If you travel on Grand Avenue, you’ve probably noticed the new shared-lane bicycle arrows, or “sharrows” (a word coined from “share” and “arrows”). These internationally recognized pavement markings, along with soon-to-come “Share the Road” signs and other visual cues, are intended to remind drivers of their legal obligation to share the road.
Ojai’s Grand Avenue, aptly named with its splendid views of the mountains, is one of the most beautiful roads in Ojai. Grand Avenue to the East End is a scenic drive and a magnificent walking/bicycling/equestrian route for locals and visitors alike.
In the 1950s, when I was a student at San Antonio School, I rode my bicycle on Grand Avenue and all over the valley without ever worrying about being hit by a car. Over the years, with increasing congestion on Ojai Avenue, Grand is no longer the road less traveled. During peak traffic hours, when children are going to school and adults are rushing to work, Grand becomes a speedway—a thoroughfare for more than 6,000 car trips a day.
With these first sharrows on Grand Avenue, Ojai has taken a step in the direction of such other bike-friendly cities as Portland, Denver, New York, Seattle, and Chicago. Sharrows are appearing all over California including cities like Berkeley, Long Beach, Ventura, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Cambria and San Luis Obispo.
The sharrows were one of about thirteen alternatives that were researched and evaluated by the Planning Commission Complete Streets sub committee and City staff over several months time, including several publicly noticed meetings.
The concept of sharrows is relatively simple: share the road, with civility, neighborliness, and mutual respect. Look people in the eye, recognize them, give them a nod to show that you see them, and even say hi. Here in Ojai, the sharrows remind us to enjoy the journey—not just careen our way to the next destination.
As is to be expected with anything new, reactions have been mixed. One longtime Ojai resident wrote, “I just saw it, and it looks great! I ride my bike down there all the time and it’s awesome. Makes me feel safer. Good job!”
At the other end of the spectrum, one resident was angry about the sharrows. In his opinion, we have made motorists into “second-class citizens” by giving priority to the cyclists.
Several parents called to express disappointment that we hadn’t installed designated bike lanes instead. A man described how some drivers honked at him when he took an 8 a.m ride toward Topa Topa School to test the safety of the route for his child. One woman yelled at him to get out of the way, and when he pointed down toward the sharrows on the pavement she accelerated and nearly clipped him off his bicycle.
Perhaps some of our police on bicycles could monitor the traffic on Grand Avenue before and after school while motorists adjust to the new sharrows.
In the coming days, as we observe the pros and cons of sharrows, please keep in mind that the Grand Avenue sharrows are only one element of a larger, complete alternative-transportation-friendly bicycle/pedestrian/equestrian street plan that the City of Ojai (i.e., various citizens working with our City staff, elected officials, and planning commissioners) is developing.
Nationwide, sharrows are one of the elements supporting the U.S. Department of Transportation’s new stated goal that the needs of pedestrians and cyclists must be placed alongside, not behind, those of motorists. Sharrows were federally approved and adopted after research by the DOT revealed that the markings significantly increase the safety of bicyclists and reduce improper bicycle behavior such as riding on the sidewalk, riding on the wrong side of the street, not hand signaling when turning, and failing to heed stop signs.
Questions and Answers about Sharrows
Q. What exactly is a sharrow?
A. A sharrow, or shared lane marking, is a white stencil of a bicycle with an arrow, intended to show both motorists and bicyclists the minimum distance that cyclists should ride from parked cars to avoid being hit by a suddenly opened car door. Although it is the motorist’s responsibility to check before opening a door, riding too close to parked cars is a common mistake that can still lead to serious injury.
Q. What’s the difference between a sharrow and a bike lane?
A. Bike lanes provide a 4-to-5-foot-wide dedicated lane for bicyclists. Under circumstances where the street is wide enough (or residents agree to remove one or both parking lanes), they are usually the safest solution for children and people unaccustomed to riding in traffic. Sharrows are on-street legends that reinforce the existing rules of the road. They are not separate bike lanes: motorists can still drive over the sharrows. Sharrows tell motorists that they should expect to share the lane with bicyclists, while they indicate to bicyclists the best place to ride in the lane.
