Traffic calming pits drivers against residents

The Post and Courier

The population of the Charleston peninsula is around half what it was in the 1950s, but there are more cars and trucks on the streets than ever.

On a typical day, more than 133,000 vehicles cross the Ashley and Cooper rivers and pour down the Neck Area into the peninsula. Some are just passing through, but most are heading to the jobs and schools concentrated downtown.

"In a way it's good, because it shows we're an employment center," said city Department of Transportation Director Hernan Pena.

But one effect of the increasing traffic has been a growing conflict between downtown residents' desire for safe neighborhood streets and the need of workers and visitors to move around the city quickly.

Of all the methods used to calm traffic, the most controversial has been the decision to take some main thoroughfares that were converted to one-way traffic in the 1960s in order to speed traffic, and change them back to two-way streets in an intentional effort to slow traffic down.

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Post and Courier.