It’s been less than two years.  Cyclists love them.  Where’d they go?

If you look close enough, you can see the faded glory of the sharrow

Just about two years ago, Bike Pittsburgh worked with the City to install bike lanes and shared lane markings, or “sharrows,” onto Liberty Ave in Bloomfield-Lawrenceville.  Not only was this the first inter-neighborhood bike lane in the City of Pittsburgh, it was one of the first uses of sharrows on the east coast.  The ribbon cutting ceremony even involved a ride with the mayor and a mention in USA Today.

The effect was immediately apparent.  Cyclists commented on how, for the first time, they felt as if they had a right to, if not a welcome, to ride on the street.  Drivers gave a us little extra space, helping to reduce the stress factor a bit.   BikePGH even received emotional reports of cyclists that would get butterflies in their stomach every time they rolled over a sharrow.  When was the last time a traffic engineer induced a positive emotional reaction?

Liberty Ave seemed like a great spot for the sharrow debut; lots of young cyclists who recently moved into a part of town where the older folks wanted to make sure the bikers weren’t riding on the sidewalk.  Things weren’t perfect, but it was definitely a huge, progressive step in the right direction, especially for Pittsburgh.  Those painted bikes with the arrow on top once and for all affirmed that we were supposed to be riding on the street, and nobody could tell us otherwise.  That is until the paint wore off.

Granted, the sharrows are placed approximately where a car’s right side hits the pavement.  But that’s the point, they recommend to the cyclist a reasonable place to ride.  They’re not bike lanes that physically separate the travel lanes, but rather denote a “shared lane,” able to be placed on roads that aren’t wide enough for a bike lane, but still see a high number of cyclists (a way to describe pretty much every street within the Golden Triangle).  This strategic placement, regardless of whether cyclists are present, tends to cause drivers to move a bit to the left, giving cyclists more room.  Since the cars are subsequently closer to oncoming traffic, drivers will also slow down a little, something that is better for everyone.  For the cyclist, they help move her away from the dreaded “door zone,” as well as mark a bike route and establish a presence.

The “disappearing sharrow” caper isn’t due entirely to its placement, but also due to which materials are used to affix the decal to the pavement.  Frequently, the City still uses a water based paint that has a short lifespan and low durability, a technique that PennDOT has ceased using.  That, combined with high traffic, salt, and plowing, pretty much ensures that the markings will only last a short period of time, sometimes only one year.  It is the cheapest way to put markings on pavement, but is rendered useless under high traffic conditions where amenities such as sharrows, turning lanes, crosswalks, and the like are present.  Next time you’re walking around, check out how faded the crosswalk is, then wonder to yourself why other cities don’t seem to have this problem to the extent that we do.

According to the Texas Department of Transportation’s Pavement Marking Handbook:

Standard water-based paint often provides suitable performance on low volume roadways, thereby making it cost-effective. Durable pavement markings, such as thermoplastics, preformed tapes, and epoxies are often recommended for use on roadways with medium to high traffic volumes because paints often deteriorate rapidly under high-traffic conditions… Under extremely high-traffic conditions or other locations where a high number of wheel hits on the markings are likely to occur, such as weaving areas or transverse markings, materials of the utmost durability are desirable.

The City used the least durable, water based paint, because it’s inexpensive.  But, like the asphalt surface (and most things for that matter), an up-front investment in a higher quality material will actually cut down on costs and save money in the long run.

To add insult to injury (hopefully not in the literal sense) to the sharrow situation, Liberty Ave in Bloomfield is in terrible disrepair.  Most of the potholes and rough patches on Liberty Ave are directly in the area designated by the sharrows, seemingly placed by some hater bent on making our lives a miserable danger.

When a road is repaved, we are told that the choices for pavement marking materials increases, allowing for an easier application of higher quality and longer lasting markings pre-formed tapes.

Considering the state of the road, we are most likely waiting until it’s repaved, a process that nobody can predict.  The Pittsburgh Comet recently reported “that despite new policies and procedures including a formal annual repaving ‘list’ of streets based on quantitative, needs-based ‘scores,’ half of the streets which actually got repaved turned out not even to have appeared on the predetermined list.”

So we want to let you know that BikePGH is working to get this done!  The city is well aware of the situation and now we need to see if Liberty gets on the paving schedule (we should know very soon).

If it does not make the paving schedule this year, the markings will most likely be freshenend up with paint, an understandable solution given that it should be repaved before that paint wears away. There’s no use spending the money if they’re going to rip it up within a year.

If Liberty Ave does get repaved this summer, we have a commitment from the City that they will use the more durable thermoplastic.