A few weeks ago, after the resurfacing of Milpas, I noticed a new symbol had been painted on the road… the [url=http://www.sfmta.com/cms/bsafe/28372.html]”sharrow”[/url].
[img=http://www.stevelange.net/images/milpas_sharrow.jpg]Sharrows on Milpas Street[/img]
Sharrows are an innovation designed to remind car drivers and cyclists that bicycles have all the rights to the road that cars do. Normally, bikes are to keep as far right as feasible, unless road conditions are too dangerous to permit a car and bike safely sharing a lane.
Milpas is an example of just such a condition. With the parked cars and four lanes of traffic, there’s no room for a bike lane and weaving in and out of the parking lane is a surefire way for the cyclist to get runover.
The sharrows (share + arrow = sharrow) provide indication of where cyclists should ride in the lane to avoid getting “doored” by someone getting out of a parked car, and also remind drivers that bikes have a right to be there.
I tested this theory yesterday on the maiden voyage of my [url=http://www.paddleboy.com]PB Flyer[/url] paddleboard trailer:
[img=http://www.stevelange.net/images/pbflyer.jpg]Steve’s beach cruiser with PB Flyer trailer and paddleboard attached[/img]
Everything worked out great! Didn’t get honked at, didn’t have any troubles at all. Regular Milpas drivers are rather accustomed to all sorts of wackiness (tons of pedestrians, bicycles and wild driving) so perhaps sharing a lane with a bike actually riding in the street (as opposed to on the sidewalk, usually against traffic) wasn’t such a big deal for them… 🙂