Sharrowed lane in the middle

It's not a local story, but an interesting one. San Francisco added sharrows to one lane of a three-lane, one-way street. Sounds a lot like the old 15th Street configuration which many people thought worked well. But SF put the sharrowed lane in the middle, because the right lane is - by state law - for taxis and buses only.

Joshua Citrak, an avid cyclist with 10 years’ experience on San Francisco streets, pedaled the route at the request of The Bay Citizen. An aggravated taxi driver who wanted to pass nearly hit Mr. Citrak, while other drivers tailgated and honked their horns.

Why couldn't the taxi pass him in the lane reserved for taxis?

“I would never ride in that lane again,” Mr. Citrak said, rattled. “I did not feel safe.”

He is not alone. On a recent weekday morning during rush hour, from 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m., a total of 37 cyclists were seen riding on Post from Van Ness toward downtown. Not one used the bike lane.

Instead, 35 cyclists stayed to the far right side of the road, which is normally where bike lanes are placed, but which on this street is reserved for buses and taxis. Two cyclists opted to ride in the left lane, which is intended for automobiles.

In addition, the rise in cycling in SF (up 58% in four years) is causing some people to call for increased education and enforcement (which is in the bike plan).

Perhaps the solution is to change the law to allow bikes in full-time transit lanes?

Comments

[Liz]

When I lived in Paris (and this was a couple years before Velib started), cyclists were encouraged to use the dedicated bus lanes within the city -- the lanes were marked as bus and bike only. Similar to the 7th St. NW lane.

It worked just fine -- with the stops that busses make, bicycles were generally faster than busses. The only conflict was when you ended up just behind or just in front of a bus, and the two of you might have to go around one another for a block or two.

One big bit of difference between Paris and Washington: private vehicles didn't dare use those bus lanes.

[SJE]

The SF story sounds like a pretty typical problem: the designers were not those who would be actually using them, and so they did not understand crucial realities.