Installing sharrows to alert motorists that bicyclists will be using the traffic lanes can be a popular improvement.
But that's not the case on a Seattle street where bikes lanes were promised until local merchants stepped in to block them.
The Seattle Likes Bikes advocacy group is organizing a bike ride along Stone Way on Wednesday to enable cyclists to demonstrate their opposition to the use of sharrows instead of bike lanes on a 6-block stretch between the Burke Gilman Trail and neighborhoods to the north.
I rode down to the Fremont neighborhood Tuesday morning to check out the situation and was surprised to see that contractors hired by the city were installing sharrows on the pavement at that moment (above), one-day before the protest ride.
Bike Master Plan
What's particularly galling to bicycle advocates in Seattle is that the city's much ballyhooed Bicycle Master Plan called for bike lanes to run the length of Stone Way. It's heavily used by cyclists who ride to neighborhoods north of the Burke Gilman Trail (considered a “regional public facility”).
Merchants believed the preferred road plan that included north and south bikes lanes, north and south traffic lanes, and a center turn lane would impede traffic in the Fremont neighborhood.
So the city caved in and came up with the plan to put in two traffic lanes north and south, with the right lanes being a “sharrow” lane.
Bad precedent
According to the Cascade Bicycle Club website:
“Should the anti-bike effort succeed, it would set a horrible precedent. Moreover, it would embolden cycling-opponents to try to strip other corridors from the plan. If this happens, no part of the $240 million, 450-mile bicycle facility network is safe.”
I called up David Hiller, advocacy director for the Cascade Bicycle Club, to get his reaction to the sharrows going in. He's dead set against it. Not only because it erodes the bike master plan, but because it's not as safe as a bike lane, especially the northbound sharrow lane heading uphill.
Hiller explained that because there are four lanes of traffic, there are many situations where a slow-moving cyclist might be hidden from view by other cars. By installing sharrows, the city “is suggesting to cyclists that this is safe. It's not,” Hiller said. “Don't assume that getting sharrows out there is going to change motorists' behavior.”
The Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition says sharrows are only slightly better than nothing. “From the standpoint of cyclist safety, sharrows should be considered a last resort.”
Staying safe
So how do you ride safely on Stone Way? Hiller recommended:
“Stay as far right as you can without getting doored.”
Protest ride
The demonstration ride by Seattle Likes Bikes meets at Gas Works Park at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday for a counter-clockwise loop around Fremont, including Stone Way. This is a legal ride, meaning cyclists will ride two-by-two and obey all traffic laws.
For more on this issue see:
Erica Barnett's article “Changing lanes; business leader kills Stone Way Bike Lane” in The Stranger
The Cascade Bicycle Club advocacy website, which explains the change and tells how to contact Mayor Nichels and others
The Seattle Likes Bikes.org website where you can find more details about the ride, and a map
Seattle P-I covers the protest bike ride
See also BikeSeattle.org for protest pictures, links
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