A changing corridor near downtown Columbia that has experienced growing pains, as new housing, road work and other construction has seemingly taken over could now see some relief.
The area bound by North Main Street, and River and Sunset drives has seen unending construction this year, with road work on both River and Sunset, plus one finished and one upcoming large apartment complex.
But now one road project is finished, and city leaders say it’s part of a much broader effort to reconnect Columbia’s neighborhoods, which as the city has grown have become disjointed by wide streets and a lack of sidewalks and bike lanes.
A 5-foot-wide buffered bike lane now runs down the length of River Drive. It’s the first of its kind in the Midlands. The work is part of a years-long effort to create more avenues for people to get around to city without having to get in a car.
“It stitches the community back together,” said Regan Freeman, the advocacy director for Cola Town Bike Collective, a group that lobbies for better bike and pedestrian infrastructure in the city.
The South Carolina Department of Transportation already had plans to resurface the road, and the city saw an opportunity to ask the department to add a bike lane to the plan.
The work finishes as another road project is underway on Sunset Drive, which has rerouted more traffic to River Drive and side streets around the Earlewood neighborhood.
Earlier this year, the detour caused so much traffic frustration that residents asked the city to intervene. Between September and October, police wrote 20 traffic tickets to motorists on River Drive. Five were for collisions. But the department also reported seeing “little to no speeding” during major commuting hours, noting that the bulk of citations were written outside of heavy traffic hours.
Leaders say the new bike lane should make River Drive safer, both for bicyclists and drivers, because the bike lane also encourages motorists to drive more slowly.
Mayor Daniel Rickenmann has frequently cited his desire to see Columbia’s neighborhoods connected by bike lanes, sidewalks and greenways. He’s been a major advocate of the Three Rivers Greenway, which when finished will connect trails from the Lake Murray Dam all the way to Olympia Park south of the Blossom Street bridge.
He said projects like this River Drive bike lane are one piece of that puzzle.
The work is about more than just connectivity, it’s also about improving safety on the city’s streets. Columbia is ranked 12th in the nation for pedestrian deaths in metro areas, with an average of nearly 3.5 pedestrian deaths per 100,000 people between 2018 and 2022, according to a report from the think tank Smart Growth America.
While the bike lane project is now finished, other road projects have locals worried that the area’s traffic problems won’t subside for the next year.
There is currently a $5.2 million project led by Richland County on Sunset Drive to install new sidewalks and repave the road, which is expected to last potentially until the middle of 2025. That work is actively rerouting people to River Drive. Also on Sunset Drive, developers are planning to build a 300-unit market-rate apartment complex.
In 2025, a portion of River Drive could close for nearly a year as the SCDOT prepares to replace a bridge over the CSX railroad. That project would close River Drive and reroute traffic to Sunset Drive and North Main Street, according to information shared by the department with the neighborhood.
“We would obviously like to limit a huge increase in traffic for a year-long detour. That would be very disruptive to our neighborhood,” John Wilkinson, president of the Elmwood Park neighborhood association, previously told The State.
Despite the current traffic frustrations, however, Wilkinson said he thinks the corridor is plenty large enough to welcome the increase in activity and he’s not worried about the problems lasting after the various construction projects are finished.
Freeman said the next step for his organization will be working to get more people excited about more walkable neighborhoods.
To christen the new bike lane, Columbia Councilwoman Tina Herbert will lead a community bike parade Sunday through the neighborhood.
This story was originally published December 5, 2024, 12:17 PM.
The State
(803) 771-8330
Morgan Hughes covers Columbia news for The State. She previously reported on health, education and local governments in Wyoming. She has won awards in Wyoming and Wisconsin for feature writing and investigative journalism. Her work has also been recognized by the South Carolina Press Association.
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