Traffic signal timing on James Island prompts concerns from drivers

JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - A Johns Island resident worries that a traffic signal she encounters regularly at a James Island intersection could cause potential accidents and even landed her a traffic ticket.

Sally Clemence has lived on Johns Island for the past five years and claims cars on Maybank Highway travel pretty quickly. But she questions the timing of a traffic light at the intersection of Riverland Drive and Maybank Highway. Clemence says the yellow light on Maybank is about three seconds long before it turns red, making it very easy to drive through the light, given the short amount of time.

But she says most cars on Riverland Road make a left turn onto Maybank Highway and the bigger problem is that the traffic light on Riverland Road turns green after only a second or so after the Maybank Highway light turns red. Drivers in the intersection waiting to turn left don’t have enough time to clear the path of oncoming traffic that then has the green light.

She said she received a ticket for running the red light despite their not always being enough time to clear the intersection.

Even worse, while the speed limit on Maybank Highway is 45 mph and changes to 40 mph past the intersection, she says drivers travel 55 mph over the Johns Island Bridge and keep the same speed through the intersection.

She says she’s never witnessed any accidents but says she’s aware there have been quite a few in the area.

“I think if everybody just had a red light for five seconds, give the people a chance to run the red light if they’re going to do that,” Clemence says. “That just seems like a cheaper alternative than people trying to put travel police to slow the traffic down or adding lanes. There’s a lot of trouble with that intersection, but that would be a quick easy fix.”

Maybank Highway and Riverland Road are maintained by the City of Charleston, which released the following statement about the concerns:

The traffic signal at the intersection of Maybank Highway and Riverland Drive is owned by the South Carolina Department of Transportation and maintained by the City of Charleston under a State and City approved Signal Maintenance Agreement. The signal timings for this intersection were determined by a licensed South Carolina traffic engineer as part of a corridor signal timing project in 2016 and met all State and Federal Highway standards for traffic signal timings. With City Council’s approval of the proposed 2024 budget, this corridor will be included as part of a corridor signal timing project in 2024 and will again meet all State and Federal Highway standards for traffic signal timings.

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