4 ms·
When I commute to work by bicycle I have to deal with a mile or so long stretch of sharrows. It is by far the worst and most dangerous part of my ride. They wer
by redelbee 6y ago
When I commute to work by bicycle I have to deal with a mile or so long stretch of sharrows. It is by far the worst and most dangerous part of my ride. They were put in place instead of the non-separated bike lane in the rest of downtown to preserve on-street parking.
On the majority of rides I am either dodging doors, dodging cars that are overtaking too close, or both. This entire stretch of road has a double yellow as well, which makes the overtaking even worse.
I got a Varia light/radar from Garmin so I can at least know when people are approaching from the rear. I feel a lot safer but that’s probably not actually true unfortunately. I highly recommend the light/radar combo because it is very helpful with overall awareness while riding.
I don’t know how this could be resolved because much of the street is residential with fairly small front yards and no driveways to speak of. So I’ll just have to do my best to stay safe and hope that drivers in my city get more accustomed to sharing the road.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- s0rce 6y agoI used to deal with that on my commute in Oakland and I spent a long time exploring and looking at maps and end up going about 3/4mi extra to avoid sharrows on larger roads and take the side streets. Takes longer but I feel much safer. Don't like getting sideswiped (happened twice) and screamed at (few times).
- redelbee 6y agoI’m glad you found an alternative route! I’m in a mid-sized Midwestern city and drivers just don’t get it. When I lived in Austin I felt much safer even with way more traffic, mostly because the drivers were more aware because there were plenty of cyclists on the regular. This is actually my alternative to a much shorter and more congested route. I’m still looking for better options. Going into downtown means that I’m pretty much choosing the least bad option though.