SCDOT data shows Rock Hill region has state’s most heavily traveled stretch of road.
As a York County committee continues to shape what will become the next Pennies for Progress roads project list, there’s a rather obvious ingredient to consider. Just how many vehicles are there on area roads?
The South Carolina Department of Transportation lists county and statewide traffic counts in what it calls annual average daily traffic. Or, how many vehicles typically travel a certain roadway each day. The state has more than 170 continuous count stations that use permanent sensors in the roadway. Then there are many more sampling sites.
Traffic count and traffic aren’t exactly the same.
The same 100 cars on a two-lane, farm-to-town road feels much different than they would on a six-lane highway. But, overall volume is a piece of the puzzle. And many of the roads with the highest traffic counts also are those that elected officials and road experts across the region hear the most complaints about.
The Herald recently pulled the most recent SCDOT data to compare roads in the Rock Hill region. Simply use the following tables and sort by traffic count, road or location for more than 830 sites. Or, click the following link to view the York, Lancaster and Chester county traffic count sites on a map. Then zoom into any area statewide to find count sites and data.
The data shows this region has the busiest roadway in South Carolina. And plenty more that serve tens of thousand of drivers each day.
Here’s what we found:
Carowinds
South Carolina lists traffic volumes for more than 12,000 sites statewide. No site saw more daily traffic last year than the stretch of I-77 between Carowinds Boulevard and Charlotte.
It wasn’t close.
The 171,200 average daily trips there are 6,300 trips more than the second highest count -- on I-26 between Remount Road and I-526 in Charleston County. For perspective, Harrisburg Road in Indian Land from Barberville Road to the North Carolina line registered 6,300 daily trips. So did Gillsbrook Road between Wylie Street and the S.C. Highway 9 Bypass in Lancaster. Three stretches of S.C. 5 in York County — Nimitz Road to Black Highway, U.S. 321 Bypass to Congress Street, Saluda Street to Albright Road — each hit 6,300 trips.
If each vehicle that traveled the interstate just south of Charlotte daily had two people in it, those vehicles combined could transport the entire population of York County with an additional Fort Mill, Tega Cay and half of Clover to spare.
The Carowinds area count makes sense. Anyone from Fort Mill, Rock Hill, Indian Land, or other nearby areas who use the interstate to get to and from Charlotte most likely will use that stretch of road. That’s why traffic volume in the Rock Hill region, at its peak, begins with the interstate in Fort Mill.
Other stretches of I-77
After Carowinds, the next three highest traffic counts in the region are portions of I-77 between Gold Hill Road and Carowinds Boulevard (128,100 daily trips), Sutton Road and S.C. 160 (120,600) and S.C. 160 and Gold Hill Road (120,200). Though still well above anything else in the area, interstate traffic counts lessen as the road extends south through Rock Hill and Chester County.
The Gold Hill to Carowinds Boulevard stretch ranks No. 8 in traffic volume statewide. The Sutton to S.C. 160 portion is No. 15, followed by S.C. 160 to Gold Hill at No. 16. The I-77 segment between Celanese Road in Rock Hill and Sutton Road in Fort Mill is No. 17 statewide, with 119,800 daily trips.
Lancaster County doesn’t have I-77, but Chester County does. The four highest traffic counts in Chester County are on the interstate. Combined, the daily traffic from those four points are roughly the same as from the next 20 spots in Chester County.
Rock Hill roads
Rock Hill has more than twice the population of any other city or town in the region south of the N.C. border. Beyond interstate traffic counts, it shows. The four most traveled non-interstate York County roads are in Rock Hill. Of the top 20 non-interstate traffic counts, 15 of them are wholly or partly in Rock Hill.
At the top is Celanese Road. A stretch from Mt. Gallant to Cherry roads is No. 1 with 47,400 daily trips. Celanese also has No. 3 between India Hook Road and Mt. Gallant (41,400 daily trips) and No. 6 from S.C. 274 to Trexler Lane (39,200).
Other top non-interstate roads in York County are No. 2 Dave Lyle Boulevard from I-77 to Galleria Boulevard (45,100), No. 4 U.S. 21 from Cherry to the interstate (41,200) and No. 5 Carowinds Boulevard from U.S. 21 to the North Carolina line in Fort Mill (39,400).
No Rock Hill region roads are on the top 40 traffic counts statewide for non-interstate segments. That list is dominated at the top by Charleston County roads. The Celanese stretch from Mt. Gallant to Cherry ranks No. 41 statewide.
Lake Wylie
Lake Wylie has less than a fifth the population of Rock Hill. But the series of points and peninsulas in that area, where new home subdivisions have become common in recent decades, pushes traffic onto a few familiar roads.
Two of the top 10 busiest non-interstate spots in York County are on S.C. 49 in Lake Wylie. A stretch between S.C. 557 and the North Carolina line is No. 7 with 38,000 daily trips. A part between Hands Mill Highway and the Three Points intersection with S.C. 557 is No. 10 (31,900). S.C. 274 between Three Points and Pole Branch Road gets 21,500 daily trips.
Indian Land
Like Lake Wylie with S.C. 49, Indian Land has a backbone road -- U.S. 521 (or Charlotte Highway) -- that funnels its booming population. The top seven Lancaster County traffic count sites are on or beside a ramp off U.S. 521. The highest counts are in the Indian Land panhandle.
More specifically, the highest counts are in parts of Indian Land that connect to Fort Mill, Ballantyne or Charlotte.
The Charlotte Highway stretch from S.C. 160, known there as Fort Mill Highway, to the North Carolina line is No. 1 at 37,300 daily trips. A stretch between Shelley Mullis Road and S.C. 160 is No. 2 at 30,800 trips. Apart from U.S. 521, roads that carry the most Lancaster County traffic are S.C. 9, which runs east to west through Lancaster, and S.C. 5, which connects to U.S. 521 at the panhandle base and travels west through Rock Hill and York County.
Chester County
The four highest Chester County counts are, predictably, on I-77. Otherwise, most Chester County traffic is on S.C. 9. That east to west route spans the county on either side of and through the city of Chester. The top eight non-interstate counts and 12 of the top 15 sites are parts of S.C. 9. The stretch from Wilson Street to J.A. Cochran Bypass is highest with 16,500 daily trips.
Roads with less dense traffic
If folks want to avoid traffic, there are options.
The Rock Hill region has 22 sites that registered 100 or fewer vehicles per day. Chester County had 13, with five more in Lancaster County and four in York County. Eight sites, at least one per county, saw a low 25 vehicle count.
Arithmetic Street just off Kings Mountain Street in York and Hopewell Road between Scenic View Road and S.C. 97, just east of the Broad River, hit the 25 vehicle mark in York County. South Cleveland Street between West Marion an South Matson streets in Kershaw did too.
Five Chester County sites to register 25 vehicles per day include parts of Dawkinsville, Gilchrist, Park, Stone and Suzy Bole roads.
Why it matters
Along with the daily commute experience, traffic is a present concern as York County prepares for its next Pennies for Progress vote in fall 2024. Lancaster County has had discussions on and seems poised to start something similar.
Should Lancaster County charge a sales tax to fix roads? Voters may get to decide
A citizens’ commission tasked with coming up with the road project list for next year’s Pennies vote wrapped up a set of countywide public meetings when Rock Hill got its turn on Sept. 20. The commission will continue to meet and work with county planning staff to match expected available funds from the one-cent sales tax, should voters pass the fifth Pennies campaign next year, to a list of road improvements.
