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Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Folly Beach City Council to vote on new transportation and traffic safety action plan
FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCBD) – Officials are expected to present the Folly Beach safety action plan to city council, after a year in the making. The city has been working with consultants at Kimley-Horn since June 2024, to address growing safety concerns on the island. The transportation and traffic safety action plan highlights four main goals – encourage safer speeds, maintain the city's culture, improve communication and coordination, and serve a diverse population. 'This is the first time we've had a comprehensive plan that shows the areas we need to target on the entire island – to make the island safer,' Jenna Stephens, zoning administrator of Folly Beach, said. The engineers analyzed data from 2017-2023 and found the city averages around 85 crashes per year. According to the study, a majority of the crashes included pedestrians and bicyclists. Though most of them were non-fatal, the city plans to address this issue. Folly Beach held two public input meetings open to residents and people who visit the island regularly. Around 250 people participated, with many saying they felt uncomfortable traveling around by foot or on a bike. Transportation advocacy groups like the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments (BCDCOG) and Charleston Moves also attended. In a support letter sent to the city, Katie Zimmerman, executive director of Charleston Moves, said the organization supports the plan and two resolutions to adopt it. 'Charleston Moves has appreciated the opportunities to participate in both the development of the City's Safety Action Plan, as well as the stakeholder meetings and data collection for the Arctic Avenue Plan,' Zimmerman wrote. 'Our region is one of the deadliest in the nation for vulnerable road users, with disproportionate impacts to senior citizens and Black communities. We support your efforts towards a safe and healthy city with a goal of eliminating fatalities and severe injuries from traffic collisions.' City council will vote to approve the safety action plan and to amend a contract to scope out the Arctic Avenue project. The next steps will include applying for the federal 'Safe Streets For All' grant. 'The problems is funding – this plan allows us to qualify for some federal grants and that is the plan right now. To use the safety action plan to apply for the 'Safe Streets For All' grant and to help fund some of our Arctic Avenue infrastructure proposals,' said Stephens. City council will meet at 7 p.m. on June 10. They are expected to vote on two resolutions involving the safety action plan. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Indianapolis Star
28-05-2025
- Automotive
- Indianapolis Star
These are the deadliest roads in Fishers
Speeding, aggressive driving and red-light running were major safety concerns for Fishers commuters, who also say a shortage of street lights and safe intersection crossings make driving dangerous. The findings were in a survey conducted by the city as it prepares to apply for a federal Safe Streets For All grant. The government requires public input and a crash analysis of the most dangerous streets in the city to qualify for the money. Large majorities of more than 700 people participating in the survey said they thought distracted and impaired driving were major causes for car accidents, along with unsafe pedestrian crossings on the busy streets. But the respondents were about evenly split on whether they supported 'road diets,' which are a reduction in travel lanes, to slow down speeders. Large majorities, however, are in favor of 'traffic calming,' features, like raised crosswalks, with an equal number supporting roundabouts as safety measures. The Department of Transportation required the city to identify its most dangerous roads in a High Injury Network map and supply fatality and crash data on them. Fishers found that 22 of 24 deaths in a five-year period — 2019 through 2023 — happened on seven streets. Police said 30% of the accidents were caused by failure to yield right-of-way and 22% were because of distracted driving. The study did not include crashes on State Road 37 and I-69. The deadliest streets, ranked by the number of fatalities, in the report were: Fatalities: 5. Injuries: 40. Crashes: 64. Length: 8.3 miles. Crashes per mile: 7.7. Fatalities: 4. Injuries: 27. Crashes: 18. Miles: 4.2. Crashes per mile: 4.3. Fatalities: 4. Injuries: 30. Crashes: 23. Miles: 5.5 Crashes per mile: 4.2. Fatalities: 3. Injuries: 23. Crashes:14. Miles: 4.8. Crashes per mile: 2.9. Fatalities: 2. Injuries: 40. Crashes: 29. Miles: 5.8. Crashes per mile: 5. Fatalities: 2. Injuries: 8. Crashes. 5. Miles: 2. Crashes per mile: 2.5.
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Some locals concerned about new Pendleton roundabout
PENDLETON — A temporary mini roundabout to be installed at Pendleton Avenue and High Street is raising concerns among some members of the town council and residents of the community. Ryan Phelps, a senior transportation planner with the Madison County Council of Governments, gave a presentation recently about the temporary mini roundabout installation, which is part of the council of governments' Protect 2030 Safety Plan, a comprehensive transportation safety action plan for the Anderson metropolitan area. Phelps said the Pendleton Avenue/High Street intersection was chosen for the temporary mini roundabout test because the town has changed the intersection from a two-way stop to a four-way stop, and it would be a good way to compare those options to the roundabout. 'We discussed several different intersections when we were first working with the town to determine where we would like to do (a roundabout),' Phelps said. 'This particular intersection was chosen because it had seen a small spike in right-angle collisions when we started the conversations back in 2023.' Mini roundabouts include a single lane for vehicles entering the roundabout and a single lane for those exiting, with a splitter island, according to the presentation. With mini roundabouts, the splitter islands and the middle island in the center of the roundabout are traversable, meaning semi-trucks and emergency vehicles can drive over them. 'The traversable center island is very similar for large vehicles as a raised crosswalk or speed table,' Phelps explained. 'Emergency vehicles already have to slow down to move safely through an intersection, and the mini roundabout still supports these movements.' The mini roundabout project is funded by a portion of a $402,248 federal Safe Streets For All demonstration grant received by the local council of governments. Several Pendleton Town Council members expressed concerns about the roundabout installation. 'My question about the roundabout is where it would be installed and its implications on pedestrian safety,' Council President Marissa Skaggs said. 'I think a roundabout is a great traffic-calming feature. I think it is an effective way to move vehicles, but I just have a lot of unanswered questions regarding pedestrian safety at the intersection ... if we were to install a roundabout of any sort.' Phelps said pedestrians can move through the mini roundabout as they would the current four-way stop at the intersection. 'We know that traditional roundabouts reduce pedestrian conflict points and generally improve overall pedestrian safety by slowing traffic,' he said. 'Crosswalks are offset from the intersection, typically reducing the crossing distance and improving crossing clarity for pedestrians with visual and/or mobility impairments.' Council member Cory Hall said roundabouts can work well, but he expressed hesitance about the idea of a mini roundabout at the intersection, especially since the council has not seen final engineering drawings. 'I think you have a lot of engineering trying to come together to make this work,' he said. 'I think, ultimately, my concern is that, hearing from our residents and some of our business leaders, what is going to be the impact of this at that intersection because of the surface area?' Skaggs said installing a roundabout after making the conversion from a two-way stop to a four-way stop could cause problems. 'A lot of our residents are very long-term residents, so they have developed driving habits. ... Whenever you change those, it is a challenge to get people to adhere to whatever the change is,' the town council president said. Roundabouts have the ability to 'reduce delay and queuing when compared to other intersection alternatives,' according to the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration. 'Lower vehicular speeds and reduced conflict environment can create a more suitable environment for walking and bicycling.' Phelps noted that the mini roundabout test will be monitored for vehicle speeds, volume of traffic, delays, safety and public feedback before and during installation. The findings will be reported publicly and will be submitted to the federal highway administration. The installation was planned to take place during South Madison Schools' spring break, March 17-21. But Phelps said installation might be later than expected because the design for the project isn't complete and materials for installation have not been ordered. The removal of the temporary mini roundabout is expected during the school system's fall break in October. The installation and the removal are both estimated to take five to seven days.
