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Long Beach is ready for Sharrows. Are you? Read the full post here (OceanView90803 via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr)
Last week Long Beach did something that, by all appearances, no other city has ever done: they painted sharrows--a common practice to educate motorists that bicyclists get to legally share the road--with a five-foot green lane--a new and inventive way to grab everyone's attention and help cyclists stay out of the door zone.
The .6 miles lane runs along both sides of 2nd Street in Belmont Shore between Livingston Drive to Bay Shore Avenue. While it may appear to some that cars cannot share that green lane, that's far from the truth. "All we're doing is expressing existing laws on the street," Charlie Gandy, Long Beach's mobility coordinator, told the LA Newspaper Group.
Bicyclest and blogger Russ Roca, who received an erroneous ticket for riding on 2nd street that jump started this project just four months ago, echoes that notion, too. "I do like the sharrow/stripe treatment very much, but it must be emphasized that they do nothing to change the laws that govern the road," he wrote on his blog. "They merely show where it is safe to ride. In essence, EVERY road in the city of Long Beach should be ridden as if you had a sharrow/green stripe."
In a letter to the city, Roca goes even further in a bullet list of points because it seems drivers think cyclists will slow down traffic and that it gives the two-peddlars special treatment:
- those lanes were "sharable" by bikes before the sharrows were being put in
- the new sharrows do not take away any rights from motorists NOR do they give bicyclists any special rights, they are just very bold and large visual indicators that bikes can already be legally on the road and they invite cyclists that may not know that right to be on the road.
- the placement of the sharrows (presumably in the middle of the lane) is where the cyclist SHOULD ride, out of the door zone.
This weekend, he rode in traffic finding that it was the cars that were slowing him down. That video is below:
Riding Long Beach Sharrows in Real Time from Russ Roca on Vimeo.
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The entire LADOT Bikeways staff should be resigning in embarrassment.
While they were busy coming up with a plethora of creative excuses why sharrows can't be implemented in L.A. county and professing complete ignorance about the state of the long overdue Bike Master Plan, one of the most progressive projects in this city's history is installed right under their noses. In FOUR MONTHS.
Thanks to both Russ Roca and the city of Long Beach for getting this done. It's fantastic to see a facility that, for once, encourages cyclists to use a safe road position rather than the most dangerous part of the roadway, as most bike lanes do.
Honestly, I don't get it. As a resident of Long Beach it's been clear since the dawn of mankind that bikes and cars share the road. Not sure why this is necessary. Oh wait! The thousands of pseudo-hipster-homeless dudes riding fixed-gear bikes haven't learned the DMV manual yet.
Glad to know there are people like you out there - I'm sure you're in the majority - but I still encounter plenty of drivers who yell at me to get out of the street.
Even when motorists and cyclists know that they legally share the road, however, many of them think that cyclists are obligated to ride within an inch of parked cars or the curb, where they're in grave danger of being hit by car doors or right-hooked at an intersection. The typical bike lane reinforces this idea, unlike this sharrow/green lane treatment, which gives a really clear message to everyone about where cyclists should be traveling.
Why is it that all thing awesome get taken by hipsters? I've wanted a cruiser forever, and all of a sudden it's a hipster thing. Shucks, I tell ya.
Bottom line, people need to be more careful with their vehicles. Will this ever happen in L.A.? At least with a majority being respectful/aware????
I hope so. I'll try to remain positive.
At first I was concerned that people might mistaken it for a big bike lane, but I was in Long Beach this weekend and that wasn't the case.
I applaud Long Beach's initiative and their recognition that is relatively cheap way to make the streets safer and more welcoming to cyclists by simply reminding drivers of laws that have been on the books a long time.
Did this take a long expensive study? Was any room taken away from cars? No! It's just some darn paint to remind people of the longstanding right of cyclists to use the full lane.
City of Los Angeles, take notice!
And yes, it was the cars that were causing the congestion on that street during the Saturday afternoon I was in Long Beach. People who complain about bikes "blocking traffic" never seem to acknowledge what causes traffic to jam in the first place: Too many cars trying to occupy the same space.
But how long will it be before drivers start thinking that cyclists aren't allowed in any traffic lanes that don't have "sharrows" or aren't painted green?
I mean, shouldn't every street have "sharrows" (in at least the rightmost lane)? If there's no legal difference between sharrows-marked streets and unmarked streets, why mark just some of them?
