Who is scrubbing away the sharrows on Adams Avenue?

Yesterday, I received two reports that the sharrows that were put in last May were being scrubbed off of Adams Avenue. A fellow rider rode over to check it out and sure enough, they definitely look like someone is trying to get rid of these sharrows:

Missing Sharrows on Adams Avenue. Photo by San Diego rider, Sigurd.

As far as bicycle facilities go, sharrows are at the very bottom of the barrel only slightly above “Bike Route” signs. Bike Route signs are often placed on the side of the road that essentially serve no real purpose to riders navigating busy and dangerous streets. While sharrows are useful in getting cyclists to ride with the direction of traffic, as a bicycle facility they do very little to actually increase ridership[pdf study].

Still, it is very surprising that some rogue sharrow hater would go to the effort of attempting to scrub away the sharrows and then do a fairly bad job at it.

San Diego’s bicycle coordinator, Tom Landre, has already been alerted. He rode over to check it out and I just got word that he will make sure that they get re-installed as soon as possible. Landre also mentioned that removal was not done by the city.

UPDATE: Tom Landre was able to clarify what was going on. He said that the City is just resurfacing Adams Avenue and that the sharrows will be re-installed as soon as possible.