TheWashCycle

Priority Shared-Lane Markings

 

Stephen sent me this photo of an alternative sharrow, "priority shared-lane markings", design that was spotted in Allston, Massachusetts. He adds that

There are also signs telling drivers they need to move to the left to pass. I'm only one data point, but I rode in the "lane" for its full half-mile length without being passed unsafely, honked at, or tailgated.

It sounds like the concept is still being evaluated, but I think it is miles ahead of the normal sharrow, which in my experience produces no change in driver behavior whatsoever.

There is more here, courtesy of the Boston Globe. They call it part of a national experiment to test innovative bike facilities.

In coming months, Boston Bikes staff will take a census of how many cyclists use that stretch of road to determine whether the “sharrows on steroids” increase ridership. Next spring, they will paint the area between the dashed lines lime green, and conduct another ridership survey.

Freedman’s office will report their findings to the federal government. And if they’re successful, the idea may get exported to other cities around the country — and to other parts of Boston.

Tire-Track Sharrows on MD-450 in Bladensburg.

Although the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) has been installing R4-11 (Bicycles may use full lane) signs on many highways, managers have indicated that sharrows will be used more sporadically, if at all.  So I was quite surprised to see some sharrows on MD-450 in Bladensburg, where right the lanes are 12 feet wide.

Unfortunately, SHA placed the sharrows about 4 feet from the curb rather than in the center of the lane.  I sent them the following complaint.

I am filing this under "complaint" because it may or may not be time-sensitive.  I noticed about 4 sharrows painted in the right lane and if more are planned, it would be wise to reflect on these concerns before proceeding.

 

MBPAC and others have warned SHA that the guidance for sharrows is incomplete and/or misleading.  Sharrows are used under two very different situations:  On lanes that are wide enough to share side-by-side, and on lanes that are too narrow to share side by side (often with an R4-11 sign).  In the former case, sharrows should usually be about 4 feet from the curb or pavement edge--and that is what the guidance said.  But when the lane is too narrow to share side by side, then sharrows should be in the center of the lane. 

 

Here you have sharrows 4 feet from the curb on 12 foot lanes.  Such sharrows communicate to drivers that the cyclists should be keeping right to make room for the car to pass within the lane--but there is not enough room.  The sharrows also communicate to drivers that a cyclist using the full lane (generally about 7 feet from the curb) is hogging the lane when he should be farther to the right.  Given that we even have R4-11 signs on this road, you have just painted sharrows that contradict the message of the R4-11 signs.

 

For examples of the right way to do this, please see the photos for the following cities:

 

Los Angeles or this

 

Long Beach:

 

San Diego

 

Seattle

 

Laurel, MD policy explained

 

Arlington, VA

 

A side benefit of mid-lane sharrows is that they do not wear away as fast as sharrows placed in the tire tracks,  But the main reason not to place sharrows 4 feet from the curb in a 12-foot lane is that doing so encourages cyclists to ride in a place where drivers will attempt to pass bikes within the lane with insufficient clearance--exactly the opposite of what the R4-11 sign was designed to do.

I'll let you know what they decide.

Jim Titus is a bicycle advocate from Prince Georges County.  The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of any organization with which he is affiliated.

Tuesday Afternoon Commute - “If you want to shoot me the bird, that’s okay, too.”

Good afternoon

• My latest green lane blog post on 1st Street NE. 
• DCBAC meeting is tomorrow night. And they want to know what you think about the Idaho Stop. 
• A protected bike lane that uses the Zebra barriers DDOT is considering for Pennsylvania Ave NW.
• Watch out for this hole at Key Bridge.
• After the fireworks show, the Crystal City Connector saw 800 bikes pass through in one hour, when the usual peak for a day is about 100 an hour. 
• Arlington County needs bike boxes one person argues. Arlington County is getting a bike box the county responds. 
• Sheman Ave NW, now with a road diet and sharrows. 
• CaBi is awesome. And soon to get two new stations in Arlington: one on Columbia Pike and one in the Buckingham neighborhood.
• “To be honest, it’s not a statement, it’s not an experiment,” Armstrong told the Register. “It’s just me wanting to go ride my bike with what in the past has been a friendly group of people who share the same interests.”

In Defense of Sharrows

I'm not enamored with this video on "Cycling in the US from a Dutch perspective". I think it shows a lack of real understanding of cycling in the United States. It's more like "Cycling in the US from a closed-minded Dutch tourist's perspective."

I don't know why the Dutch are obsessed with the fact that many cyclists here like to wear lycra or that Americans tend to wear helmets. Both have their advantages. And I don't agree with the narrator's deduction that this is some sort of sign of American failure. It might be that even when cycling numbers in US citieis get to be as high as in the world's great bicycling cities that there is still more lycra and more helmets in America. I don't see a problem with that. If the concern is that people don't bike as much or that mostly younger men bike or that people who do bike only do it for fun, then those are the facts that are relevant. What kinds of clothes people wear really is not.

But my real beef with the video is the claim that sharrows "are just useless paint." That's just categorically untrue. The FHWA did a study of sharrows that showed that sharrows increased the operating space for cyclists, both in the distance that they kept from parked cars and in the space passing motorists gave them. Sharrows reduced sidewalk cycling and they reduced wrong-way riding. They slowed drivers down. They even caused drivers to stay farther from parked cars when bikes weren't present. Those are changes that have real value, and the narrator is misleading people when he claims otherwise.

Are sharrows as good as a separated bike path? No, they are not. But, they're also not as expensive or as difficult to install. 