Bike lanes are one of several design options that may be revisited down the road. Bike lanes on Grand would require the removal of car parking on one side of the street and restriping of the street.
Q. Why sharrows on Grand Avenue instead of bike lanes?
A. Due to the straightness of Grand Avenue, speeding on this street is a huge concern. The wider and straighter the street, the more drivers tend to speed. Cars parked on both sides of the street actually make the street look narrower and may help to slow traffic. The decision to implement sharrows was made with the hope that keeping the parking lane on both sides, plus the addition of sharrows, would narrow the appearance of Grand Avenue—which has elsewhere been shown to help slow down traffic.
The City is also looking at ways to make the intersection of Summer Street, North Signal, and Grand (including the blind curve as Signal turns into Grand) safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
Q. As a cyclist, what should I do in the presence of these markings?
A. The markings are placed as a guide to where cyclists should be riding. In general, cyclists should ride through the center of the sharrows. However, if there are no cars in the parking lane they can choose to ride there. And, by law, a cyclist is also free to move left, into the main part of the travel lane, when it is safe to do so.
Q. As a motorist, what should I do in the presence of the sharrows?
A. Slow down and drive carefully. Because the travel lane on Grand Avenue is too narrow for safe side–by–side travel by motorists and cyclists, drivers should slow down and either wait for a cyclist to turn off the roadway or wait until the cyclist can move into the adjacent parking lane. Keep in mind that the cyclist may not want to weave in and out of the car parking lane and has a legal right to stay on the sharrows.
Q. Can’t cyclists just look into parked cars as they ride and see if someone is about to open the door?
A. Cyclists, like all road users, need to constantly scan the entire roadway for safety. Checking every car for a driver is hard to do without compromising attention paid to the road. Also, it’s often impossible to see drivers due to headrests, tinted windows, large vehicles blocking the view of other parked vehicles, etc. Drivers should check their side-view mirror or look back prior to opening their door. Although it is the driver’s responsibility to open the door only when safe (California Vehicle Code Section 22517), it is the bicyclist who ultimately pays the price.
Q: Can I drive my car over these markings, or is this a bike lane only?
A: Unlike a bike lane, which cars can drive in only when making a right turn, you may drive over these markings. They are meant to highlight that it is a shared roadway, point out to bicyclists the minimum distance to stay from parked cars, and instruct motorists to expect to see bicyclists out in the lane.
Q: Bicyclists riding over these markings often end up in the car travel lane. Aren’t they supposed to move to the right?
A: Not always. The move-to-the-right rule is part of California Vehicle Code Section 21202, which also allows a number of exceptions to the rule. One of those exceptions allows bicyclists to avoid conditions that make it unsafe to continue along the right side. It also provides the following list of examples for those conditions: “ . . . including, but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, animals, surface hazards, or substandard width lanes.” It goes on to define a substandard-width lane as “a lane that is too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel safely side by side within the lane.”
As with all slower-moving vehicles, cyclists are required to ride as far to the right as is practical. However, slower moving vehicles are not required to compromise their safety in order to allow a faster vehicle to pass.
The driver who honks and yells at a cyclist to get out of the way when streets are narrow or cars are in the parking lane is violating the California Vehicle Code. According to Section 21202, cyclists are to stay to the right except to pass other cyclists or vehicles, to prepare to make a left turn, or when necessary to avoid conditions (including fixed or moving objects, surface hazards, or substandard-width lanes too narrow for a bicycle and vehicle to travel side by side) that make it unsafe to continue along the right. Moving to the left in the lane to avoid car doors, for instance, even if it means taking the entire lane, is permitted by the CVC.
