Richland County seeks public input on road safety trouble spots

RICHLAND COUNTY, S.C. (WIS) - Richland County leaders held a public meeting this evening at the Richland Library location on Assembly Street to gather feedback on road safety as part of a countywide safety action plan.

The goal of the meeting was to collect feedback from drivers, cyclists and pedestrians on how to make everyday travel safer across the county.

“I want my city, I want my county, I want the entire midlands to be a place where everyone feels comfortable getting around and they have choices. I want a place built for people,” said Regan Freeman, an advocate with Palmetto Walk Bike.

Lighting and sidewalks among concerns

That vision, according to conversations at the meeting, includes more lighting, accessible sidewalks and bike paths.

Three roads were highlighted as high crash areas: Broad River Road, Two Notch Road and Garners Ferry Road.

From 2020 to 2024, there were 71,314 traffic collisions in Richland County, 302 of those were fatal, and greater than 60% of that number happened at night, according to the South Carolina Department of Public Safety.

County growth cited as factor

Joe Robertson, with Kimley Horn, the planning and design consultants working alongside Richland County on the safety plan, said the county’s growth is a factor.

“We’ve got a lot of interstate’s passing through the area, University of South Carolina, state government, there’s a lot of traffic flowing through Richland County. We’ve got the data, what we don’t have is input from the citizens,” Robertson said.

Freeman is an advocate for Palmetto Walk Bike, a non-profit with a goal to make walking and biking safer across the state of South Carolina. He said he wants to see safer roads for everyone.

“I think if anyone walks around here long enough, you know that these people are flying (speeding). These roads were built in the 60s and 70s where the thought was just car all the time, I love to use my car, I drove here, but I think it’s about giving people a fighting chance. We know the most vibrant places in our county are places people like being at and maybe that means not having a freeway going through it,” Freeman said.

Feedback from these meetings will be used for a final report that aims to be complete by March 2027.

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