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Old 12-31-2014, 07:46 AM
 
243 posts, read 262,050 times
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Hi everyone,
I am considering relocating to Charleston. I am a year round bike commuter here in Boston and would want to continue that when I move. How are conditions for cyclists in Charleston? Are there plentiful bike lanes? Do many people bike commute? Thanks!
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Old 12-31-2014, 08:12 AM
 
Location: Downtown
1,074 posts, read 1,658,458 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BrooklineBiker View Post
Hi everyone,
I am considering relocating to Charleston. I am a year round bike commuter here in Boston and would want to continue that when I move. How are conditions for cyclists in Charleston? Are there plentiful bike lanes? Do many people bike commute? Thanks!

Cycling is slowly growing in our area. West Ashley is probabily the most developed for cycling (there are some bike lanes already in place). No bike lanes downtown, and IMO it's still pretty dangerous to commute on the main roads (I've seen a lot of close calls, as drivers aren't so courteous about sharing the road. The future plan for downtown is to limit congestion by increasing cycling ridership by 70% (this is only the current recommendation).

During the summer months, commuting by bike is absolutely horrible due to the humidity.
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Old 01-01-2015, 06:56 PM
 
3,463 posts, read 5,627,905 times
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Originally Posted by BrooklineBiker View Post
Hi everyone,
I am considering relocating to Charleston. I am a year round bike commuter here in Boston and would want to continue that when I move. How are conditions for cyclists in Charleston? Are there plentiful bike lanes? Do many people bike commute? Thanks!
I am a bike commuter. I have lived/ridden some pretty bad stuff, and some pretty nice stuff. I love Charleston, but my useless internet opinion is that Charleston proper, in the city, is OK at best. I would not call it cycling friendly, though. The further out you go, the less friendly it gets. In an article on one of the deadlier intersections last year, C'ston officials have flat-out said peds and bikes need to stay out of cars way. That is sort of the prevailing attitude.
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Old 01-01-2015, 10:31 PM
 
Location: James Island, SC
3,855 posts, read 4,553,017 times
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I moved here from bike-friendly Boulder CO 30 years ago and while I never was a bike commuter (I needed a van full of tools) i was used to riding my bike a lot. I first moved to Folly Beach and after one harrowing ride up Folly Road and back I decided to keep the bike for use around home only. Now time has improved the situation (there were no bike lanes at all back then) but it's still not a very bike friendly city imo. Hugo took that bike years ago and I have an old school rockhopper now but I pretty much just use it on the beach.

That said, I have a friend who for years never owned a car and would bike from Folly up to Trident Tech to teach computer classes. I though him crazy but he never had an accident and while his co-workers might not have appreciated how sweaty he was, I give him credit. I'm probably just too wimpy....
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Old 01-02-2015, 05:28 AM
 
243 posts, read 262,050 times
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Thanks everyone for the feedback. Please keep the replies coming. That said, I am getting a discouraged regarding Charleston as a place for a biker.
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Old 01-02-2015, 08:49 AM
 
3,256 posts, read 5,254,390 times
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Originally Posted by BrooklineBiker View Post
Thanks everyone for the feedback. Please keep the replies coming. That said, I am getting a discouraged regarding Charleston as a place for a biker.
Yeah it's not... bad attitude towards bikers here.
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Old 01-02-2015, 11:12 AM
 
145 posts, read 181,870 times
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Originally Posted by BrooklineBiker View Post
Thanks everyone for the feedback. Please keep the replies coming. That said, I am getting a discouraged regarding Charleston as a place for a biker.
I think it depends on where you live and where you are commuting to. I moved to Charleston over a year ago and got a place downtown within a mile of my work and I now use my bike for 100% of my commuting/errands/etc...something I never would have done in my previous city. But I can easily avoid streets that make me uncomfortable (not that there are many downtown) and rarely need to cross a bridge to get anywhere.

Someone upthread said W. Ashley has the best biking infrastructure, but if you are commuting downtown you will have to wait 12-18 months at the minimum before they install a bike lane over the bridge and you don't have to risk your life every day getting to work. There's a bike lane going to Mount Pleasant but that's not a ride I'd want to do every day with the 1-2 mile hill on the bridge especially in the middle of summer, not to mention there aren't many biker friendly streets once you get over there.

There's not much here as far as real biking infrastructure, but if you are considering a move downtown that really won't matter much. There are enough people riding on the streets to make those in cars generally aware of your presence and most will give you respect if you are riding responsibly. If you can bike year round in Boston you'll have no issue doing so here, it may not be "bike friendly" per se, but as a fellow northern transplant, if the cars in downtown Charleston regularly share the road with skateboarders, golf carts, clueless cyclists riding against traffic on one way streets, plenty of kids running around, and plenty of cyclists who are in no hurry to get anywhere fast but don't mind hogging a lane of road to get there...then I don't worry too much about my own safety because I'm always aware of my surroundings and try to get out of the way of traffic when I feel like someone is just itching to get past me (not trying to prove a point).

I can't vouch for places other than downtown though, I'd seriously consider the West Ashley commute once the bridge lane becomes a reality, but I've already learned from living here that these sorts of things progress very slowly, even when they are seemingly written in stone (see: two way conversion of Spring and Cannon Streets which was set to begin in Spring 2014, then in November 2014, and now it's 2015 and no sign of work)

Edit: If you want to see how many people use bikes to get around downtown, try finding a space on a bike rack during the week at MUSC or CofC, or anywhere on King Street on a Friday or Saturday night. The flat grid of downtown and the amenable weather is bike friendly enough that it mostly makes up for the lack of support from locals and government.
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Old 01-02-2015, 12:03 PM
 
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I have a coworker that bikes to work, but he lives about a mile away on back streets downtown. Another bikes to a bus stop, rides the bus, and bikes 500 yards from the stop to the office. Of all the employees in the building they are in a very very small minority group. I do keep a bike there to run to meetings across campus. Most of the bikes you see at MUSC are students that live very close to school.

That said, most streets don't have dedicated bike lanes and most motorists find riders on busy streets more of an aggravation due to the impact on the flow of traffic.
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Old 01-02-2015, 02:53 PM
 
Location: James Island, SC
3,855 posts, read 4,553,017 times
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I must admit when I thought "commuting" I didn't think of living and working both within the downtown peninsula. That's a whole different thing and is very feasible. My daughter and her boyfriend take their bikes to work often and lots of college students rely on bikes.
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Old 01-02-2015, 02:55 PM
 
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I commute to and from work from the citadel mall area in West Ashley to Tanger outlets. It's just a matter of before I'm killed. I have to take SC 7 (Cosgrove bridge) or go 10 miles in the wrong direction on 61 downtown and up rivers. This city has the most inconsiderate and awful drivers. The James Island Expyallowed bikes until a driver knocked a bicyclist over the bridge and killed him. The city's solution: ban bicycles off of it.
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