Bikes being banned along Charleston expressway

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Charleston Mayor Joe Riley says bikes and pedestrians are being banned from a Charleston expressway where a bicyclist was struck and killed last summer.

Riley says the ban will take effect on the James Island Connector in a few weeks. The ban is being put in place by the state on the elevated highway crossing the Ashley River but city police will enforce it.

Riley said there are plans to convert one lane of the nearby six-lane U.S. 17 bridge across the Ashley into a pedestrian and bike lane connecting the Charleston peninsula with the city’s western suburbs.

The state has approved working on the design, but there is no money to build the project yet.