Hailing a nighttime ride on King Street is about to change as city officials recently approved a pilot program for ride-sharing slated to begin May 1.
City staff have designated five locations for ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft to pick up and drop off passengers between 6 p.m. and 3 a.m. along the King Street corridor. Only one of the stops is on King Street proper; the remaining four are on side streets along the half-mile stretch of the main thoroughfare containing most of the city’s nightlife district.
The change follows other safety initiatives downtown and coincides with traffic flow changes when bars and clubs are most crowded.
“It’s always been challenging to get people from bars to their ride-share vehicles, but this has gotten more challenging with King Street’s current late-night operational plan,” said Emily Pinkston, an urban designer for the city, at a recent Traffic and Transportation meeting where details of the new program were first publicly discussed.
NEW KING STREET RIDESHARE LOCATIONS: The city is planning a new pilot program defining five pick-up and drop-off zones for rideshares operating from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. along the King Street corridor. (Source: City of Charleston)
At night, Thursday through Saturday, traffic on King Street, from Spring to Calhoun streets, is reduced to one lane, and street parking is banned. But an unintended consequence of the closures “means people are having to meet their Ubers in the middle of the street, which clogs traffic and endangers pedestrians,” Pinkston said.
City staff hope these ride-share zones are the solution, using the city’s existing, but unused, taxi stands as a guide.
“We really want people to flow away from King Street versus toward King Street,” said Charleston Police Lt. Corey Taylor, who oversees the Central Business District that includes this area. “This keeps people flowing away from the busiest part of downtown.”
Taylor said the change also will help focus officers’ attention on public safety rather than traffic enforcement.
The five locations are: King Street between Spring and Cannon streets, Woolfe Street, Morris Street, Radcliffe Street and John Street.
The stops are within a tenth of a mile of one another — an estimated two-minute walk. Signage will be added at each location and along King Street directing people to the stops.
The city has provided the ride-hailing companies a geofenced map of the locations. When requesting a ride, the application will direct riders and drivers to one of those areas, according to a Lyft spokesman who said the company is happy to work with the city on the effort. Uber will do the same, city officials said.
Each zone allows for up to three cars to queue at a time, a recommendation the city received from Cincinnati, which implemented a similar program last year, Pinkston said. Boston and Washington, D.C., also use similar systems, as do most airports, including Charleston International.
City Council approved the pilot program at its April 9 meeting, as well as updates to an existing ordinance that made it illegal for ride-shares to operate on King Street between 12:30 a.m. and 3 a.m. Friday through Sunday.
“(That) is obviously the prime time that we need those services available,” said Magalie Creech, a city attorney who help drafted the updated ordinance. “For that reason, we haven’t been enforcing that portion of the ordinance.”
King Street businesses and neighborhoods along the route have been surveyed and generally support the program, the city said.
