Sharrows Are Not Effective Substitutes for Bike Lanes (Study)

"Study: Sharrows Don’t Make Streets Safer for Cycling"

Sharrows are the dregs of bike infrastructure — the scraps cities hand out when they can’t muster the will to implement exclusive space for bicycling. They may help with wayfinding, but do sharrows improve the safety of cycling at all? New research presented at the Transportation Review Board Annual Meeting suggests they don’t.

A study by University of Colorado Denver researchers Nick Ferenchak and Wesley Marshall examined safety outcomes for areas in Chicago that received bike lanes, sharrows, and no bicycling street treatments at all. (The study was conducted before Chicago had much in the way of protected bike lanes, so it did not distinguish between types of bike lanes.) The results suggest that bike lanes encourage more people to bike and make biking safer, while sharrows don’t do much of either.

Full Article:

http://usa.streetsblog.org/2016/01/14/study-sharrows-dont-make-stre...

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by mike w. on January 14, 2016 at 11:28am

i disagree.

Permalink Reply by Yasmeen on January 14, 2016 at 11:34am

Have you had a different experience?

Permalink Reply by mike w. on January 14, 2016 at 2:23pm

One comes to mind immediately: Sharrows get ploughed out after a snowfall, unlike "protected" lanes.

Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on January 14, 2016 at 2:51pm
He's got a point there... :-)
Permalink Reply by Yasmeen on January 15, 2016 at 1:33pm

He does. :-) Lots of good points here. They do act as a form of signage.

In my experience, they tend to pop-up on streets that are too narrow to support a bike lane and I would prefer a different route when that is the case because I have had times that cars will fight for the space and I am pushed to the right. Sometimes too close to parked cars. I agree, if that is the best we can do, it is better than nothing. I personally prefer to have a full bike lane when I can get one. 

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on January 20, 2016 at 9:35am

True.

Permalink Reply by Bob Kastigar on January 14, 2016 at 5:00pm

There's a bike lane on Lawrence Avenue, from Clark Street all the way west to Austin.

Except for a short stretch between the river and Central Park Avenue. 

The street isn't wide enough for this stretch for a bike lane, so sharrows are used instead.  It's not idea, but it's better than nothing. So there is a place for sharrows. 

Permalink Reply by Marc A. Irwin on January 14, 2016 at 11:49pm

I think sharrows are a more effective form of signage than one on the side of the road encouraging people to "share the road."   That's about it.  Drivers seem to react more responsibly to that being painted on the pavement.  A separate lane is always preferable, but there is not always real estate available to accommodate a separate lane.

Marc

Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on January 15, 2016 at 10:20am
Halsted through Lakeview or Pilsen is too narrow for a protected lane Milwaukee through Wicker and Logan too.
The lanes are clear enough and the traffic slow or stopped that it's relatively safe.
Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on January 25, 2016 at 12:10pm
Unfortunately the same or next day I saw a car puul out into the bike lane and the cyclist hit the front fender,flew over the hood. He was also doing a good clip possibly riding fixed? Also didn't appear to have a light.
Permalink Reply by Irvin Steinert on January 15, 2016 at 2:47pm

There's not a lot of meat on a sharrow, I prefer robins...wait, what's a sharrow?

Permalink Reply by mike w. on January 15, 2016 at 4:04pm

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