In a phone call with the City of Tigard engineer leading the reconstruction of Burnham St. last week, we got the good news that the city plans to add "sharrows" to the pavement once it is complete!

A small sharrow on a Montreal street. Sharrows are also used in San Fransisco, New York, Portland and other US cities.

"Sharrows" are shared-lane markings, not a separate bike-only lane, path or track. They show people where in an auto lane to bike (away from opening car doors), and they also are a visual reminder that bikes are often present on a street (and a rightful user of that street). Most people are not comfortable biking in an auto lane, with nothing to indicate that they are supposed to be there; when there is not room for a bike lane, sharrows can help make those people more comfortable and encourage people driving behind them to be patient and careful.

For background on Burnham St. reconstruction, see our earlier post about the Tigard Downtown Circulation Plan.

This will be a good incremental improvement that helps more Tigardites get to and around downtown by bike, and we're happy to see the City innovating in this way. If you support this kind of improvement, let them know!

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.