Stuck in traffic? York County roads group wants to hear your gripe

Motorists who make the trek to Charlotte at peak hours are familiar with traffic congestion at Interstate 77 interchanges at Cherry and Celanese roads and at S.C. 160.

The functionality of those two interchanges is among priorities of the the Rock Hill-Fort Mill Area Transportation Study. But the regional transportation group is taking comments from motorists about other traffic concerns.

The federally funded planning organization, which serves urban areas in York County, is updating its long-range plan through 2045. The group covers parts of Lake Wylie, Indian Land and Tega Cay in addition to its namesake municipalities.

The long-range plan must be updated every four years. This revision comes while another road project list is being generated for the 2017 Pennies for Progress campaign.

“We’d like to hear from the public on what parts of the transportation network they think warrant additional attention,” said RFATS director David Hooper.

That might include, he said, “whether it’s a focus on reducing traffic congestion, whether there should be an increased focus on bicycle and pedestrian improvements, or safety concerns.”

RFATS looks at the region’s overall transportation network, Hooper said, while Pennies deals with larger roads, intersections and gravel road paving projects.

Hooper said it could benefit his list to wait until after York County’s Pennies plan is set to avoid duplicates, but he is not able to do that. Federal mandates require he finish the RFATS list this fall.

The group already has held public meetings in Rock Hill, Lake Wylie and Fort Mill to seek input. The next such meeting, in the Lancaster County panhandle area, is scheduled for 6-7:30 p.m. Aug. 30 at the Del-Web Library in Indian Land.

RFATS also will take online comments, letters and emails for the next month. A policy committee, with elected officials representing the service area, will generate a list of projects to fund from community and transportation modeling input.

Hooper said the agency is hearing a lot about traffic congestion.

Some of the areas he’s received comments on include the Celanese and Cherry roads areas and Dave Lyle Boulevard in Rock Hill, along S.C. 160 and U.S. 21 in Fort Mill and the Dam and New Grey Rock road area in northern York County.

This story was originally published August 20, 2016 at 5:52 PM with the headline "Stuck in traffic? York County roads group wants to hear your gripe."