Socioeconomic and Infrastructure Disparity between Poor and Wealthy Neighborhoods in Greenville, SC
a video by Furman University Senior Loise Aleria
As an intern with Bike Walk Greenville for the Fall 2021 semester I investigated the deaths along major roads that have been designed only to move motor vehicles as fast as possible, with little consideration for the safety of the people who live along these corridors.
The May 29, 2021 death of Brittany Langely Lawson on Augusta Street resulted in unprecedented action by the City of Greenville to study and plan implementation of changes to make this road safer for pedestrians.
During my internship there were far more deaths in the poorest parts of Greenville County with no call to action by County or State elected officials to implement safer conditions for people on foot along these SCDOT roads.
This short video summarizes my findings and urges action for implementing proven solutions to reduce deaths of vulnerable road users.
Since the completion of Loise’s internship, Bike Walk Greenville has been exploring a path towards funding a professional study for enhanced pedestrian safety on White Horse Road. After meeting with Keith Brockington, the Greenville County Transportation Manager in December, 2021, we were invited to present at the January 31, 2022 GPATS (Greenville-Pickens Area Transportation Study) study team meeting. We then received an invitation from Senator Rex Rice to present at the March 7, 2022 GPATS Policy Committee Meeting, where our presentation was well received and resulted in a resolution for staff to follow up with SCDOT about pedestrian safety studies on White Horse Road and other major corridors. The slides used are in the below video:
In discussions at the March 7, 2022 meeting we learned from SCDOT commissioner Woody Willard that SCDOT had bid some pedestrian improvements for White Horse Road in 2021, but the bids came in above the budget, so no construction was done. We subsequently received the conceptual drawings for this bid package, and indeed these are needed improvements as shown below:
Thanks to the Greenville News for covering the GPATS meeting and following up with SCDOT. On April 5, 2022 they published this story by reporter Tamia Boyd:
On April 25, 2022 The GPATS Study Team met, and the letter to SCDOT from GPATS was made public.
