Sharrows in Real Time

Laura and I ride the new sharrows during a typical Saturday afternoon. We manage to ride through all .6 miles of the shore in 7 minutes at a hair whipping 5mph.

One criticism of the design is that the sharrows will somehow slow traffic considerably during busy weekends. As can be seen in the video it's cars that are slowing the traffic and NOT bikes. Another is that it is dangerous for bikes to ride in that lane. The video clearly shows that a bicycle following the rules of the road and riding on the sharrow is perfectly safe. They only thing they're going to die from is BOREDOM when traffic comes to a standstill because of motor vehicle traffic.

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People & Blogs

Tags:

• sharrows
• long beach
• green stripe
• russroca.com russ roca

[russroca]

i was riding a front-loading cargo bike and wasn't as maneuverable. also, i was purposefully trying to show how bikes aren't the reason for slow downs during congested hours.

[kuan12345]

I hate it when I have to slow down and wait for a safe moment to pass a slow moving car. They take up the whole lane and think they own the road. They never move over to let you pass even though you've been tailgating them for 10 seconds.

[biggestdog420]

Austin Texas has sharrow lanes, and the cyclists here are not required to obey traffic laws. They are free to run red lights, and stop signs. They are allowed to go the wrong way on one way streets. The '3 foot' law is great.. the cars have to stay 3 feet away, but the cyclist is free to come with in inches of a motor vehicle.

[sftriman]

Great video. I posted it on Twitter - I'm QBike. Wanted to know, what camera were you using? And what video editing software? The titles were clear and easy to read... not to mention, funny! "Sweet Jesus! We're going 10MPH now!"

[wcoastbo]

why not split lanes when it's safe? such as when the traffic in both lanes comes to a stop or slow crawl. it's legal for motorcycles (I assume the same applies for bicyclists). why give up one of the pros of riding a bike on congested roads? aside from trying to make a point on the video. nice BTW.