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L.A. Installs First Official Sharrows

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No, these aren't guerilla ones, these are the real deal. The Department of Transportation today is installing the city's first sharrows (officially called Shared Lane Markings), which are on-road stencils that help educate drivers to share the road with cyclists and to keep riders out of the door zone.

"We're very excited about this," said Aurisha Smolarski with the L.A. County Bicycle Coalition. "It marks a turning point in L.A." The coalition has been working with a resistant city bureaucracy on sharrows for six years now. Two years ago in late June, Council President Eric Garcetti introduced a motion for this pilot program to happen.

The sharrows can be found on a mile-long stretch of Fountain Avenue between Western and Vermont. It is one of six pilot project areas where they will be installed and studied this summer.

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