To summarize, in all situations where the lane is too narrow for a bicycle and an overtaking motor vehicle to travel safely side by side, the motor vehicle is required by law to slow down, whether or not there are sharrows on the road. The sharrows are there as a reminder to cars to slow down and share the road. In a location like the Arbolada where there are no sharrows, cars must still legally slow down to accommodate cyclists. If the slow speed of a group of students on bicycles, for example, is a problem for a motorist, it is the motorist who by law must take a different route, not the bicycle. The law does not require a cyclist to take a different route so cars can go faster. In a location like Ojai Avenue, where cars are often parked on both sides of the street, bicycles can ride in the entire travel lane to avoid car doors, potholes, etc.
Next time you see a bicycle on the road, remember that bicycling benefits motorists by reducing the number of cars on the road and freeing up parking spaces. More bicycles mean cleaner air and water, less reliance on oil, and improved public health and property values. It’s our hope that, like the Ojai Valley Trail, the sharrows on Grand Avenue will be a catalyst for change—the first of many further new elements that, over time, have the potential to make Ojai a world-class bicycle/pedestrian/equestrian-friendly city.
Suza Francina is Chair of the Transportation Committee of the Ojai Valley Green Coalition and a representative to the Planning Commission Complete Streets Subcommittee.
Note: A slightly different version of this article published in the Ojai Valley News, September 1, 2010, “Bikes, Cars, Sharing the road: Pavement Markings on Grand Avenue designed to promote bicycle use, safety.”
The author gratefully acknowledges and thanks her editors, Sonia Nordenson and David E. Moody PhD., and the Planning Commission Complete Streets Subcommittee, in the writing of this article.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
I have to say, I’m rather unimpressed by these symbols. I’m not really sure what these things are doing for us. I appreciate that the city and people are trying to do something to enhance the bike-ability of Ojai, I’m just not sure these symbols help all that much. Worse, I’m a little worried they actually cause harm.
I was riding down Grand yesterday when I first noticed them. At first I thought they were part of bike lanes, then I noticed that they were basically in the lanes of the road. On Grand, before you get to Gridley, there are shoulder lanes painted pretty clearly. I guess these are to delineate parking lanes, though there are no other examples of such extensive, solid white lanes painted on the roads of Ojai. Whenever I’m riding down Grand I routinely ride near the curb within these “lanes”. The new symbols are actually painted in the roadway further toward the center, away from the painted “lanes”.
My advice to other bicyclists, do not ride where these symbols are on Grand. Ride in the “lanes” next to the curbs unless you have to go around a parked car. And as always, ride against traffic so you can see what the cars are doing as they come toward you. There are an awful lot of prescription drugs being taken here in Ojai and they often combine in ways that can make people pretty unstable behind the wheel. Another problem is extreme road rage by certain drivers, I’ve actually had people swerve toward me as I was riding just to scare me. In each case the driver was yelling and incoherent with rage. My guess is that they are probably angry about their dissolving financial positions as their houses continue to fall in value, or perhaps they’re enraged by right wing talk radio and the fact that Obama is black. Whatever the reason, it’s better to see these people coming than to be caught by surprise from behind. I’d much prefer a symbol of a bicycle without the arrows.
Hi SPK,
I hope we can discuss this in a productive and friendly manner.
I need to know if you read the article carefully or if you jumped to conclusions about what you think it says. If you honestly read it, I will try to clarify the points you made which are all addressed in the article. If you just skimmed it, please do me the courtesy of reading it carefully.
You wrote: “And as always, ride against traffic so you can see what the cars are doing as they come toward you. ”
With rare exceptions, it is against the law to ride against traffic. What we are teaching in our safe bicycle riding programs in the schools is to obey the rules of the road and ride with the flow of traffic (as is explained in the article).
Maybe you and I and Kelly Pasco (of Project Ride/Safe Routes to School) and the police on bicycles could go for a ride and sort this out.
