The LA Department of Transportation announced that their workers will be installing new shared lane markings on neighborhood streets throughout the City. Those markings – also known as “sharrows” – help supplement the bike lane network in Los Angeles.
In our area, two segments of 4th Street are among the streets getting “new” sharrows. The first stretch is from Oxford Street to Norton Avenue – and it looks like the sharrows have already been painted. The other stretch is from La Brea Avenue to Cochran Avenue – those were marked out on February 18 and according to the LADOT, they should be painted soon.
According to LADOT, a sharrow has five main goals:
- Assist bicyclists in positioning themselves outside the “door zone” of parked cars.
- Assist bicyclists in positioning themselves within narrow lanes so that they may ride safely next to passing automobiles.
- Assist drivers with a safe passing distance for bicycles.
- Indicate the shared-use nature of the road so that motorists are aware of the presence of cyclists and drive accordingly.
- Encourage bicyclists to ride with traffic, as opposed to against it.
Sharrows help keep both bike riders and car drivers safe.
- They help drivers to know where to expect cyclists and to judge a safe passing distance.
- They help cyclists to judge their distance outside of the “door zone” and also to know to ride in the direction of traffic.
- They do not affect the operation of the roadway, remove travel lanes, or displace parking. So motorists may continue to use the road as they always have, except with a more cautious eye towards cyclists.
For those who bike in our neighborhood, they can confirm what great exercise it is and how easy it is to ride from the greater Hancock Park area to Hollywood (Arc Light is 2.5 miles away, up a very gradual hill), The Grove/Farmers Market (about 3 miles away, give or take…and 4th Street is a key part of your route there), the Museums and more. Also, the next CicLAvia will ride along Wilshire Boulevard through our area on April 6…it’s a great time to ride a bike!
Favorite Bike Resources
Our Favorite Bike App – Map My Ride allows a rider to plan routes in advance and then follow via voice direction while riding or track a route on the fly and capture time, route, distance and splits. After a ride you can choose to share with friends or your greater social community via Facebook, etc. Or just save it for your own satisfaction like we do!
Different Look at Google Maps – rather than mapping your route for a car, try mapping it for a bus or a bike. Google Maps shows you how to get from here to there using a mixture of resources with estimated bus times, train times, arrival times and more. Using public transportation more (or a mix of bike and public transportation) is great exercise.
Our Favorite Bike Accessories – Basil Cardiff rear bike basket. It’s steel, mesh, removable, hooks on side of rear bike rack and has a handle so you can carry into the grocery store and get some staples.
Mobile Phone Bike Mount – get one so you can easily access your info. But don’t ride with both ear buds in…riders need to be able to hear what’s going on around them in order to assess and react accordingly.
I am happy that bicyclists are getting more opportunities to ride here in LA but now I feel that it is time that they are held accountable for their own safety.
We are on a learning curve here in LA as far as having bicyclists share the road safely. We all want to make it work.
Wear a helmet. Have working lights on your bike so that drivers can see you clearly. We can’t see you at night if you have no lights on your bike. Maybe up your chance of not being struck by a vehicle by also wearing reflective clothing at night. The smaller streets of LA are not well lit, especially Hancock Park and it’s vicinity. It is not “uncool” to protect yourself, it can be a matter of survival.
Be sensible; if you are riding with your child and they are wearing a helmet, so should you.
Every mode of road transportation has it’s safety rules. Cars have to have lights and seat belts, motorcyclists have to wear helmets and have lights, why are bicyclists exempt from basic safety features such as helmets and lights?
I believe it is time to make some demands on lawmakers to have bicyclists put their safety in their own hands, not just ours.