A shared lane marking, shared-lane marking, or sharrow is a street marking installed at various locations worldwide, such as New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Spain, and the United States. This marking is placed in the travel lane to indicate where people should preferably cycle.23rd Streetscape Project
City of Richmond website, access date December 28, 2008

History

These markings are used in the USA, Australia, and other countries. In US usage, the wide shape of the arrow, combined with the bike symbol, gave rise to unofficial names such as "bike in a house" or "sharrow". In the UK roughly the same function is served by a bicycle symbol without arrows. However, this tends to be used more as an indication of a formal cycle route rather than as an encouragement to share the road. The original "bike in a house" or "man jumping barrels at home" marking was developed by James Mackay and included in the 1993 Denver Bicycle Master Plan. While Mackay had considered a "connect the dots" pavement markings approach for bicycle route definition and cyclist lane positioning reinforcement (during his time as the Bicycle Facilities Engineer for the North Carolina Department of Transportation), the City of Denver's unwillingness to commit to bike lane markings meant that shared lane markings were the only pavement marking treatment for bicyclists that the City would implement. The hollow arrow surrounding the cyclist was intended to reinforce the correct direction of travel for bicyclists (who were frequently observed riding the wrong way, against traffic, in Denver). In 2004, the city of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, California began experimenting with the shared lane marking, and developed a revised symbol consisting of a bicycle symbol with two

chevron Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to: Science and technology * Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines * Chevron (anatomy), a bone * '' Eulithis testata'', a moth * Chevron (geology), a fold in rock ...

markings above the bicycle.Alt URL
/ref> In the process, the name ''

sharrow Sharrow is a suburb of Sheffield located directly southwest of Sheffield city centre. The district lies within the Nether Edge and Sharrow ward of the City. Sharrow Ward's back to back terraced housing in ''Little Sheffield'' was redevel ...

'' was coined by Oliver Gajda, of the City and County of San Francisco Bicycle Program, and is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsNortheastern University researcher Peter G. Furth proposed the "Bicycle Priority Lane", which combines sharrows with dotted lines inside the usual lane markings. This marks a five-foot-wide zone in the center of the lane which bicyclists are encouraged to use. The city of Boston, Massachusetts began experimenting with these markings in 2013.

Effectiveness

Behavioral studies prepared for the

Federal Highway Administration The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program ...

and the city of San Francisco have shown that streets with shared lane arrows increase separation between motor vehicles and cyclists, encourage cyclists to ride outside of the door zone, and may reduce wrong way cycling and sidewalk cycling, which are associated with increased crash risk. However, another study published in the journal

Injury Prevention Injury prevention is an effort to prevent or reduce the severity of bodily injuries caused by external mechanisms, such as accidents, before they occur. Injury prevention is a component of safety and public health, and its goal is to improve the ...

based on hospital records shows no statistically significant reduction in injuries, and possibly a small increase. A 2016 study commissioned by the

Transportation Research Board The Transportation Research Board (TRB) is a division of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, formerly the National Research Council of the United States, which serves as an independent adviser to the President of the Uni ...

conducted a comprehensive longitudinal analysis of census block groups in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. Block groups were categorized in one of 3 categories: block groups with bike lanes installed, block groups with sharrows only, and block groups with no cycling infrastructure. The authors found that blocks with bike lanes experienced a significantly larger increase in bicycle commuters than block groups with sharrows, which were only a bit better than those without infrastructure. Block groups with only sharrows installed were significantly less effective at reducing injuries per year per commuter than both block groups with bike lanes and even as block groups with no infrastructure. The study concludes that these findings raise concerns on the effectiveness of sharrows as a safety measure and as an incentive to

bicycle commuting Bicycle commuting is the use of a bicycle to travel from home to a place of work or study — in contrast to the use of a bicycle for sport, recreation or touring. Commuting especially lends itself to areas with relatively flat terrain and ...

. In the discussion on this study it was criticized that block groups were compared instead of streets.

Usage

North America

The US

Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices The ''Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways'' (usually referred to as the ''Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices'', abbreviated MUTCD) is a document issued by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) of the Unit ...

says shared-lane markings may be used to: Based on the San Francisco experimental data, in August 2004 the California Traffic Control Devices Committee (CTCDC) approved the use of this marking in California. In the 2009 edition of the

, shared lane markings were approved for general use. The city of

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...

included extensive use of shared lane markings in its Bicycle Master Plan of early 2007. The concept has since been implemented by cities throughout the United States. Shared lane marking has been adopted in Canada, being used in localities ranging from

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

Worldwide

Vichy - Avenue du Pt Doumer vers gare SNCF

For several years, the traffic rules of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

have allowed shared lanes, there called ''voies partagées'', in addition to two types of dedicated bike lanes. One of those is obligatory, the other one is not obligatory, but also reserved for bicycles. All have the same pictograms on the street surface, but are distinguished by roadside signs. In the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, a series of sharrows on shared lanes are called ''Cyklopiktokoridor'' which translates as "cycle pictogram corridors". For cycle lanes with marked limits, a strict type and a soft type exist (as in France), and are distinguished by different pictograms. The concept of shared lane markings has also appeared in Spain and New Zealand. In

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, the concept is not yet established officially, but some local authorities use simple bike logos for the same purpose, without having a specific term for them. In Latvia, a single street in its capital Riga has markings indicating the lanes as "recommended cycle lanes", however legally this marking is not defined and consequently there are no differences to any other road with shared traffic.

Notes

References

External links

Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), 2009 Edition: Chapter 9C. ''Markings''
see last section!
"Four Solid Uses for Sharrows"

FAQ on shared lane markings created by Bike Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Dept. of City Planning
* Thunder Bay (Ontario)
Informations for motorists and cyclists on shared lanes and bike lanes''
{{Cycling Infrastructure Cycling infrastructure Transportation in the United States Road infrastructure Cycling safety Transport in Canada Transport in Australia