Myrtle Beach city council met in a workshop this morning to talk about changes to Kings Highway, like reducing the speed limit.
For many, Kings Highway is their first impression of Myrtle Beach, and City Council agrees slowing traffic on the road could give businesses a better chance of being noticed.
For Ricky West, who owns a popular seafood restaurant right on the edge of Kings Highway, lowering the speed limit could hopefully give him more business.
“It can have a positive and a negative action to us,” he said. “I would like to see a trolley system or something put in where people can get around a lot better. Which, this will make people slow down, easier to cross the roads, and hopefully put more people on the streets.”
Myrtle Beach city council changed its mind on reducing lanes, and will not recommend that now.
Instead, they approved to start talks with SCDOT to look at the impact of reducing the speed limit to 35.
Council will work with the City Planning Commission’s Bike and Pedestrian Committee on the issue, and they say it wants to start looking at the highway as more of a parkway.
“It’s great news, I think, for the effort that we’ve been putting in for the last several years. This, I believe, is a first step towards a transformation in our community that’s really needed and one that will pay benefits in the long run,” said a former member of the Bike and Pedestrian Committee.
Council reports a significant number of crashes on the highway lately, and pointed out lowering the speed limit could also have a direct impact on that.