I predict confusion, resulting in road-rage assaults on cyclists riding in unmarked lanes.
Or car drivers thinking they also get to "share" bicycle-only lanes.
I guess we'll see.
Great point, LA Map Nerd. I've always wondered the same societal effect and continue to wonder about why in LA some places you can't park are marked with a red curb and some are not. I think it should be either way, otherwise, it leads to mass confusion. Patterns are pretty important.
These are reasonable questions, and have been an argument against on-street bike facilities for decades. I personally think that well-implemented symbolic gestures like these are necessary at this point in order to begin to counteract the idea that cars are the only viable way to get around in L.A. Admittedly, there's going to be a shared-lane "learning curve" for all road users, but, ideally, more cyclists on the streets will lead to more awareness of their legal rights.
Also, I don't think it would be necessary to paint all right lanes green in the city to cause a profound increase in utilitarian cycling. All we need are some intelligently-planned localized clusters of bike facilities that are truly designed for transportation and not for recreational purposes. These could all be linked in the future, as demand dictates.
In a nutshell, L.A. *needs* to start doing SOMETHING.
There are actually a decent number of progressive people who do commute via bicycle - yet the societal perceptions/projections/assumptions often render them mute and invisible to the "dominant majority".
L.A. is very much a "follow the aggro herd" metropolis. Save for the frantic tearing down of awesome historic old buildings or practical infrastructure (ie: largest rail system in the U.S. in the 6o's), practical change happens *very* slowly here.
I think a little confusion is actually a good thing, which is precisely one of the reasons why round abouts tend to have fewer fatal accidents even though drivers feel they are more dangerous to drive than conventional intersections. If you read Tom Vanderbilt's Traffic he comes to the conclusion based on quite a deal of research that often times the automatic nature of traffic systems reduces awareness. Ironically some roads designed for greater safety actually have higher fatality rates because the perception of safety entices people to take advantage and take more risks like speeding. A confused driver is at least one who's brain is turned on to think things over.
Sadly, L.A. drivers aren't the brightest bulbs. They also seem to have problems with aggression and umm, humanity. Any bright and shiny symbol which helps draw their wandering attention is a good thing.
Long beach is WAY ahead of the ass backwards L.A. curve when it comes to bicycle integration.
Long Beach even has a Bike Station near the Blue line. (prog. city franchise whose services include: secure bicycle parking 24/7 with membership fee.)
Bike Station
Regarding the whole "cars slowed us down" comment. This area of Belmont Shore is already pretty damn slow as it is. The fact that the bikes had to stop alot is not very indicative of the typical street. You can be sure that if one of these sharrows was on PCH, or even if it extended further down second street, the cars would definitely not "slow" a biker down.
even as a cyclist though, it bothers me how now all the slow riding beach cruisers that used to hog the sidewalks are now weaving slowly, stopping in the middle of the road to talk to friends, etc just because they're suddenly aware they're allowed to share the road with cars. i feel like when i used to ride with the flow of traffic cars never gave me much trouble, but now getting stuck behind these jerks on the beach cruisers has maybe caused more accidents than without the sharrows!
overall though i think this is a great idea and i'm proud of my city, just think perhaps they need to educate the public on how to actually use these things.
Flagstaff AZ has had a sharrow for at least a couple of years on the main drag going north through downtown, love it.
Thanks for covering the story and showing the video. I think, overall, the sharrow/stripe is a great treatment. The jury is still out as to how cyclist/motorists will react to it so it's very exciting. So far things are very promising.
I did want to clarify one thing though. My ticket wasn't the conception of the sharrow/stripe. It was already in planning when I received the ticket. Although, the bicycle advocacy group I work with (The Long Beach Cyclists - www.lbcyclists.org) did strongly advocate for the Sharrows to be placed prominently in the middle of the road and not off to the right as is done in many places.
My ticket (which I still have, btw) did spur conversations between our Mobility Coordinator, local cyclists and the leadership at LBPD. Anthony Batts, the Chief of Police acknowledges that law enforcement education about cycling is an evolving process - of which I took a ticket for the team, so to speak.
I suppose, if nothing, I can show photos/video to the judge and show them that the center is safest place to ride (where the big friggin green stripe is) and not far to the right.
Best,
Russ