Sharrows

Have you noticed a bicycle painted on the street in your area? It's called a shared lane pavement marking or it's also known as a sharrow. A sharrow can help bikes and cars share the road.

A sharrow looks like two arrows on top of a bicycle painted on the street a couple feet from the curb. They are usually painted on routes frequently used by bicyclists.

Some bicyclists may choose to ride on sidewalks. Sidewalks are for pedestrians and leave the bicyclists nearly invisible to turning cars or driveways. The sharrow helps the bicyclist by showing them where to ride on the road. The bicyclists are more visible to motorists when they ride over the sharrow.

If the sharrow is near parked cars, beware of opening car doors. If you ride over the sharrow, you should be far enough away, but you still need to pay attention for opening doors.

The sharrow alerts motorists that they may encounter bicyclists. If you do come upon a bicyclist while driving, patiently follow until there is enough room to safely pass.

Sharrows will encourage more people to ride bikes for trips to the trail, to the store, to school, or to work.

See related:

http://members.cox.net/ncutcdbtc/sls/slmtoncjan07.pdf

http://www.sfmta.com/cms/uploadedfiles/dpt/bike/Bike_Plan/Shared%20Lane%20Marking%20Full%20Report-052404.pdf