Sharrows Are Ineffective, Potentially Counterproductive

Once a positive step for bike infrastructure, sharrows — “those little bike-shaped icons painted onto roads that are supposed to indicate where cyclists should ride” — are falling out of favor and could actually endanger people on bikes.

According to an article in Momentum, “Studies have shown that sharrows don’t actually provide any real safety benefits for cyclists. In fact, they may even make things worse by encouraging drivers to pass cyclists too closely.”

Dave Snyder, senior director of People For Bikes and a formerly passionate advocate for sharrows, has admitted that they haven’t worked. “Today, we know so much more about what it takes to make our streets safer for bicycling. We need separate bike paths; we need protected bike lanes on busy roads; and where the lanes are shared, we need actual speeds reduced to 20 mph or slower.”

The article concludes that there’s no substitute for safe, physically protected bike lanes. “The best bicycle infrastructure for safe cycling is dedicated bike lanes that provide physical separation between cyclists and vehicles.