By Samantha Swann
Staff Writer
While efforts have been made for about five years to calm and decrease the traffic on Pine Street, a recently formed group hopes to correct a potentially dangerous situation.
Citizens for Safe Streets was chartered in May and since then has gained 35 members and a number of community partners including Converse College, the YMCA of Greater Spartanburg, Partners for Active Living, Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System, United Community Bank, SPACE, Palmetto Cycling Coalition, the Chapman Cultural Center, Habitat for Humanity of Spartanburg and the Spartanburg Association of Realtors.
Jody Traywick, the group’s coordinator, said the group has already met with City Manager Chris Story and City Council members.
“It’s a growing group of people, and we feel that we can bring public option to bear to assist the city and the state of South Carolina in correcting the unsafe situation that we have,” Traywick said.
The group hopes to encourage several changes through public opinion, including closing Pine Street to truck thru-traffic and increasing speed limit enforcement and driver visibility to increase safety. They believe that re-routing transfer and tanker trucks around the city would address many of their concerns.
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“We’d like to find our trucker friends a safer way to get to where they need to go,” Traywick said. “That’s the most immediate goal.”
The members’ reasons for joining vary. Safety, of course, is a primary concern. For others, like Laura Ringo, executive director at PAL, and the Spartanburg Association of Realtors, it’s about making Pine Street a better place to live and be active. Alix Refshauge, development associate at SPACE, said that her organization was concerned about the environmental and noise pollution the many large trucks that frequent Pine Street bring to the residential and school areas along their path.
Many of the members are affected by these traffic issues daily. Lee Close, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Spartanburg, said he was concerned about the rampant speeding around Pine Street Elementary where his grandchildren go to school.
“That school zone speed limit, especially when the lights are flashing, is supposed to be 25. It’s totally ignored — the traffic goes by 35, 40, 45. I’ll be going 25, and I feel like I’m sitting still,” Close said. He said the windows of the Habitat for Humanity office farther down Pine Street rattle as trucks speed by.
Dexter Cleveland, who lives just off of Pine Street, said that the noise from the trucks is almost non-stop and has only gotten worse over the many years he’s lived there. Refshauge, who also lives off Pine Street, said she often feels unsafe while out with her young children.
“As a parent, I’ve got a child at Pine Street and a child at the Advent, and we like to ride our bikes to school and cross to get on the Rail Trail, and it is terrifying,” Refshauge said.
Many members believe that a tragedy is inevitable if something isn’t done about the size and speed of the cars traveling on Pine Street.
“I’ve noticed just a tremendous increase in truck traffic on South Pine Street. At the busiest intersection in the city, Pine and Main, we have an overabundance of trucks who just cannot stop at those red lights, and I know there’s going to be a catastrophe in the future,” Dr. Brian Rothemich, a retired Spartanburg Medical Center ER physician, said. Rothemich said that he’d seen many trauma victims from car accidents before his retirement.
Dr. Brian Thurston, who currently works in Spartanburg Medical Center’s trauma center, said he typically sees at least one or two vehicular trauma patients per week and estimated that the hospital will treat around 1,000-1,500 trauma patients injured in vehicular accidents this year, though not exclusively from Pine Street accidents.
“From an injury prevention perspective, we would want slowermoving, smaller vehicles going through any place where pedestrians are frequently crossing the street, especially schools,” Thurston said.
Ultimately, the group hopes Pine Street will be entirely re-imagined in the city’s upcoming comprehensive plan discussions.
“We’d like for Pine Street to be two opposing lanes separated by a turning lane and bordered by bike and pedestrian lanes,” Traywick said. “That’s the long-term goal, but we’d like to make it happen as quickly as possible.”
Member Carl Prestipino said many options were available to slow and control traffic and increase safety throughout downtown, including options like automated ticketing via cameras and street alterations if the state would allow them to be implemented.
“You can have speed bumps, you can have alternating bump-outs to where it’s not a straight line. You can have oneway neighborhood streets,” Prestipino said. “We don’t have a modern mindset. We don’t think of alternatives anymore. You go to other locations, you go out to Colorado, they’ve got all of those things and cameras. It’s wonderful, and they’ve got a lot more traffic. So, we just have a lack of imagination here.”
Traywick said the group is in the process of getting dates to present their case to both the city and county councils. The group also hopes to speak with Rep. William Timmons early next year. But what they need most now is people.
“I think the more people can reach out to their local, both city and county, council members as well as their delegation members, that’s helpful. And when any of these public presentations are planned, show up because that shows that people really do care and are interested,” Ringo said.