Roads where bicycles and cars coexist? With Sharou…

The city of San Francisco in the U.S. has made plans to expand the bicycle lane as part of its urban infrastructure. However, as a result of reviewing the budget as the COVID-19 pandemic, it is said that Sharrow, which represents the shared lane for bicycles and cars, is being reviewed newly.

Sharou refers to the V-shaped pattern and the shape of a bicycle drawn on the bottom of the road to inform that it is a road used by bicycles and cars, and is a combination of Share and Arrow. Sharow, invented in 1993 by bike designer James McKay, is an attempt to legalize bicycles running in the middle of the road and allow cars and bicycles to share the road.

Sharou draws a bicycle icon on the driveway to make the driver aware of the presence of a cyclist, and also aims to prevent the bicycle from hitting the door of a parked car or a bicycle running on the shoulder from interfering with the progress of the car.

However, if you actually do a questionnaire, most of the drivers surveyed claim to be careful about Sharou. Since the number of respondents to the survey was small, the introduction of Shroud went as planned, but only 21% of them noticed the Shroud sign. In a verbal survey of more than 200 San Francisco citizens and 50 cyclists, most cyclists said that the Shrouds were too small to be effective.

Some experts point out that in all studies on Sharou, safety was not clearly measured, and the distance from a car to a bicycle and the location of a bicycle road were only statistically inferred, and the actual safety was not strictly measured. The same point was made in 2016, and the city of San Francisco also abolished Sharou and made plans to build a new bicycle lane. However, after being forced to spend unexpectedly due to the Corona 19 response, it is trying to reduce the budget for the plan to build a new bicycle-only road and introduce Sharou again to the streets.

Anyone who rides a bicycle knows that vehicle contact is dangerous. It is pointed out that Sharou, who is not legally binding, is not helpful. Related information can be found here .