Sharrows on 4th Street
After sharrowing 20 miles of roads in October 2011, LADOT crews will be sharrowing another 20 miles, starting this month. “Sharrows” are shorthand for Shared Lane Markings (SLMs), and are used to identify streets that are designated as shared roadways for bicyclists and motorists.
According to the Department’s Sharrow Report, SLMs have three primary functions: to be a supplemental wayfinding device, to help announce the presence of bicyclists to motorists, and inform bicyclists where they should ride to prevent “dooring“.
Sharrow Installation
With that in mind, LADOT installs sharrows to:
- Provide gap closures in the Class II (Bike Lane) network (in the near term)
- Enhance Class III (Bike Route) Bikeways – This includes future BFS facilities
- Improve bicycling conditions on two-lane roadways with dashed centerlines, specifically
This batch of sharrows tentatively totals 22.64 miles, and a good portion of them were prioritized to support the upcoming bicycle sharing system.
Streets to be sharrowed can be seen here (More streets can be seen by clicking “Page 2” at the bottom of the left column).
For more information on sharrowing procedure and its regulation in the CAMUTCD, check out our previous post Sharrows 101.
I don’t see it on the map link, but is West Adams Blvd from Vermont (where current sharrows from downtown/USC stop) to Washington Blvd on the docket for installation? I ride this street regularly, and sharrow designations would go a long way to reducing the amount of harassment I receive on a daily basis, thereby improving my comfort of ride. West Adams Blvd is on the Bike Plan as a Class III Bicycle Routes, and speed limits are 35 mph and less.
Thank you for the project update and your assistance.
Awesome! The map shows them going in on Santa Monica Blvd to connect the two sections of Ohio. Is that correct?
[…] plans to add over 20 miles of sharrows, mostly on the Westside – including Ohio Ave from Westwood to Bundy; preliminary markings on […]
I question the wisdom of marking Lucerne as far down as Pico. IIRC, Lucerne is completely fenced off at that point, with no access of any kind to Pico. I’ve had to turn around and head back up the (very long) block myself because of this. A quick jog over to West Blvd (via Edgewood Place) would be better, as West is a useful side street that continues (as Buckingham) all the way down to the Baldwin Hills area.
I agree with Niall. Lucerne would be a great connection to Pico, a relatively bikeable street and future bike lane street, but only if the gate is opened up for cyclists. Otherwise West or Rimpau would be a better North/South connector.
“Sharrows” is just a bandaid, without providing a real solution to cyclists. If LADOT truly want to create a “bicycle network”, we need Class I (bike trails) or Class (bike lanes). Anything else (“Class II” or “Sharrows”) barely helps…
P.S.
Sorry, a typo: in my last sentence I meant to write “Class III” (not Class II”) – in the “anything else” section…
Dear Cycling Community,
Please attend the hearings to speak on behalf of cyclists. In my nieghborhood, the NIMBYers have come out in force to block the implementation of the Westwood Blvd bike lanes. I fear that the plan might hit a roadblock here. Hearing tonight (Feb. 19, 2013) 6 pm to 8:30 pm LADOT Western Parking Enforcement Office, 11214 W. Exposition Blvd.
We need all of you there! Thanks
New York City has gotten a lot of positive coverage about how much bicycle infrastructure the city installed since 2007. I ran across a NYC.gov document that breaks down the quantity and type of these installations the city did in each of the last six fiscal years. It turns out that the pace of each type of bikeways construction in Los Angeles matches–or is ahead of–where New York City was in those first two fiscal years:
For fiscal years 2007-2009, NYC installed:
4.9 miles of bike paths
150.5 miles of bike lanes
49.5 miles of sharrows
Judging from what was listed as installed in the 2010 LA bike plan, Los Angeles has an additional:
6.39 miles more bike paths
100.85 miles more bike lanes
29.04 miles of sharrows were added
The second full fiscal year after the 2010 Los Angeles Bike Plan was approved,in March of 2011 is completed at the end of June 2013. The amount of bike paths installed has already passed what New York did in the first three fiscal years that is listed in the above link, and with an additional 20 miles of sharrows being added, the installation of sharrows should match their first three years production shortly. The miles of bike lanes installed in Los Angeles in the first two fiscal years after the bike plan approval is on pace to match, or exceed, what was installed in New York City in their first three fiscal years.
[…] additional bicycle lanes, more bicycle parking, several bicycle path construction projects, sharrowing more than 22 miles of roads, and installing Bicycle-Friendly Street infrastructure on 4th […]