Our view: Do not make it worse for US 278 motorists

Hilton Head Island's economy depends on a free-flowing U.S. 278.

Adding two traffic lights near the foot of the bridge will do great harm to two pillars of the economy -- workers coming to and from the island each day and tourists arriving and leaving en masse each Saturday during peak season.

As Beaufort County, the Town of Hilton Head Island and the S.C. Department of Transportation consider a new plan to add two traffic lights on Jenkins Island, they must place the steady flow of traffic on U.S. 278 as the highest priority.

Already, the traffic light at Squire Pope Road backs up traffic daily during morning and evening rush hours. Anything that stops the flow on U.S. 278 has widespread, negative consequences for the vast majority of motorists. More traffic lights should be avoided at all costs.

Cost is indeed one of the main considerations. It is said that potential options that could avoid adding traffic lights are too expensive.

But is anyone considering the true cost?

Highway construction costs could be minimal when compared to the cost of scaring away tourists and workers who have better options than sitting in traffic.

What is the cost of saying "Welcome to Hilton Head -- Now Slam on Your Brakes!"? A cost differential of $15 million compared to $7.4 million is significant, but it could be a reasonable premium to pay in order to avoid gridlock for motorists on the sole road onto and off of Hilton Head.

If new signals were installed, they should be turned off to never stop the flow of U.S. 278 during morning and evening rush hours each weekday and all day on Saturdays during peak tourist season.

Too much has been done to improve the flow of traffic on U.S. 278 to start adding more impediments. Improvements on the island include the Cross Island Parkway, new and better secondary roads, and computerized traffic signals that give more time to U.S. 278 traffic. On the mainland, more lanes have been added to U.S. 278, and Bluffton Parkway has been added as a major parallel road.

Frontage roads should have been put in place long ago to help resolve the growing problem of U.S. 278 serving as both a major thoroughfare and a city street.

In all the studying of the best thing to do in the Jenkins Island area, someone absolutely must speak up for those least likely to be represented at the table: the workers and the tourists.

Hilton Head's economy depends on a free-flowing U.S. 278.

This story was originally published December 9, 2015 at 9:33 PM with the headline "Our view: Do not make it worse for US 278 motorists."