PCC participated in many Road Safety Audits all across South Carolina for the past 3 years. 5 years ago, we obtained national FHWA training for conducting RSA's, through Georgia Bikes! facilitation. We first advocated SCDOT include PCC in the RSA's. Then we were finally allowed to participate.
Then we advocated SCDOT invite locals with significant local knowledge and expertise on these streets, to generate more representative conclusions. SCDOT recently began inviting a limited number of locals, which increased the quality of the RSA conclusions. Our experience was positive overall, but certainly included difficult conversations that led to hard earned understanding about pedestrian rights and behaviors.
In March 2018, SCDOT started their new Non-Motorized Safety Program, which allocates $5Million to these pedestrian-specific RSA's and some mitigations. This was also, in part, from our advocacy. That's 10% of SCDOT's allotment of federal safety dollars, which is well above the national average. Typically, where there's a pedestrian safety problem, there's also a bike safety problem.
Help us
continue working with SCDOT to further improve their new Non-Motorized Safety program, and so we can get that dang comprehensive, state Complete Streets policy passed. These are long haul, hard fought battles, and we can't do it without your support.
