Rose brings more stop signs, speed bumps to Rosewood

If you’ve taken a drive through Rosewood in the past week, you may have noticed fewer cars racing through the streets.

Two new four-way stop signs have been in effect since Nov. 8, and residents say that combined with the speed bumps implemented have helped with speeding in the area. The two four-way stop signs are located at South Holly Street and Montgomery Avenue, as well as South Bonham Road and Montgomery Avenue.

For years, residents have complained of drivers going well above the posted speed limit in that area, of 30 miles an hour.

Rosewood Community Council and neighbors have worked with Columbia City Council, state representatives, and the South Carolina Department of Transportation to ensure safety measures are put in place. Back in June, city council approved a proposal to add more than a dozen speed bumps, along with the two four-way stops.

Robbie Black has lived along S. Holly St for about 30 years and, through the years, he said he’s seen it all when it comes to people speeding.

“They do come down pretty fast,” Black said. “We’ve had two accidents come through directly through our yards because we sit right on this curve.”

Black said adding traffic calming measures is long overdue. “This last one [crash] was undoubtedly the worst where a truck hit our neighbors SUV that was parked in his driveway. Flipped it through our yard, and his truck caught on fire next to our other neighbors’ house,” Black said.

He along with other residents patiently waited years for traffic calming measures to be implemented.

"It took many years, but kudos to DOT and everyone involved because I think it's going to make a difference,” Amy Johnson-Ely, another neighbor said.

State Representative Seth Rose who has spoken with residents and SCDOT throughout this process said from what he’s heard, “it’s had rave reviews so far from the community.”

“Property owners said, ‘Look, I know this is a problem because I live here and I come here on a daily basis. We really have to put a lot of stock in that and we did,’” Rep. Rose said.

Residents said, while they know the speeding won’t halt overnight, they’re hopeful.

"We live on this corner and we certainly don’t want to see anyone else plow through our yard, but more importantly, we don’t want to see anyone get hurt,” Black said.

In 2018, Columbia police wrote 138 tickets on side streets off Rosewood Drive; including Bonham, Maple, and Holly streets. There were 14 collisions south of Rosewood Drive.

WIS reached out to the Columbia Police Department to see if the number of speeding tickets has decreased since they implemented the speed bumps which have been done over the course of the past few months; however, they tell us they are still working on compiling those statistics.

City officials said, at this time, there are no plans to install any other traffic calming measures in the area. However, if more is requested the city will look into it.

To see coverage from WIS-TV 10 NBC (Columbia, SC), please click here