Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Sharrows Arrived Monday Night to Greet Bike Plan Update Kick-Off

The first sharrow markings were applied to Chemeketa Street NE on Monday. This is at the intersection of Cottage and Chemeketa, looking east.

Here you can see how the sharrow aids visibility. Normally a person would be riding along the right hand margin, along the asphalt seam of the end of the parking striping. The red pickup is starting to back up, and you can see that a person on bike positioned at the center point of the chevron will be out away from the rear end of the pickup - able to see the reverse lights, and the driver of the pickup better able to see the person on the bike.

If you've biked on Chemeketa, tell us what you think!

And look for more later...here's a bad picture of the crew last night putting more down. You can see the blowtorches and reflective tape!

The steering committee for the Bike Plan Update met last night. It was great to see old and new faces together. Lots of interest and enthusiasm and knowledge!

3 comments:

Stephanie Matlock Allen said...

I rode down Chemeketa on Tuesday morning & was excited to see the new sharrows! There were very few cars out, but it will be interesting to see how the sharrows affect drivers' behavior.

T-Bone said...

The city painted the sharrows on Monday, and on Tuesday I came within inches of getting hit by a monstrous truck pulling out of a parking spot on Chemeketa. Of course, the problem was I hadn't adjusted to the sharrows and was hugging the parking strip rather than taking my rightful place in the main travel lane. So take advantage of the sharrows, I implore you!

Salem Breakfast on Bikes said...

Thanks for the observations! The Statesman has a piece today, so more people will probably notice them.

(Two of the first three comments are, unsurprisingly, unhelpful!)