Help Needed! Action on Pedestrian Safety in RDI & RDII
I need your help now! If all 170 supporters of us in our neighborhoods act, I think we can make a difference.
We believe our families, children, neighbors and visitors should be able to safely cross Hammett Road between our two neighborhoods.
We asked SCDOT for something very reasonable: please evaluate whether a pedestrian crosswalk with a flashing beacon or a 4-way stop with a crosswalk could make this crossing safer.
On August 10, SCDOT gave us its answer.
“No further action required.”
We should be angry and deeply frustrated by that conclusion.
And after reading SCDOT's own findings, I don't think we should simply accept it-- they didn't even look at people crossing the street to come to this conclusion.
I need every resident to take action.
Please do these three things:
1. Contact SCDOT yourself and request a formal pedestrian safety evaluation.
I have provided a message below that you can copy and paste into this form: https://apps.scdot.org/mwro/
Send me a copy and I can compile them also. (Katy.Rebernak@gmail.com)
2. Send me documentation of near misses and dangerous encounters.
If you see cars abruptly brake, stop, swerve or otherwise react to pedestrians crossing Hammett Road, please document it safely. Send me the footage (Katy.Rebernak@gmail.com). Use your phones or GoPros when walking across Hammett (safely of course.) Any dangerous driving encounters. Send those too. We need your evidence!
Here's what makes SCDOT's response so frustrating.
SCDOT's own engineers came out and found that the sight distance is inadequate.
They measured only 228 feet of sight distance looking to the right from West Hackney Road due to vegetation. Their stated design standard for a pedestrian crosswalk is 335 feet.
And they found that there are no ADA ramps at any of the approaches to the intersection.
Yet after identifying those conditions, their recommendation was:
“No further action required.”
How does that make sense?
If vegetation is blocking a driver's sight line, shouldn't we at least ask whether that obstruction can be addressed?
If there is inadequate pedestrian infrastructure, shouldn't we be asking what can be done to make the crossing safer and accessible?
And if people are already crossing this road between two residential neighborhoods, shouldn't SCDOT actually evaluate how and when they are crossing?
SCDOT focused on its crash history.
Their review found 8 crashes along the 1.25-mile stretch of Hammett Road over three years. I had also provided Greenville County records showing two additional crashes that were not included in the state data they relied upon. I personally paid and furnished county records that were not considered.
They also failed to consider the speeding citation data, showing that when law enforcement does run a coordinated effort, they're issuing tickets about as fast as an officer can issue them, about 1 ticket every 8 minutes.
But here's the problem:
Do we really want to wait for the crash count to get higher before we take pedestrian safety seriously?
A near miss doesn't appear in a crash database.
A driver slamming on the brakes doesn't necessarily generate a police report.
A child making it safely across the road because a driver happened to see them at the last second doesn't become a statistic.
The absence of a recorded crash does not mean a crossing is safe.
And SCDOT's own pedestrian-crossing guidance recognizes that pedestrian evaluations involve more than simply looking at crash numbers.
We need to document what residents actually experience.
If you've crossed Hammett Road, you know this isn't an abstract engineering exercise.
You know what it feels like to stand at the edge of the road and look around the curve.
You know how quickly a vehicle can appear.
You know that drivers don't always see pedestrians immediately.
And you know why so many of us signed that petition in March.
Now we need to put that experience into a record that SCDOT cannot easily dismiss.
PLEASE CONTACT SCDOT: https://apps.scdot.org/mwro/
Or email: WILSONBE@scdot.gov
You can copy and paste the following message. Feel free to add your own personal experience.
I am a resident of the neighborhoods surrounding Hammett Road (SR-522), and I am requesting a formal pedestrian safety and traffic engineering evaluation of the intersection of Hammett Road and East/West Hackney Road.
I am aware of SCDOT's August 10, 2026 traffic review. That review identified an intersection sight distance of only 228 feet to the right compared with a stated design standard of 335 feet, and identified a curve and vegetation as blocking the sight line. The review also notes that there are no ADA ramps at the intersection.
I am concerned that these identified safety deficiencies were not followed by any recommendation for corrective action or further evaluation.
I am requesting that SCDOT conduct a comprehensive pedestrian safety evaluation of this location, including pedestrian activity, vehicle speeds, sight distance, roadway geometry, the identified vegetation obstruction, ADA accessibility, proximity to other pedestrian crossings, and pedestrian/vehicle conflicts and near misses.
Please also evaluate appropriate safety treatments, including a high-visibility pedestrian crosswalk with a pedestrian-activated Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon (RRFB), a 4-way stop with a crosswalk, or another treatment recommended by the District Traffic Engineer.
Please specifically advise whether SCDOT will address the identified sight-distance obstruction and then reevaluate the location.
I am requesting a written response explaining the engineering basis for the decision that “no further action” is required despite the documented sight-distance deficiency and lack of pedestrian infrastructure.
Thank you.
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And please forward this message to a neighbor who signed the petition—or anyone who lives nearby and cares about this crossing.
We stood together in March.
Let's stand together again.