Charleston: Bike-pedestrian lane a huge hit – 16 July, 2006

Jana Glover is getting a reputation. Many increasingly see the avid triathlete and endurance cyclist as doing everything on her bike. She not only trains on it, but makes small shopping trips with it and rides it to the bank and on other errands. She also uses her bike to commute from her downtown home to her Mount Pleasant workplace, something she never would have tried until the opening of the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge and its 12-foot-wide combined bike and pedestrian lane. As it has for so many people, the lane has changed her life and her lifestyle.

‘The only time I drive my car anymore is on big grocery shopping trips and when I head out of town,’ Glover said. The 40-year-old lives downtown and has an easy commute to the The Extra Mile running store, within a half-mile of the bridge on the Mount Pleasant side. She co-owns and manages the store.

While the lanes have bridged a major gap for cyclists between the second and sixth largest municipalities in South Carolina, it’s easy to say that the primary users are not bike commuters. Rather, it’s people who use the bridge for exercise or sightseeing. Before the new bridge opened there was no safe way for pedestrians or cyclists to cross the Cooper River.

Only gutsy runners and walkers used a 2-foot-wide walkway on the Silas N. Pearman Bridge, and none in the numbers that are now using the Ravenel. Meanwhile, the occasional cyclist risked his or her life riding over the Pearman, and was considered downright crazy to be on the John P. Grace Bridge. But the 2.6-mile Ravenel bike and pedestrian lane changed all that.

From the first day the lane has been a huge hit, especially with walkers and runners. Most of them park along Patriots Point Boulevard on the Mount Pleasant side and head at least as far as the ‘diamond towers’ look-out areas, with their sweeping views of Charleston Harbor. At certain times of the week and year, hundreds of people can be counted using it.

People can even be spotted on it in foul weather and late at night. In fact, the lanes have been so popular that, until more recently, etiquette has been one of the overriding issues. Cyclists got mad at walkers or runners for being in the area marked as the bike lane. Pedestrians were set off by cyclists flying closely past them at high rates of speed. Both griped about pet waste from dog owners who ignored signs about pets being prohibited on the bridge.

The conflicts were anticipated by leading bicycle advocates, such as Charleston Moves President Don Sparks, who led the lobbying effort to get lanes separated by a small wall, but was pleased to get them at all. While it is still not an ideal situation, safety-wise, many say conflicts have eased in recent months. Bob Markisello, a Sumter resident who comes to Mount Pleasant regularly, takes part in a cycling group ride on Sunday mornings and has noticed the change.

He said walkers, runners and cyclists have worked together to co-exist safely, the result being a ‘greater sense of tolerance and courtesy.’ The effect of the lane will be felt for years, not only on people but on the area’s infrastructure. Planning officials in Charleston and Mount Pleasant have short-term and long-term plans to build more bike lanes and paths to link up with the Ravenel in years to come.