Sharrows Spotted on Marlborough Avenue
Posted By Sam Ollinger on April 25, 2011
Sharrows on Marlborough Ave between Monroe and Meade
Earlier today while riding down Marlborough Avenue after crossing the 15 on the Monroe Bicycle and Pedestrian Bridge, I noticed the presence of sharrows.
Sharrows on Marlborough Ave between Monroe and Meade
Sharrows on Marlborough Ave between Monroe and Meade
I suppose that the city of San Diego has learned from its first tentative attempts at sharrow markings. Long time readers will recall that the first sharrows appeared as a sort of Christmas gift to the cyclists in the region on Imperial Avenue over the 805. This is one of the south eastern most edges of the city where I suspect the city is lucky to have three daily riders, if any, in the area.
As far as I am aware, these new sharrows on Marlborough Avenue would be the latest attempts at sharrow markings in the city. I am unclear on where the funding for these sharrows came from as I do not recall reading about them in the details for the current fiscal year’s budget. In fact, I do not recall reading much in the way of budgeting for sharrows at all.
Have you seen sharrow markings anywhere else in the City of San Diego or in the County? Please share your findings and other thoughts in the comments.
They’re on Meade too, right where it crosses Fairmont and a litte further west, and whatever the N/S street is on the west edge of Kensington above Adams (can’t recall it right now).
It’s great that someone’s doing it. Unfortunately, like the “share the road” signs, no driver has any idea what they mean, and it doesn’t do any good. They need striping or a colored lane to be effective. Similarly, the “share the road” signs need to be replaced with “bicycles allowed full use of lane” signs.
But, I suppose, totally ineffective markings are a good start.
It’s a piece of infrastructure with a bike on it, and although a lot of drivers may not know exactly what it means or what it’s called, the message seems clear enough. A picture of a bike in the lane is a signal to drivers that *real* bikes also belong in the lane. We can be snarky about where they are and what we wish they were (well-designed bike lanes or cycle tracks or whatever), but it’s an honest-to-god effort on the part of the city to at least start putting in more bike infrastructure, and that gets my support.
I saw sharrows last week on Adams Ave, I think just east of the I-15 overcrossing. I was heading west (in a car, mind you). The lanes pinch down right there, so it was nice to see. I am not very familiar with this part of town, so not sure how new they are, but they weren’t mentioned yet.
there are at least 4 regular cyclists on Marlbourough
the ones on Marlborough were first, maybe a month ago; then some appeared on Meade and then on Adams maybe 2 weeks ago.
I’m not being snarky at all. I agree that unclear bike signage is better than no bike signage at all.
That said, if we want to reduce the amount of accidents and incidents, we need to continue to point out that it doesn’t cost any more to do effective signage than confusing signage (i.e., “Bicycles Allowed Full Use Of Lane” instead of “Share The Road”, and only a little bit more to do effective road markings than confusing markings (i.e., striping a lane down the center of the lane instead of periodic bike graphics).
This is not ingratitude, it’s just the belief that doing things right is better than doing them part-way.
I should add that I rode on those sharrows twice last week, down Meade from its east end to 805, in the middle of the lane at about 9mph, my usual cruising speed. I encourage anyone curious about the effect of these road markings on drivers to do that, too.
According to Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart, the sharrows on Marlborough and Adams in Kensington are too far to the left. While that may be okay politically, I saw properly placed sharrows this morning on Arizona and Louisiana between Adams and Madison, then again on Adams near the Texas St. bridge, and also on Mission between Texas and Madison. They seem to be mulitplying! Good for San Diego! It’s embarrassing to be left behind in infrastructure reconfiguration by the likes of LA and Long Beach!
Jay, I’m guessing the drivers were frustrated by your presence in the lane?
A friend of mine from Seattle posted this comment on my Facebook page about Sharrows there. Maybe the law about bikes allowed full use of a narrow lane is different in Washington, I don’t know. Here’s her comment:
“As a carless bike-everywhere type, I have mixed feelings about sharrows, which are heavily used in Seattle. From what I observe, some drivers and bikers find them confusing—and any ambiguity between those two groups is not great. Apparen…tly the city also is counting the miles of sharrows on their transpo plan as equal to dedicated bike lanes. That’s moving us a bit in the right direction, but not far enough. And the rule is not that bikes get to take the lane, it’s more like, “Drivers, expect to be irritated by bikes here–no bike lane, duke it out.”
The City staff is aware that some of the Sharrows were misplaced when installed. I’m told that they will be replaced soon.
Don’t be too quick to judge the effectiveness of sharrows. A good deal of testing and study by transportation professionals went into their development before they made it into the standards for traffic control devices. They do need to be properly installed however, which some of these were not.
You can also find them in use over on the new route around the the Pac Highway undercrossing at Barnett
I had sent Jim Lundquist an email about the Kensington on Adams Ave sharrows and their incorrect placement (too close to centerline) and it appears the ones on Marlborough are also not correctly installed.
However, returning from breakfast yesterday, I noticed some more on Adams, just east of Arizona Street were installed in the correct position. Also noticed them on the Texas to MIssion pork chop and on Louisiana St. So it certainly seems that the City is attempting to use them as directional guides as well as shared-lane-markings.
I imagine there will be a period during which cyclists, drivers and police learn the meaning of the sharrows, and maybe police enforcement can educate the driving public as well.
Also, maybe the sharrows need to be accompanied by some other signage and infrastructure to make these streets true “Bike Boulevards”. (I know, we bicyclers are always asking for more.)
http://www.planetizen.com/files/u405/BikeBlvd.jpg
http://la.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/2_5_10_reed.jpg