Letter: Boundary Street needs middle lane

I finally reviewed conceptual plans for the Boundary Street project in Beaufort. It is clear that citizen comments aren’t going to change the project. The city has found a bunch of money and it’s going to spend it.

As others have noted, it is confounding how someone thought it would be a good idea to eliminate the center lane when a center lane is clearly needed. A couple of roads to nowhere aren’t going to ameliorate that snafu. Just get used to using Parris Island Gateway and avoid downtown.

Again, the city didn’t look around to see what others have done successfully. They did this with the dysfunctional parking meter system when Savannah had a very good system downtown we could have copied. Walterboro improved the look of its entrance on S.C. 63 (from Interstate 95) with a few decorative islands that didn’t remove the ability to turn left.

My only suggestion is that we start the process of procuring federal dollars for an “Island Removal” or “Center Lane Installation” project. It will take 10 or 15 years to get the money and by that time the proponents of this current project will be out of the picture and more rational heads might prevail.

This story was originally published May 17, 2016 at 4:51 PM with the headline "Letter: Boundary Street needs middle lane."