Spartanburg's Daniel Morgan Avenue Will Become More Pedestrian-Friendly
And what these changes mean for the rest of downtown
Daniel Morgan Avenue is a corridor of downtown Spartanburg that is currently four lanes and, in my experience traversing it, very rarely has any real traffic. This road becomes even more problematic with how sparse crosswalks are. While talking to one of my residents at Converse about this redesign, he told me that he hates crossing this particular road due to how it is such a huge stretch without many official places for pedestrians to cross. This makes for a very poor pedestrian environment, which is odd since on one side of Daniel Morgan Avenue sits the Charles on Liberty Street apartment complex and on the other side sits the wonderful Blue Moon Bodega.
The residents of the Charles do not really get convenient, accessible, or comfortable access to the world on the other side of Daniel Morgan Avenue if they want to or have to traverse the world outside of a private automobile. This is also often the case for residents of the Northside or students at Wofford College. On my own trips around town, Daniel Morgan Avenue is often an obstacle any time I want to cross over to the Northside part of town. There have been many moments where I have had to run across the massive, empty, crosswalk-less monster that is Daniel Morgan Avenue.
As I go into the improvements coming to Daniel Morgan Avenue, I hope that you are able to understand why these changes are necessary and conducive to a safer pedestrian environment.
The key question now that I have spoken about the experiences of myself and others on Daniel Morgan Avenue is this — what exactly are they doing to this strip of road? How are they improving it?
Okay. Okay. Okay. I hear ya. I am actually quite excited about these improvements as someone who uses this corridor quite often. First off, this project will be done in two phases. This first phase of the project will cut the four lane road down to two lanes, adding parking on the northern end of the street. A crosswalk will then be added for pedestrians conveniently located between the Charles at Liberty Street and Blue Moon Bodega. This will be great for one person I was talking to who stated that she lives within walking distance of Blue Moon Bodega and loves the place, but is scared of crossing Daniel Morgan Avenue, both within a car and as a pedestrian.
Now phase two of this plan is where the fun starts. The road space freed up by the lane reduction will be turned into a protected multi-use path that will be connected to the Daniel Morgan Trail system. This section of the path will provide connectivity to the Northside, the Hub City Hopper, and the Beaumont Village Trail. This multi-use path will allow for folks to navigate from Beaumont Village to downtown and to the Northside via bike, foot, wheelchair, etc. This is very exciting to me, because this trails will grow even more useful as they connect more meaningful places. In the past few years, I have noticed more and more trail users and this will likely create even more.
Phase one is expected to be done fairly soon. I will likely walk over there a good bit to take a look at the progress for the next week or two. Phase two’s timeline has not been announced by the city quite yet.
And now, I should confront some of the naysayers for this project. I have done plenty of looking around social media and talking to folks in person. I have experienced a lot of excitement for how this will connect our city together, but there are those folks that could not fathom anyone who would choose not to drive somewhere if that choice were safe, accessible and comfortable.
First off, I have seen people mock the idea that cyclists even exist. These people obviously do not pay much attention to their surroundings or they simply traverse corridors that cyclists often avoid due to safety concerns. Anecdotally, I have experienced more and more cyclists in the past few years. Just this past Sunday when I was walking around, I had a chat with an older cyclist across from Barnet Park. I noticed multiple cyclists around the Charles, and even a few bikes parked at the complex. Our local universities are full of parked bikes waiting to be rode around if only we had the infrastructure to support them. I know that for some people they have not rode a bike since they were 12, but I do feel excited to see more people choosing this active way to travel. And I say that as someone who is not primarily a cyclist.
Next, I will speak about traffic and traffic safety. These issues are kind of paired together. Daniel Morgan Avenue, according to the city, sees a very low volume of traffic. Due to this lack of traffic and the absurd wideness of the road, drivers often choose to speed. I have experienced some very unsafe drivers on this stretch, and I cannot truly blame individual drivers because the road is purposely built like a NASCAR track. The addition of a multi-use trail on this road will allow more people to choose to walk or bike. Some of these people could very easily be extra cars on the road, taking up way more space than is necessary. As a walker, I have never been stuck in traffic because I have never been traffic. I mentioned this in my last post, but traffic is an inherent part of traveling by private automobiles and cannot be truly cured. The only way to lessen vehicular traffic is to provide alternatives. This redesign will effectively do that.
This redesign is exciting because it will create a more dynamic, people-centered Daniel Morgan Avenue. Regardless of how you choose to get around, this road will provide you safe travels. That is something to be excited about, even if you personally never intend to walk or bike.
I think I will end this post here, as I hope that I managed to both inform you about the specifics of this project while also justifying why I am excited for it. Y’all will definitely see me having a sandwich at the Blue Moon Bodega much more often now. I hope you will not judge me too much for that.
Until next time,
Liv.
Great update. As someone that has purchased a home and restoring it in Beaumont Village I can’t wait until the trail portion of Daniel Morgan is complete. I feel like the trail is really going to help bring attention to this neighborhood and keep it moving forward.