Who We Are
Hi there! We’re Palmetto Walk Bike.
For 30 years, we’ve championed a simple idea.
Walking and biking should be safe, easy, and accessible across South Carolina.
Formerly the Palmetto Cycling Coalition, we’ve rebranded as Palmetto Walk Bike to better reflect the full scope of our mission. We advocate for connected, people-first infrastructure like sidewalks, crosswalks, bike lanes, greenways, and safe streets that benefit all South Carolinians, from small towns to city centers.
We work at the state level and support local partners with tools, data, and policy solutions that make communities more livable, equitable, and vibrant.
Whether you’re a parent walking your kids to school, a teenager biking to work, or an older adult crossing the street, you deserve a safe way to get where you’re going.
Board of Directors
Rip Sanders, Board Chair
Brian Curran, Treasurer
Mary McGowan
Eshana Young-Pierre
Linda Davis
Brittany Jones
Brad Cantrell
Carlsen Huey
Lanneau Lide
Staff
Regan Freeman serves Executive Director of Palmetto Walk Bike, South Carolina’s statewide nonprofit working to improve walking, biking, and active transportation. He has spent the past eight years in nonprofit leadership, with experience in advocacy, fundraising, communications, and organizational development.
Throughout his nonprofit career, Regan has led successful fundraising and public awareness campaigns that have received national recognition. His work has been featured on the TODAY Show, in The Washington Post, and by Good Morning America.
Based in Columbia, Regan works with communities across South Carolina to advance transportation policy, support local infrastructure projects, and strengthen statewide advocacy efforts.
Our History
1995-Present
Palmetto Walk Bike began in 1995 as the Palmetto Cycling Coalition, founded by a group of volunteers working to make South Carolina safer for people on bikes. Over the past three decades, we’ve grown into the state’s leading voice for active transportation, building coalitions, advocating for better policies, and helping communities create safer, more accessible streets.
In the early 2000s, we helped update bicycle safety information in the SC Drivers Manual, distributed tens of thousands of bike law cards, trained local instructors through national programs, supported communities pursuing Bicycle Friendly Community status, and co published the SC Complete Streets Toolkit.
During the 2010s, we launched Safe Streets Save Lives, South Carolina’s first strategic bicycle safety education campaign. We successfully advocated for a safer rumble strip policy, helped defeat harmful transportation legislation, and helped secure a new $5 million annual investment from SCDOT for pedestrian and bicycle safety. We also began participating in Road Safety Audits, bringing community voices directly into conversations about safer road design.
By 2020, we had grown the SC Livable Communities Alliance into a statewide network of 25 mayors and dozens of local and statewide organizations. That coalition helped secure one of our most significant policy victories: the adoption of a strong, funded SCDOT Complete Streets directive.
In 2023, we launched the Livable Streets Academy to train and equip local advocates across South Carolina. In 2024, we released a statewide low stress bike map to help people of all ages and abilities find safer routes.
In 2025, after more than a decade of advocacy, South Carolina passed the Hands Free law. That summer, we became Palmetto Walk Bike, a new name that better reflects the full scope of our mission.
In May 2026, we successfully led the effort to pass the Palmetto Stop, modernizing South Carolina law to allow people on bikes to treat stop signs as yields when it is safe to do so.
More than 30 years after a small group of volunteers came together around bicycle safety, our work continues to grow. We’re proud of where we’ve been and excited about what comes next.
Palmetto Walk Bike 