SC needs an alternate route to less traffic and more housing

South Carolinians are fed up with traffic, understandably blaming explosive population growth.

Road congestion’s real driver is less obvious: a sprawling, government-mandated development pattern that leaves taxpayers on the hook for infrastructure maintenance costs that localities will struggle to pay.

The Palmetto State should return to traditional, natural growth patterns that strengthen local finances, make homes more abundant and affordable, and reduce traffic by letting people choose to drive less.

Mount Pleasant did not have much traffic in the 1990s and 2000s, when I grew up there. As a College of Charleston student, I easily visited my parents across the Cooper River. I only became acquainted with the stresses of heavy traffic after moving to the Washington, D.C., area.

When I brought my girlfriend to the Lowcountry in 2016 to propose, I was curious to see how smartphone navigation would optimize my driving routes. I quickly realized there was typically only one direct route between wherever I was and where I wanted to go. Detouring required making a huge loop. Happily, traffic still seemed fairly tame.

The Lowcountry has much worse traffic now, and it is easy to see why: A simple road network has inherent chokepoints.

Desperate to appease public anger about congestion, Mount Pleasant’s government banned new multifamily housing, including townhouses, for seven years back in 2017.

Results and public discourse show that policy failed.

Unfortunately, my hometown’s housing ban likely worsened its traffic problem by pushing more people who work in Charleston or Mount Pleasant to live in places farther out.

According to U.S. Census commuting data, about one in five workers employed in Charleston County in 2023 lived more than 50 miles away, amounting to more than 50,000 long-distance commuters. Living closer to their jobs would mean less driving for them and less traffic for everyone.

Most of South Carolina’s new housing is sprawling development at the edges of metropolitan areas: a limited number of large, expensive homes on government-mandated large lots.

“Drive until you qualify”— families buying a home with a mortgage they can barely afford at the edge of a metro area — keeps extending South Carolinians’ commutes.

Young parents in particular waste hours on jammed highways, commuting between a home they can afford and a job to pay for it.

Folks born and raised in the state who want a family of their own are increasingly forced to move, saying goodbye to their hometowns, relatives, and lifelong friends. They cannot compete with affluent newcomers for the limited supply of homes.

Spread-out housing stresses public budgets too. On a per-acre basis, it requires more physical infrastructure — such as roads and utility lines — while generating less property tax revenue.

The grassroots organization Strong Towns studies municipal finances, including road networks. It finds that such neighborhoods generate insufficient tax revenue to cover the long-term maintenance of their extensive infrastructure.

When the bill comes due, localities allow new development at their periphery to pump up new tax revenue. New development finances old — what Strong Towns calls “the growth Ponzi scheme.”

This is a familiar story in South Carolina, where road funding has become a major state budget issue.

There is probably no simple formula for fixing South Carolina’s housing shortage.

But the state’s fiscally sound neighborhoods of the future probably resemble Mount Pleasant’s colonial-era Old Village. Its street grid and small lots let many residents walk or bike, supporting local businesses — and reducing and diffusing traffic.

Strengthening private property rights and allowing traditional housing types would lead to additional family-friendly communities for people who want to live in them, generating less traffic elsewhere.

Regulation is the predominant barrier to building new places with the same basic ingredients as Old Village or even Charleston’s historic districts, where children can play in the streets and extended families keep old traditions alive.

South Carolina’s current growth pattern maximizes traffic. Its cultural heritage offers an alternate route forward.