The city added sharrows to a section of University Boulevard between the Fourth Avenue bike boulevard and Stone Avenue.
Crews removed the existing white line that delineated the parking area from the travel lane.
Cyclists would often ride to the right of the line, which would place them within the door zone, the area where a cyclist is particularly susceptible to getting hit by a door being opened by a parked car.
The sharrows are being placed to the left of the old white line showing cyclists they should be riding further away from the parked cars.
Sharrows also act as a visual cue for motorists to expect to see bicycles and understand they will be riding in the travel lane.
The city won’t be adding sharrows to the section between Euclid and Fourth Avenues because soon the road will be torn up to add the streetcar.
Glad to see this happening. I’ve ridden in fear of being doored on University.
On the section between Euclid and Fourth Avenues the city will be adding
‘fallows’. Fallows act as a visual cue for motorists to expect to see bicycles
falling as they attempt to negotiate the streetcar tracks.
I sure hope this helps automobile operators to reset their expectations in terms of where bicycles belong and what they should be doing. University is used by either myself or my wife on a daily basis. Not a few times we’ve been honked at, shouted at or had obscenities hurled at us as we rode wide of the door zone in the previous bike lane. It’s also annoying to get pinned to the curb if what you want is to make a left turn on a north or south avenue in this stretch. I applaud T-dot’s forward thinking progressive implementations of improved bicycle infrastructure.
What luck the Tuesday night ride slid by my darkened porch last night. Quite the spectacle the eerily glowing lights moving along a particularly dark section of Third Avenue. Sans cars you can hear the conversations as people whiz by in the dark. Pretty neat.
Hey Straw, I’d have whooped a bit if I’d known I was going by your place last night! Hope to have you w/ us next week.
Hey Straw, I’d have whooped a bit if I’d known I was going by your place last night! Hope to have you w/ us next week.
I’ve been riding with these sharrows for a few months now and after so many cars passing me about two feet away because they don’t want to cross the solid yellow line (which, to their credit, usually means don’t cross), I’ve finally decided it’s not worth it to ride out where the sharrows are. It doesn’t help that there are always a number of cars parked several feet away from the curb either. If the city is serious about making this a major bike route, I’d suggest they remove the center lane, which isn’t necessary west of 4th Av where there aren’t trolley tracks, and create the 10 foot wide bike lanes that this road is wide enough to have if this city has the right priorities!