston. The World War II Memorial Bridge, commonly known as the North Bridge, runs along S.
C. Highway 7 and connects North Charleston to West Ashley. It has no dedicated space for pedestrians or cyclists.
At least three people have died attempting to cross the bridge since 2018. Studies to improve the bridge date back to 2008. But attempts to secure federal funding have repeatedly failed.
And plans to accommodate pedestrians and cyclists on a bridge from West Ashley to Charleston’s peninsula keep changing. The Federal Highway Administration in October 2023 signed off on a project design that routed pedestrians and cyclists to cross over Lockwood Drive at Bee Street, giving commuters direct access to the Medical District. Charleston County wants to pass a new roads tax.
Most projects still aren't completed from the last one. But Cogswell said he was concerned about the safety of that intersection. He unveiled plans on Sept.
24 to remove that crossing, diverting travelers north or south instead. This left the project proposal without any direct access to MUSC, which contributed $100,000 to the project. After criticism about diverting people away from one of the city's highest employers, a new iteration presented on Oct.
22 restored access to the Medical District. A plan for the eastern landing is not finalized, though construction is set to begin in mid-November. Charleston mayor presents design changes to Ashley River pedestrian bridge — again The new design would, however, connect the bridge to the existing West Ashley Greenway, a 10-mile path that runs just south of Highway 17, a mostly four-lane road that frequently sees quick-moving traffic.
The portion of Highway 17 known as Savannah Highway is one of the highest-risk corridors for pedestrians and cyclists in the county, along with the Ashley River Road, according to DOT. More than a dozen pedestrians have died along those two roads alone in the past five years, data shows. These cyclists have taken on dead gators and searing heat.
But Highway 17? No thanks. DOT and local governments have acted swiftly to make changes to some roads after tragedy struck, while other corridors are largely ignored. Morrison Drive is a major artery on the peninsula’s East Side that sees lots of interaction between people and quick-moving cars, which can be quite dangerous.
But while it’s nowhere near the top of the list in terms of frequent collisions between pedestrians and vehicles, improvements are already underway after its shortcomings were exposed this spring. Two 20-year-old women , including a College of Charleston student about to graduate, were killed in late April while walking in the bike lane along a portion of the road that has no sidewalk, just north of the pedestrian entrance to the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge.
'Inseparable' friends Arianna Gamber and Lizzy Zito died in Morrison Drive hit and run Heavy vegetation hangs over the bicycle lane. There isn't a crosswalk for another half-mile north. It's common for residents of the nearby Morrison Yard apartment complex and other passersby to walk about 100 paces in the road before the foliage turns into grass and they can hop up onto a well-worn path and out of the street.
In the wake of the double fatality, a new traffic light; crosswalk; and landscaped, raised median will be added to the road, DOT announced in July. Nearby developers had been advocating for the traffic light for years. The quick response shows the entities that own problematic roads can do a good job of “triaging” streets and retrofitting them, Zimmerman said.
A memorial for Lizzy Zito and Arianna Gamber stands along Morrison Drive, near the pedestrian entrance to the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. The S.
C. Department of Transportation made plans to change the road design after their April 2024 deaths. But not all roads see such swift changes.
At least six people — including Carlos Dunlap Sr., the father of Seattle Seahawks and Fort High School football star Carlos Dunlap II — have died along Ashley Phosphate since 2018, according to data from the Department of Public Safety. But despite the North Charleston road tallying some of the highest numbers of deaths in the county, nothing yet has come of a 2020 audit offering improvement concepts.
The state is still working on reviewing bids for construction, according to Moore, DOT’s spokesperson. Construction is expected to begin next year, Moore said — five years after the audit was initiated. Lowcountry residents facing 'nightmare' traffic welcome long awaited Dorchester Road improvements And plans for South Carolina’s first mass-transit system, which would run more than 20 miles from Ladson to Calhoun Street, have been in progress since 2019.
Charleston County's 2016 half-cent sales tax will fund 40 percent of the project. The federal government has committed to fund the rest of the project, up to $375 million. That agreement is expected to be finalized in the next two years.
The electric bus transportation system will run along Rivers Avenue. Currently, bus stops in a variety of conditions dot the road. Some have clear sidewalks leading to and from the stops and feature covers that shelter patrons from the elements.
Others are lonely benches, or a mere sign plopped down in overgrown grass. The project is expected to transform the corridor, with 8 miles of reconstructed sidewalks, 18 miles of mixed-use pathways, and nearly 35 new pedestrian crosswalks that will support walkers and bikers alongside the new public transportation system. One of its proposed stations is about a quarter-mile from Patriot Villas.
But the project will not be completed until 2029 — and that's if everything goes according to the current plan. "Between then and now, please be safe. Recognize that we're coming," Charleston Councilman Mike Seekings said at an Oct.
29 press conference about the planned improvements. Even as pedestrian deaths rise in Charleston area, sidewalks remain low priority Until the sidewalks — that can be cracked, overgrown and littered with trash — are reconstructed, and crosswalks are installed, veteran Kenneth Goodwin will continue having to roll across the road. He sometimes passes the time by parking his mobility scooter near the Rivers Avenue entrance to Patriot Villas.
As he watches the cars whiz past, he doesn’t dwell on getting hit. He doesn’t replay the memories in his mind with paranoia. But one fact rings true: He knows his luck is running out as he ages.
He worries he won’t survive another strike. Kenneth Goodwin, an Army veteran, rolls up to the sidewalk running parallel to Rivers Avenue outside of the apartment complex where he lives, Aug. 19, 2024, in North Charleston.
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