The in basket: Kitsap Way between Callow Avenue and Highway 3 in
Bremerton has a variety of pavement markings for where bicyclists
should ride, I noticed as I headed west on it.
There are short stretches of painted bike lanes, separated by
stencil markings painted in the outside vehicle lane showing a
bicycle with two chevrons over the cyclist’s head.
I’d seen them on Fauntleroy Avenue in Seattle after I got off
the Southworth ferry the past couple of years. I wondered what the
chevrons were meant to add to what clearly was a designation for
where bicyclists should ride.
The out basket: The chevrons are evidently just an arbitrary
design feature of what are called “sharrows,” an authorized marking
under the 2009 federal Uniform Manual for Uniform Traffic Devices.
It’s a play on words, I guess, melding arrows and share.
As a whole, the sharrows emphasize the need for cars and bikes
to share that lane, as well as suggesting bicyclists use enough of
the lane that they don’t get picked off by the driver’s side doors
of parked cars whose drivers are getting out.
That’s an issue in Seattle, but there aren’t many places in
Kitsap with bike lanes next to on-street parking.
“We striped areas where there was sufficient space for a bike
lane,” said Gunnar Fridricksson of the Bremerton street engineers.
“As you noticed, where there was not space, the sharrows were
installed along with signage.”
They don’t alter the law regarding the relationship between
motor vehicles and bikes (they must obey the same laws, generally).
They just emphasize the Share the Road philosophy.
It occurred to me, though, that I didn’t know whether bike lanes
alter that relationship – whether cars can drive in a bike lane. So
I asked Trooper Russ Winger of the State Patrol here.
Russ said the term “sharrows’ was new to him, but he drove
around looking at bike lanes and had this to say.
“Kitsap Way has several marked and signed bike lanes along it.
The signs are black and white regulatory signs. They are also
marked on the asphalt with white bike symbols.
“The roadway is of sufficient width to have a full travel lane
and a bike lane. In these areas there is no reason for a vehicle to
be in the bike lane. Most of the signs I observed said only ‘bike
lane’ and depicted the bike symbol.
“At intersections with road ways and openings to businesses, the
bike lane turned to skip lines, allowing a vehicle to cross. I
would say that a vehicle traveling otherwise in the bike lane in
this type of situation would be illegal, disobeying a restrictive
sign to start. Infraction $124.
“This is a good example of local jurisdictions using their power
to add restrictive signs and lanes to further restrict vehicle
travel governed by RCW,” he said.
He also encouraged drivers to “pay more attention to the small
road signs and lane markings. I learned a lot just by paying more
close attention to them after you posed the question to me and I
have driven and worked these roads for 24-plus years,” he said.