Bike paths worth headaches

Nobody said it would be easy to make the Lowcountry bike-friendly. Every project has challenges of finance, function and feasibility.

But if this area is going to reap the environmental, health, safety and economic benefits that come with accommodating bicycles, those challenges will have to be met street by street in every jurisdiction.

So Charleston County Council was wise to make bikeways a key part of planned improvements to Harbor View Road on James Island. And council members were right to postpone bidding out the project on Thursday. That will allow time to study new insights from Charleston Moves, an advocacy group for safe biking and walking environments.

The good news is that the discussion is not about whether to include bikeways. It is about what kind would be best.

Plans are to widen the road, add turn lanes and a 10-foot-wide bike and pedestrian path separated from the road by a four-foot grass buffer. On the other side of the road would be a five-foot-wide sidewalk.

Three hundred people have signed a petition asking the plan be scaled down.

Charleston Moves, with input from a professional engineer, concluded that the 10-foot path would be dangerous because it would cross too many driveways and side streets. It pointed out that both the Federal Highway Administration and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials recommend bike lanes in such circumstances -- good news for those whose lawns would be taken for the path. Charleston Moves added that a sidewalk could meander around grand trees, allowing them to stand.

County staff contends the project has been modified as much as it can be, but they would be foolish not to consider this new information. County Council should insist on it, as Harbor View will be a key bike route for people commuting between James Island and peninsula Charleston.

On the peninsula, meanwhile, the city of Charleston has endorsed a fairly straightforward bike project which could stoke momentum for a comprehensive network for cyclists. Like Harbor View, it would be an important link for area-wide biking. It is under an elevated stretch of I-26 between Line and Huger streets, and it is already partly paved. With some effort, it could be completed, giving bikers a shady, dry corridor to travel a mile of peninsula Charleston. It will end only three blocks away from another bike path along Morrison Drive from the Arthur Ravenel Bridge to Meeting Street Road.

Tragically, two high-profile biking deaths have occurred recently in the area and have raised awareness of the community's need for safer bikeways. Now is a good time to tap into that energy, finish the I-26 bikeway and move forward on the best possible plan for Harbor View Road.