I published my last post, went out side to poop my dog and voila: more sharrows. Looks like they’re finishing up? 
I noticed bicyclist driving outside the designated sharrow lane where it’s complete. 
Sharrow Shots
August 11, 2007 by 7 Comments
Just out of curiosity, when you say “riding outside the designated sharrow lane”, what do you mean?
Lee, outside of the white lines (to the left of the white line) and even outside of painted-bike-rider area. My point is that it seems like during a time when the City of Seattle is removing cross walks that pedistrians have been hit in, how can they add “sharrows”?
I’m concerned it will provide a false sense of safety for some bike riders (more so the occaissional one than the “professional” one).
It’s unclear how these are to be used and I have yet to see any information from the City.
Given the harrowing experiences we’re having with bikers (no training wheels) whizzing by on the sidewalk, I’m hoping that the city is drawing the bikers in the streets to hope that bikes will use the road! Cat Man was almost hit by a biker on the sidewalk on Saturday who was going as fast as her companion on the street. Geez
That said, with all the parked cars I don’t see how they would think its reasonable for bikes to stay within the lines. Seems like it would be more dangerous to be weaving in and out of the sharrow lane….
As a regular bike commuter along Beach Drive, I will stay in the lane that is shared by cyclists and parked cars:
– when there are no parked cars
– when there are no splits in the road that could trap a bike tire
– when there only a few potholes
I find these “lanes” pretty close to worthless and will continue to try to cycle defensively.
I just wish that the pedestrians would stick to the sidewalk along Alki and not walk in the disignated bike path.
Cranky Cyclist, I’m sure it must almost be like mountain biking having to dodge the road conditions along Beach Drive. I have no beef w/cyclist on the roads…none. I have to do a double take when opening my car door or before doing a u-turn when I’m leaving our home…that’s fine with me and it’s part of living on Beach Drive.
My beef is with the City for their lack of communication and for spending money on this when they’re removing sidewalks. IMHO this is about the Mayor wanting to look cool so he can call Seattle a bicycle friendly city. Which a true bicycle friendly city IS GREAT. I’M FOR IT. These sharrows along Beach Drive don’t seem to accomplish much except for acknowledgement that bikes are on the road too–which I thought we all ready knew that. I think they’re just to look pretty for the Mayor.
Sharrows are meant to remind people (both cyclists and drivers) of what the law already states: that bikes can use the entire lane if they need to. Many less experienced cyclists ride too close to parked cars, and end up getting doored when someone less considerate than you fails to look in the sideview before opening up. Sharrows have been shown to increase the distance between bikes and parked cars, and to increase (by a whopping 2 feet!) the average distance between passing cars and cyclists. For more information see this study by the San Francisco MTA: http://www.sfmta.com/cms/uploadedfiles/dpt/bike/Bike_Plan/Shared%20Lane%20Marking%20Full%20Report-052404.pdf
Seattle is also doing public outreach to try and inform people what the symbols mean, but apparently not enough.
I think there’s nothing wrong with reminders. Maybe we should paint people walking to create “sidewalk sharrows” for the bicyclist who opt not to use the streets.
I have NO beef w/bicyclist who are on the road. Our street has a lot of bike traffic and I think it’s pretty cool.
My “beef” is with the City and our Mayor.