If this filmmaker wants to pass himself off as some sort of expert on bicycling "infra" he should take the time to learn the facts about what he's talking about. 

I don't believe that the Dutch perspective is that "the only right way to make bikable cities is the Dutch way," but that seems to be the one presented in the video. 

Tuesday Morning Commute - Today's Special

I hope that bike has a chain guard...I mean that's a nice suit.

• "As my oncologist spoke, I thought of the commuting bike, purchased two months before my diagnosis, gathering dust under the basement steps. There was virtually nothing I could control about the nightmare of my cancer, I thought. But give me one thing that I can take charge of, that I can do — that I love to do — and I’m going to ride as if my life depends on it."
• "According to the District Department of Transportation's Monica Hernandez, there'll be new bike lanes on Illinois between Randolph Street and Grant Circle and shared lanes (with "sharrows") between Grant and Sherman circles. DDOT is hoping to have the lanes installed by next month."
• Montgomery Preservation Inc., has changed its mind and will now submit plans for the Met Branch Trail near the historic train station to the Maryland Historic Trust. This is not the finish line, but it gets things closer. [BTW, I like the idea of opening the station itself as a trail-side cafe. Win-win]
• US DOT is now accepting applications for TIGER 2013 the 5th round of TIGER funding. There's $474 million on the line. In the past MWCOG has unsuccessfully sought TIGER money for expandingbike sharing across the region or improving access to Metro stations - including for cyclists. More recently, DC and Maryland won a grant to finish the Ancostia Riverwalk Trails. No word on what applications local bodies might submit this time. 

Tuesday Morning Commute - Dope

Good Morning

• Plug in electric bikes got a break in the stimulus fiscal cliff bill. 
• Lance Armstron admits to doping, surprising no one. It's probably a bad move.
• I will second the notion that biking to the inauguration is the best way to deal with the crowds (for those for whom this is an option). Though you'll probably be better off with your own bike, being stranded by CaBi would make for a good excuse to have a refreshing beer or seven (and then take Metro home). But, will inauguration day break CaBi's one day record? "Several Bikeshare stations will be closed or removed altogether. Six in Northwest Washington will be removed this week because of the parade and will be reinstalled next week. They are the stations at 10th and E streets, 10th Street and Constitution Avenue, 14th and D streets, 15th Street and New York Avenue, 14th and G streets, and 14th and H streets.In addition, the stations on the Mall in front of the Washington Monument and the Smithsonian Metro entrance will be shut down until 5 p.m. Monday."
• Jeff Lemieux is organizing a bike ride in from Proteus Bicycles in College Park that will include him, Paris Watson, and perhaps eight or 10 others.
• In-street bike parking in Arlington. It's adorable. 
• People on the internetz are funny.

NoMa Street Designs

I was recently sent a link to this pdf put together by the NoMa BID showing street design concepts in NoMa. It's from February of 2011 and so the 1st Street NE design doesn't show the cycletrack, but the rest of it is hopeful.

The design concepts for the east-west roads of L, M and N streets have 5' bike lanes.

And on the narrower roads of Pierce and Patterson Streeets, they use sharrows

Thursday Afternoon Commute - Walk-Friendly

Good afternoon

• The FHWA released data comparing some of the country's bike sharing systems. While DC was #1 in annual members, CaBi came in just behind Minneapolis in the number of stations and bikes (though I think it's #1 again now) and way behind Miami in casual members. And of course, more expansion is planned and underway "This week, for example, county officials are installing one new station at North Queen Street and Arlington Boulevard near Fort Myer and another at North Barton Street at 10th Street North near the courthouse. Those two stations were approved last year, although installation was delayed for legal reasons."
• DC has been named one of 10 Gold level Walk-Friendly communities by the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center. "The designation goes to towns that promote walking and pedestrian safety through programs and policies." I don't think this is actually a cycling designation though. 
• MPD issues tickets to pedestrians and cyclists too. "D.C. police issued 500 tickets to pedestrians, and 3,000 tickets to bicyclists in 2011, Chief Cathy Lanier told WTOP on Thursday's "Ask the Chief.""
• SHA proposes modifications to Green Mile sidewalk along Wisconsin Avenue, that inlcudes narrowing it to 5 feet. This is to serve as a bike facility. 
• Montreal's Bixi is experimenting with a new pricing method for daily users. They get a key and are charged $5 (instead of $7) for each day they use it. Good for people who rarely use it, but don't want to deal with the kiosk - and they save $2 each time. Could be something we try here. 
• How DC area teams did in the National Bike Challenge
• State and federal funds will be used to create a corridor of hiking, biking and fishing areas more than 10 miles long from near Thurmont to north of Middletown in Maryland.
• Fairfax City, George Mason University and Fairfax County created the Mason-to-Metro Initiative, with recommendations to improve the bicycle and pedestrian sign system and map, and on-road bicycle facilities and trails. So, this fall, the city plans to install shared-use lane markings and signs on sections of Old Lee Highway. "Sharrows currently mark the bike lanes on George Mason Boulevard and University Drive between the university and Old Town Fairfax."
• Lots of pro cyclists are coming clean about their doping. 
• Puget Sound Wind Farm doubles as hiking and biking recreation area. "A bike ride among the bright-white towers seemed just the right pace at which to ponder their strange, mechanical beauty."
• I like the idea of this, but it will probably be too expensive and it would by like crack for NIMBY's - same as monorail. 

New Sharrows on Sargent Road NE

Sharrows on NHB Avenue

Here again, the sharrows are placed on the right instead of the middle of the lane. I guess this is how DDOT is doing it now.  Also, look at that nice crosswalk.