Road Rage: Who's In Charge Here Anyway

At some point, just about everybody has driven past an overgrown median, a burned out traffic signal, an intersection with unmarked lanes or some other problem and thought "somebody should do something about that."

Sometimes the problems will linger for months or even years, despite average citizens and even government employees trying to do something.

"Probably one of the most frustrating things for me is that the various agencies all tend to want to pass the buck with regard to any reports of issues that are deemed not to be in their jurisdiction," West Ashley resident Mark Shannon said.

"For example, after I determined by looking at a map that the intersection of Dupont Road and Sam Rittenberg Boulevard is not in the City of Charleston, I reported to Charleston County that there are no directional arrows painted on the surface of Dupont Road at this traffic light. Charleston County replied to my e-mail stating that it wasn’t within their jurisdiction, but that it should fall under the SCDOT and that they would notify them."

Shannon said he reported it to the SCDOT and was told it was not in their jurisdiction either.

"Some six months later and still no action has been taken," he said. "Apparently this is an 'unclaimed' intersection that doesn’t fall within anyone’s jurisdiction from the responses I received."

Shannon, who has lived in West Ashley all his life, has taken the initiative to report all sorts of problems and safety issues on the roads in West Ashley over the years. He has been less than thrilled with the results though.

"The City of Charleston’s online 'Citizen Support Center' is a great tool to use when reporting issues that fall within the city limits, but the follow up from city departments when using this online reporting system is often times not very timely," he said.

After reporting a burned out turn signal at the intersection of Paul Catrell Boulevard and Tobias Gadsden Boulevard through the online support center, Shannon said the bulb was replaced within a couple of weeks, but more than a month later he received a response through the online system that the alignment of the light had been adjusted for better visibility.

"The light wasn’t visible because the bulb wasn’t operable," Shannon said. "No amount of adjusting would make a burned out bulb visible. They completely misunderstood my report because by the time they acted on it, the bulb had already been replaced."

He also used the system in March to report missing street name signs at Ashley Crossing Drive and Magwood Drive.

Around the end of April he received a response from the system notifying him the signs had been replaced. However as of May 4 the signs were still missing.

City, county and state transportation officials admit that determining exactly which government body is responsible for the upkeep along various roadways in Charleston, and across the state for that matter, is no simple task.

"It's not an easy situation for the average citizen to determine right-of-way," said Hernan Pena, Director of the City of Charleston Department of Traffic and Transportation. "Even ourselves and other municipalities have to research it to be sure."

Several state roads mingle with both county and city roads throughout the city, especially in West Ashley where large swathes of the area fall outside the city limits.

But even if a municipality like Charleston has jurisdiction over the roads in terms of enforcing city laws on streets that fall within its incorporated limit, that doesn't mean the city owns all the roads or is responsible for their upkeep.

Major highways like Sam Rittenburg Boulevard, Savannah Highway and Ashley River Road are all state roads, Pena said. Many of the arterial roads connecting those highways are also state roads, but some of them can be county or city roads, though that is less likely.

For the most part, Pena said, neighborhood streets, for neighborhoods within the city limits, will be city streets; for neighborhoods outside the city limits they will most likely be county roads.

But that's not always the case, for example Jervey Avenue that connects Huntington Woods to Orange Grove Road looks like it should be a city-owned neighborhood street. Several houses line the road, and it is crossed by residential streets, but Jervey is a state road.

Charleston City Councilman Aubry Alexander said he and his neighbors in Huntington Woods were surprised to learn that about Jervey Avenue a few years ago when they were trying to get the city to install speed bumps on the street.

Alexander said anything involving roads and rights-of-way is a mess, and he doesn't believe the situation has improved at all in recent years.

"The first thing you always have to do is determine whose responsibility it is," he said. "I use the city's Transportation Department, they're the guys who do the due dilligence."

While Mark Shannon has the average citizen's view, seeing from the outside what he can only describe as a game of hot potato with every agency saying it is someone else's responsibility, Alexander's membership on the City Council gives him an insider's view of the complexity of anything roads related.

To Alexander, a lot of the problems with roads in the West Ashley area are due to a top heavy bureacracy at the SCDOT.

He would like to see the agency reorganized with separate urban and rural programs and regional offices that had more power to make decisions affecting the roads in their regions.

"The local DOT, who you go to to submit requests and plans has to send everything to Columbia," Alexander said. "There are no decision-makers here, everything goes back and forth, it's a huge bureacratic mess. We need a SCDOT office locally that can make decisions."

The latest issue to bother Shannon was an overgrown traffic island at the intersection of Sam Rittenburg Boulevard and Orleans Road.

"This small, unmowed weed filled island had weeds literally in excess of 5 feet in height," he said. "A friend who works nearby said that if she could get her lawn mower in the trunk of her car, she’d drive there and mow it herself because it was such an embarrassment to our community." 

"The problem is two-fold," Shannon continued. "Firstly, why are such things allowed in a highly visible location when we have persons in positions of authority with the city, state and county passing by this location every day, yet it’s ignored? And secondly, why should a citizen have to take the time to report something so very visible and so blatantly in need of attention, and then have to figure out whose responsibility it is to maintain it?"

But it's not as simple as the city or county sending someone out to mow the traffic island. No one is allowed to work on a SCDOT owned right-of-way without SCDOT permission, Alexander said.

"I've got two issues in West Ashley that get a lot of complaints," he said. "One is the sidewalks on Old Towne Road. We had an elderly person trip and fall a few weeks ago. The city takes pictures and sends the information to SCDOT but we can't do anything about it because SCDOT owns the sidewalks."

Alexander said he's also getting complaints about the sidewalks on Playground Road and Ashley River Road, which are also state roads.

Pena, the city's transportation director, encourages area residents to contact his office, or to get in touch with the Charleston County Public Works Department or SCDOT to report problems with area roads. All three offices will take down the complaint, figure out which government body is responsible for dealing with it and forward the complaint to the right agency.

He admits it's not a perfect solution, and the complaints will be evaluated for their relative importance by which ever agency is responsible for dealing with it.

"If it's a safety issue, say overgrowth at an intersection, it is a priority, and no matter who's responsible, it needs to be addressed," Pena said. "Something less dire like mowing along the roadside that's not safety related will go on a schedule and will be done when whichever agency is responsible can get to it."

Jim Neal, director of Charleston County Department of Public Works, said the county is on track to have new street name signs on all county roads by 2018 that will include the letters "CR" to identify them as county owned.

Many state roads already have small black signs with white lettering that begin with "SR" denoting it is a state road, SCDOT Director of Communications Pete Poore said.

He added that residents can report problems by calling their local SCDOT maintenance office, via email or by submitting a maintenance request through the SCDOT website.

The SCDOT website also has a street finder application that can show all state owned roads.

Poore said the DOT faces challenges just maintaining its current road network.

"We're not funded by the state budget, we're funded by the state gas tax," Poore said. "We've had to cut back because gas revenues are down, flat really, because people are driving less and buying more fuel-efficient cars."

"Our costs continue to go up just like the price at the pump though."