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Lindsay Cribbs \u201924<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cComing to Greenville, I thought, \u2018Wow, you can walk here, you can bike here,\u2019\u201d said the economics and sustainability science double major.<\/p>\n
But she didn\u2019t dare approach two particular traffic corridors not far from Furman on two feet or two wheels. Stretches of White Horse Road and Poinsett Highway are notoriously unsafe for pedestrians and cyclists, as studies have shown<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw that, and I did not want to try that out at all,\u201d Cribbs said.<\/p>\n With her summer research project, \u201cCreating a Safe Operating Space for Pedestrians and Cyclists in Greenville,\u201d Cribbs \u2013 working with Suresh Muthukrishnan, professor and chair of the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Sustainability Sciences, and the nonprofit Bike Walk Greenville<\/a> \u2013 plans to build on those studies, along with Furman\u2019s Geographic Information System (GIS<\/a>) mapping resources and other transportation analytics, to help make those corridors safer.<\/p>\n Between 2009 and 2019, pedestrian fatalities in South Carolina increased by 80% and bicycle fatalities more than doubled across the state, according to the South Carolina Department of Transportation\u2019s Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Action Plan (PBSAP<\/a>). Several spots in Greenville County, including stretches of White Horse Road and Poinsett Highway, were identified as \u201chigh-crash roadway segments\u201d in the action plan.<\/p>\n Many such corridors pass through communities where residents without cars must walk or cycle to get necessities. In one high-crash area, a half-mile segment of White Horse Road that contains one of the few grocery stores in the neighborhood within a Walmart Supercenter, 17 accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists occurred between 2015 and 2019, according to the PBSAP.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not always the leisure walker or recreational cyclist getting hurt,\u201d Cribbs said. \u201cIt\u2019s the person cycling or walking out of necessity for things that we would normally use a car for.\u201d<\/p>\n For the most part, those corridors lack adequate bike lanes, crosswalks and sidewalks, \u201cand if they do have them, the infrastructure is so poor that they\u2019re unsafe,\u201d said Cribbs.<\/p>\n Her work builds on research done by a previous Furman intern for Bike Walk Greenville, an organization advocating active transportation in the area. Loise Aleria \u201922<\/a> found that pedestrian deaths were concentrated in the most underserved areas of the county \u2013 including the two corridors Cribbs is studying this summer. The dangerous conditions in predominantly lower-income Hispanic and African American communities highlight inequities within Greenville County, Cribbs said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can see that in the nicer areas downtown, the sidewalks and bike lanes look amazing,\u201d but not in lower-income areas, she said.<\/p>\n Along with GIS mapping and analysis, Cribbs\u2019 research tools will include U.S. Census data and StreetLight Data, which uses pings from mobile devices and the Internet of Things (IoT) to analyze how specific roads are used.<\/p>\n Her hope is that Bike Walk Greenville can use her findings to shed further light on the challenges pedestrians and cyclists face and spread awareness of the need for safe roads and trails. In addition to improved sidewalks, crosswalks and bike lanes, solutions such as better lighting and highlighted warning signs \u201ccan make a whole lot of difference in the safety of vulnerable road users,\u201d said Cribbs.<\/p>\nHigh-impact roadways<\/h3>\n
Making transportation safe and accessible<\/h3>\n