Bike Sharrows on Laurel Lakes Ave

As part of the City's Bike Masterplan, Laurel Lakes Avenue and Cypress Street were designated as preferred Bike Routes through the City.  As shown below, both Streets were marked with sharrows and signed as Bike Routes.

Bike Guide sign on Cypress, directing cyclists onto Laurel Lakes Ave for access to points south on Route 1.

Sharrows on Laurel Lakes Ave. Sharrows are located such that cyclists won't be doored by parked cars, yet motorists can still easily maneuver around them, if needed.

These two streets bring the City a little closer to having a complete north-south route the full length of the City, providing access to the commercial Route 1 corridor without requiring cyclists to actually ride on Route 1.

Phase 1 of Bikeway Masterplan Completed

In the Fall of 2009, the City of Laurel passed a resolution adopting a City-wide Bike Masterplan (3mb PDF).  In 2010, the first phase was designed and vetted in public meetings.  This phase consists of 4th and 5th streets and connects to the City's Gude Lake Park with Riverfront Park, both of which have their own trails. 5th Street also fronts Laurel Elementary School and two of the City's community centers - the Anderson-Murphy Armory and the soon-to-be-opened community center at 811 5th Street.  In addition, 4th Street provides access to two large shopping centers. Since 4th Street is only one block offset from Route 1 and carries far less vehicle traffic, these new routes provide safer alternative for north-south travel.  See map below for a graphical depiction of the Phase 1 bike routes.

This initial phase started last summer with 4th Street bike lane striping in Old Town.  Now, Phase 1 has been completed.  The Phase 1 build-out consists of 3 miles of designated bikeways -1.25 miles of on-street bike lanes and 1.75 miles of shared roads designated as bike routes.  These routes are signed with the familiar bike route sign and are marked in the road with sharrows.  These sharrows help cyclists find the lateral location in a shared-lane where they are unlikely to be impacted by the sudden opening of a parked car door.

Click for larger image

Sharrows

If you're wondering what those strange markings along 4th street are,

they are called Sharrows - shared arrow markings. 

They are used to indicate to drivers that this is a

preferred bike route and to emphasize that the street is to be shared with bicyclists.  Where the markings are right in the middle of the travel lane, they are combined with this sign,

 

"Bike May Use Full Lane" to emphasize that bikes are allowed to use the entire lane, the same as a vehicle. This combination is used on preferred bike routes where the travel lane isn't wide enough for bikes to ride side by side with vehicles.

The first photo above shows 4th Street from Montgomery toward Main Street.  On-street parking is allowed on the left side of the street only.  The rest of the street isn't wide enough to incorporate a 5' wide bike lane and still have enough room for a vehicle to travel safely.  Instead, sharrows were used to indicate a safe bicycle riding location that also allows for a large enough gap between them and passing vehicles.

On other parts of 4th street, namely between Gorman and Talbot, sharrows are placed 11' from the right curb. This location guides bicyclists to an area that prevents them from getting hit by opening doors from cars parked on-street along the right side of the street, yet still allows for a comfortable separation distance for vehicles to pass on the left. See photo below.

Sharrow on 4th Street between Gorman Ave and Talbot Ave

Bike Plan to begin roll-out

Tomorrow, the City of Laurel will begin implementing the first phase of its City-wide bike master plan. This initial phase is a north-south route that connects several neighborhoods, ending at Riverfront Park to the North and Gude Lake to the South.  The route runs along low-volume 4th/5th Streets and is a mix of on-street bike lanes and shared-route markings/signage, with a short hiker/biker trail connecting the intersection of 4th  and Cherry with the trails around Gude Lake.  In total, the City will be using signage and street markings to designate 3 miles of roads as preferred bike routes, with 1 mile of that stretch to include on-street bike lanes.*  Sharrows and signage will be used on the remaining two miles to emphasize the shared nature of the road. Work north of Greenhill Drive will begin on Friday, with the exception of any sharrows that need to be installed on roads that WSSC is in the process of patching/re-surfacing.  The on-street bike lanes on 4th Street from Cherry to Greenhill will be installed as part of a 4th Street CIP expected to start later this month.

A few of the bike guide signs to be installed

*To put this into context, the City maintains about 56 miles of local roadways and about 100 miles of sidewalk in a 4.5 square-mile municipality.