In any case, thanks for your interest. I hope you don’t crash into me as we ride on the same side of the street in opposite directions!
PS If I do see you riding against traffic I’ll probably take my chances and move left into the travel lane. When cars are parked in the parking lane, there is not enough space for two bicycles to pass each other on the far right of the travel lane.
The quote you inserted in your Comment is out of context. If there are no cars in the parking lane the article explains it’s usually safest to ride in the parking lane. But it can be dangerous for both drivers and cyclists to constantly zig zag from the car parking lane and into the travel lane. I’ve made several trips up and down Grand Avenue during peak hour traffic and from my view point the sharrows are an excellent GUIDE for riding safely in the travel lane.
The article states that dedicated bike lanes are generally safer for young children. The most dangerous part of Grand Avenue for children and anyone new to bicycle commuting is the intersection at Summer/Signal and Grand (especially the blind curve right where the sidewalk ends, under the Pepper Tree.)
Of course I read the article Suza. I just disagree with the approach. By the way, I rode down Grand again today as part of my 14 mile, round-trip commute to work in the Upper Ojai. Not only did I ride against traffic when the urge struck me, but I also trespassed on at least three properties that I know of in order to avoid Dennison Grade.
Here is a quote from the wonderful DMV that will help explain what I think is wrong with the whole top-down, safety approach to bicycling:
This quote from the wizards at the DMV is entirely from the point-of-view of the person driving a car. I, as a bicyclist, am not the least bit interested in being predictable to motorists, other than in the obvious way that all of us are subject to the laws of physics. The above quote presupposes that if I am visible and predictable that the people driving the SUVs, monster trucks and Hummers won’t inadvertently kill me. The only safe way to ride a bicycle in traffic on roads with people under the influence of multiple pharmaceutical drugs with varying drug interactions from near catatonia to frothing-at-the-mouth manias is to ride as if no one can see you. You are not safe, and you have never been safe. Safety is a trap. To quote Benjamin Franklin: “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Indeed, it’s probably wiser to ride as if people in cars intend to murder you. This means keeping a close eye on them, against traffic.
For the record, you’re right about my previous quote, though it wasn’t out of context. I just missed the part where you suggest that people can choose to ride in the parking lane. I still suggest they do. And I am aware that riding against traffic is “illegal” though I have never heard of anyone receiving a ticket. Further, I don’t understand the logic; I am no wider when I’m riding toward a car than away from a car. As for passing you or any other bicyclist when I am riding against traffic, arguable it is safer as our combined velocities is significantly higher then either of us are likely to ride. This means that the amount of time that we are passing and therefore taking up more of the roadway is significantly reduced. Finally, when passing another bicyclist coming toward me as I ride against traffic, I always take the side closest to the flow of traffic. I can see what the cars are doing behind the other rider, so it’s a lot safer for me to move into the roadway than it is for the other rider.
I see your point!
I get it!!
Thanks!!!
PS
I still feel safer riding with traffic with a rear view mirrow on my bike.
And what do you do when you encounter a hundred bicycles riding towards you?
And I better add that even though I see your point, I don’t agree with your strategy. It will not work when we have critical mass –and that is what we are aiming for. As we have more and more bicycles sharing the road, police will be more likely to enforce the law.
More law enforcement is the problem we want to avoid. A lot of people who ride bikes do so because they want to avoid law enforcement. We need to make sure no one tries to extend licensing and registration to bicycles. Next thing you know, insurance will be mandated like California Auto Insurance or Obama’s health care reform.
Basically, if it comes down to painting some symbols in the lanes of traffic to remind drivers that bicycles exist, and in exchange I suddenly have to start worrying about cops and paying the state money to ride, I’m against the whole endeavor. If we were talking about proper bike lanes, I might feel slightly differently, but I doubt it.
AHA!
Sigh…
OK, SPK, I see where you’re coming from…
But what about all the hundreds of school-age children that cannot negotiate traffic the way you do?
