Thanks Kevin for the Seattle sharrows link.
I'm still a little uneasy about their use on even low to moderately busy
streets. I think as a community, we must accept that bikes and cars
can't share the same space safely with the current mindset. We made
that decision about pedestrians and gave them their own space.
Howerver, I like the concept of sharrows as it makes sense to show the
unexperienced bicyclists where they should be in the lane which would
protect them from car doors and make them more predictable for
motorists. And it advertises to motorists that they should share and be
on the lookout for bikes present. But I think they could also be
dangerous in the sense that we will always have a fairly significant
percentage of motorists not paying attention (cell phones) and one small
accident has big consequences for bikers. Perhaps what we should do is
put bikes on sidewalks and put pedestrians out in the sharrow because
they could walk closer to parked cars. While this makes sense in a way,
it would seem absurdly dangerous to your average Madisonian. Yet the
damage inflicted with hitting a pedestrian is on scale with hitting a
bicyclist. Maybe we could have a special helmet for walking around town!
I'm hoping that if we get a bike boulevard on East Mifflin, we get
parking on both sides the entire length for residents as a tradeoff to
restricted street access, and sharrows in the middle of the lane.
Then I will feel that we will have at least one safe route west from my
neighborhood.
David Waugh
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