Consider when you see stop signs, painted crosswalks, speed limit signage, and curbs painted red. What’s worse, the sharrows and signs don’t extend any real benefits to bike riders. When cities care enough about safety to do the very least. Instead we have hieroglyphics and some kind of vague Buddhist mantra about sharing. Think about how clear signs or painted road markings that say BICYCLES MAY USE FULL LANE would be. If the point is to admonish motorists that people on bikes are legally entitled to take the lane, why use such cryptic methods? In conversations with drivers (and on countless soul-sucking posts on social media and story comments), I’ve sadly learned that many non-riders think sharrows and the accompanying signs are actually talking to cyclists - reminding those entitled and naughty bike riders to stopping slowing down or stressing out people in cars. I suppose that sounds OK on paper, but in the real world, sharrows are hateful.įor one thing, the icons and signage are terminally incomprehensible. Yeah your kids will be totally safe biking to school here. Theoretically, their primary job is to tell drivers to watch out for bike riders, who are legally allowed to ride in the middle of the lane. The executive summary as that they are intended to make bike riding safer and more orderly. I am not going to waste much of your time (or mine) explaining the theoretical benefits of sharrows. they are paired with equally baffling signs on the side of the road that also depict a little bike and say “SHARE THE ROAD.” "Sharrow" is a portmanteau for "arrow-shaped shared-lane marking." There’s a decent chance you’ve seen them - two baffling chevrons and a bicycle icon painted on the street. Good for you - it’s honestly a shame that something so useless must inhabit even a few of your brain cells. Let me offer a concise explainer of why from a safe-streets perspective, these lane markings are the bane of American roads: confusing, useless - worse than useless, actually - and deployed in bad faith.īefore I start throwing bombs, don’t feel sheepish if you have no clue what sharrows are. Editor's Note: This article first appeared on Medium and is republished with permission.
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