Shared lane markings, or “sharrows” as they’re commonly known (right), are coming to Philo Road between Colorado Ave. and Windsor Rd. in Urbana. The painting will take place overnight next Thursday/Friday, June 10 & 11.
According to Jennifer Selby, Civil Engineer with the City of Urbana Public Works department, “There will be 12 symbols — six northbound and six southbound — so the work will probably take a couple of hours.” The addition of sharrows is part of the City of Urbana’s implementation of the Urbana Bicycle Master Plan. This Master Plan was a big reason why Urbana was named the first Bicycle Friendly Community in downstate Illinois by the League of American Bicyclists in April.
From a press release issued today by the City of Urbana (download the pdf of the release here): “The Shared Lane Marking was developed in response to the fact that traffic lanes are often too narrow to be shared side-by-side by bicyclists and passing motorists.” Sharrows allow bicycles to avoid hazards (open car doors, uneven pavement edges, etc.) by taking more of the lane, and alert motorists to that possibility.
There is already a shared-use, off-street bicycle path from Colorado to south of Windsor on Philo, as well as bike lanes from Pennsylvania to Harding (one block south of Colorado) but Selby stressed that the sharrows will not replace either the off-street path or the bike lanes:
We realize that some cyclists will not want to use the shared-use path in this section, but will want to continue to ride on the road. However, with the parallel shared-use path, motorists may expect bicyclists to be on the path. Therefore, there are several purposes for the shared lane markings on Philo Road south of Colorado Avenue:
- Let motorists know they can expect bicyclists on the road;
- Help bicyclists position themselves in the travel lane (i.e. “take the lane”) since it is too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel side-by-side in the lane;
- Positioning the bicyclist in the lane will encourage safe passing by motorists (if a bicyclist rides too close to the curb, they risk being squeezed by a motorist trying to pass without leaving their travel lane);
Here’s a very helpful FAQ on shared lane markings from Bike Pittsburgh. Shared lane markings have also been effective in San Francisco (pdf) and Seattle.
From my personal perspective, any official acknowledgement that bicycles are encouraged in a particular place is helpful as a cyclist, and sharrows are a good alternative to shoehorning bike lanes into too-narrow streets. The off-street path/bike lane combo on Philo has confused me the few times I’ve been on it, and this sounds like a clear improvement. Continued kudos to Urbana for improving bicycling infrastructure.