Do you allow your kids to ride their bikes to school and everywhere else?
From my perspective, this new crop of teenagers getting driver’s licenses should first be required to learn the Rules of the Road on a bicycle. I don’t object to bicycle licenses if the revenue goes to bicycle education, bike lanes and other infrastructure. People who’ve never commuted by bicycle and who’ve been driven everywhere since birth tend to be even more clueless about the legal rights of cyclists.
I do admire that you commute 14-miles round-trip by bicycle to work in the Upper Ojai … maybe more thoughts later…
Aha! indeed. You just used the most notorious safety vs. freedom ploy. The classic “What about the children!” canard. Licensing must be avoided at all costs. Don’t give Sacramento any ideas Suza. This state is completely bankrupt, they just might take you up on your idea and then I’ll be jailed for not having a bicycle license. You know as well as I that any fees from licensing will quickly be eaten up by new bureaucratic layers and none of the remaining money will go for anything but the ever increasing budget deficit.
As for my son riding a bike. He’s not yet five. He’s been riding on my bike with me since he was 10 months old. When he starts riding his own bike, he will be doing so with a healthy mistrust of people in cars and trucks. He will never assume that they see him or that they are even competent enough recognize that he exists. Thereby he will learn aggressive, offensive bicycle safety.
SPK, I’m glad you have a son who is almost five. If Ojai was a bicycle-friendly City, he’d be almost old enough to ride his bike to kindergarden. (As a side note, in 1997–1999 we collected hundreds of letters and signatures from school-age children, teachers and parents begging the City for bike lanes. )
You’ve probably heard the term, “Free-Range Kids.” It’s a national movement of parents who, among other things, are weary of driving their kids everywhere and want their kindergardeners on up to walk/bicycle or ride the bus/trolley, etc., to school or wherever they want to go….
Definition of Critical Mass
Critical Mass is a bicycling event typically held on the last Friday of every month in over 300 cities around the world. In cities where critical mass is achieved on a daily basis, the whole environment for cyclists changes. At the moment Kelly Pasco of Projct Ride is working on getting groups of up to twenty kids to ride safely to school in a “bicycle bus.” We canot having them riding against traffic!
http://www.cicle.org/cm/whatiscm.html
I’ve been on several critical mass rides. They tend to ride against traffic more often then with it.
I’ve never heard of that. Will check it out.
My son, Bo Hebenstreit, races every weekend (am proud to say the baby that grew up on the back of my bike became a California bicycle champion) and I will ask him about all this.
http://www.pbase.com/bohebe
For what it’s worth, the Critical Mass websites I’m seeing are saying “Don’t ride into oncoming traffic on the wrong side of the road.”
DON’T
• race ahead to block cross traffic before the Mass has arrived
• ride into oncoming traffic on the wrong side of the road
• pick fights with motorists, even (especially) if they’re itching for one
• fail to turn and twist through the city to make the ride more interesting
• forget to smile and wave and talk to strangers!
• imagine that you are morally superior just cuz you’re on a bicycle (you’ll be in a car again soon enough)
• hesitate to tell other Massers what you think of their behavior, whether good or bad. Talk to each other!
• forget – we are all responsible to make Critical Mass what we want it to be.
DO
• talk to stranger, bystanders, bus riders, motorists – welcome people to join us next time
• help cars stuck in mass to exit to the right
• stop regularly if you’re in front (no matter how slowly you think you’re going, gaps are opening up behind you)
• stop at red lights when in front to allow the rest of the ride to “mass up” behind.
• keep going in dense packs through red lights to stick together and keep it safe for everyone.
• fill gaps; Critical Mass depends on bicycle density to displace cars.
• remember that pleasure and friendliness are more subversive than anger and blaming.
Part of me realizes that with Peak Oil coming down the pike all of these debates may look laughable in retrospect!
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/0901/german-report-peak-oil-collapse-democracy/