To a cynic, those white bike stencils the city’s been experimenting with on streets are pointless excuses for bike lanes.
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But I’m getting sold on the mysterious rash of new sharrows (or if you’re not in a rush, “shared lane pavement markings”) that have been appearing without fanfare. Think of them not as alternatives to bike lanes but as a quick, cheap way to cue drivers to the fact that they don’t own the road.
Anyone who’s travelled Dundas East, River or Lansdowne south of Bloor will have spotted them painted in the middle of a lane, accompanied by two chevrons. Sharrows aren’t delineated by a solid line, so it’s understandable that they could come off looking half-assed.
“I know a lot of people were concerned about us putting sharrows where bike lanes are possible,” acknowledges pedestrian and cycling infrastructure manager Daniel Egan. “If we can physically put a bike lane in, we’ll do it. If we don’t have the width, we’ll use sharrows.”
Bike lanes also take a ponderous amount of city finagling (witness the failed bike lane on University), while sharrows can go anywhere cyclists venture, affirming their rights without said cyclists needing to engage in a mid-ride shoutfest. Just about every cyclist has a horror story about drivers losing their shit because a bike is taking up a whole lane due to safety concerns like potholes, poor utility company patchwork, sewer trenches or jagged debris.
“It’s an educational tool,” says Egan. “We’re trying to make cyclists more visible on the street. There’s a misperception that they should be as far right as possible.”
The appearance of the bike images running along College west of Manning (where a bike lane begins) hints at another key advantage of the markings.
“We don’t have to get a bylaw for sharrows, so we don’t have to wait for the next council cycle to get approval,” says Egan.
That means routes where bike traffic is already flowing could easily see these bike stamps one morning soon. In fact, Spadina should expect them in roughly a month, and if the pilot project is deemed successful upon completion in June, they could spread to King and Queen.
Some sharrows, like the ones on College, are only meant to be used as such in rush hours. Still, they speak pretty loudly. Cars parked in those lanes during the day have to get out of the way or risk being towed during posted rush hours – signs tell them this – and cyclists can use the full lane if needed.
You heard that part right: the full use of the lane, as explained in Section 147.1 of the Highway Traffic Act. “Hopefully, the markings in the middle of the lane will make drivers aware that that’s the proper place for cyclists and prevent them from getting upset.”
Once everyone understands why we’re getting these markings and what they offer, we can stop thinking we’re getting cheated out of bike lanes, which we’ve learned the hard way take serious struggle. Every time a sharrow symbol is stencilled on a street, we’re getting a strong, legitimizing sign of approval.
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