Aiken City Council discussing future plans for the Safe Street for All Action Plan

AIKEN, SC. (WJBF) – A work session about the Safe Streets for All Action Plan with Mead and Hunt to discuss and show Aiken city council their findings and recommendations from the research they have found.

“This is something that is not just done on a whim. We had a number of input from the public, starting last fall,” said Stuart Bedenbaugh, Aiken City Manager. “Had over 350 unique comments. We were at Aikens Makin; we went to neighborhood meetings and took a lot of data.”

The council could ask questions about the findings. Mead and Hunt discussed different information they have gathered about the reasons for crashes and unsafe pedestrian areas. It also talks about the Vision Zero Action Plan to eliminate deaths and serious injuries on roads.

“The city of Aiken as it has grown over the years. Those improvements have not kept up with the population. And also, you see more and more people using alternate means of transportation to get around. Whether it is walking or riding a bicycle,” said Bedenbaugh.

Mead and Hunt discussed different safety improvement concepts that could help the issues they had found, such as vegetation management, traffic calming measures, street lighting, installing roundabouts, enhancing pedestrian crossing, signal upgrades, and more.

“This is something that has been well thought out and studied. So, we pinpointed some areas where we could potentially do some of these demonstrations’ projects,” said Bedenbaugh.

Roads like Jefferson Davis Highway, Hitchcock Parkway, Pine Log and Silver Bluff Road, Whiskey Road, and York Street are just a few of the spots that could have safety improvements. At the City Council Meeting, they vote to pass the resolution, either to continue to another time, choose not to pass, or will pass it.

“We can then begin to hone in on some of these areas that were discussed during the work session and come up with one or two demonstration projects to begin working. The funding is there,” said Bedenbaugh.

The council passed the resolution unanimously.