DOT mowing down S.C.'s natural roadside beauty

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For decades, DOT has cut the vegetation on the roadsides the way it wants. That is why we have lost magnificent avenues of oaks that were hundreds of years old. We have lost most of the stately canopies that once covered our rural roads, and too many roadside trees to even bear contemplating. The DOT has stripped South Carolina roadsides of their personality and natural beauty.

DOT does the roadside butchering in the name of safety. The truth is that the mowing and clearing exceed even the most stringent national safety standards. The engineering bible used by virtually all state DOTs is published by AASHTO, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

AASHTO standards for interstates call for a 30-foot clear zone extending out from the edge of the travel lane. The roadside clearing called for in South Carolina's new law, the ones Reps. Becky Martin and Ronny Townsend want to repeal, calls for a 30-foot clear zone starting from the edge of the paved shoulder, which adds another 12 to 15 feet to the national standard.

South Carolina falls well within what is required to allow most motorists who veer off the road room to recover and get back on the road. Ironically, DOT removed vegetation from the center of some interstate medians only to discover that cars crossed the medians and ran head on into oncoming traffic. Now — at tremendous cost to taxpayers — they are erecting cement walls and iron guard rails to prevent this. There are two reasons many applaud Sen. Ravenel and the improved roadside vegetation management law.

First, DOT can hardly afford to spend millions of our tax dollars on unnecessary roadside mowing and maintenance. If you go to their Web site you will see stunning admissions: DOT cannot resurface 25,000 miles of secondary roads; nearly one-third of the state's primary and interstate highways are in poor or mediocre condition; one out of every four bridges in the state is considered deficient.

DOT officials cannot maintain our roads, they say, because they do not have enough money. Yet they continue to waste dollars clearing in front of billboards, logging trees to enhance views of billboards that tower over the trees (try to understand that) and argue even now to mow beyond what is reasonably required for safety.

The other reason we applaud Sen. Ravenel is because the look of our roadsides does matter. They are the view we look at on our way to work. They can inspire or depress. They are what visitors to our state see. They are what business leaders see when they scout our state for possible relocation.

For decades, we've shown our roadsides with a lot of litter. Instead of miles of moss-laden live oaks, people see pansies. Instead of red cedar and bald cypress, maple and tupelo, they see poppies and rock smiley faces that say absolutely nothing about our state, culture or heritage. We could be Kansas.

Sen. Ravenel has said it for years, and I repeat it here: we have some of the most beautiful native wildflowers and trees in the nation. Our roadsides are naturally beautiful, and will grow back to be naturally beautiful, for free, if DOT will follow the law, keep a reasonable clear zone, and do nothing beyond that. It doesn't cost us a thing. The money DOT saves should be spent repairing roads and bridges.