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Sharrow
A sharrow is a pavement marking installed on streets popular with bicyclists but too narrow for conventional bike lanes [1]. The sharrow is installed 11 feet from the curb, or approximately 4 feet from par ked cars. It is intended to indicate where bicyclists should ride to avoid traveling within the
door zone
of parked cars. It also alerts motorists to share the road with bicyclists and conveys that the street is a preferred bike route.
The bicycle-plus-arrow markings can be placed in the middle or to the side of the travel lane. Their presence can be somewhat ambiguous: do they encourage bicyclists to travel freely within the lane or closely follow the symbols as they would a bike lane? The sharrow's main purpose is to give bicyclists freedom to move further to the left within travel lane, rather than brave the
door zone
, squeezed between moving and parked cars. Without such markings, bicyclists might seek refuge on the sidewalk or travel in the wrong direction. The overall goals are: to improve the position of bicyclists and motorists on roads without bike lanes, reduce aggressive motorist behavior, encourage correct bicycling behavior and increase the comfort of (and therefore the number of) bicyclists on shared roads [1].
Roads with sharrows constitute Class III bike routes, a “step down” from Class II routes with designated bike lanes. These city streets can be part of a bicycle network, but may have higher motorist traffic than bicycle boulevards.
ALSO ON THE LIVABLE STREETS NETWORK
- Streetsblog NYC: Birth of a Class Three Bike Route. November 13, 2006.
- Streetfilms: Painting Sharrows in San Francisco (via YouTube).
REFERENCES
Each source is referred to by the same number every time it is cited. Please keep citation style consistent.
[1] San Francisco’s Shared Lane Pavement Markings: Improving Bicycle Safety (pdf). San Francisco Department of Parking and Traffic. February 2004
[2]
[3]
[4]
PICTURE REFERENCES
Pictures are cited in the order they appear above. Please keep citation style consistent.
[1]
[2] Seattle sharrow. Photo by litlnemo via Flickr.
FURTHER READING
- San Francisco’s Shared Lane Pavement Markings: Improving Bicycle Safety (pdf). San Francisco Department of Parking and Traffic. February 2004.
KEYWORDS
street designs, pavement marking, door zone, safety, bicyclists, bike lane, bike route
