{"id":27,"date":"2007-08-29T17:11:52","date_gmt":"2007-08-30T00:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/?p=27"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:54:45","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:54:45","slug":"follow-the-sharrows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/08\/29\/follow-the-sharrows\/","title":{"rendered":"Follow the sharrows"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Counterflow bike lane on Milton Street, near Lorne Avenue<\/em><\/p>\n

A couple of days ago, Dale Duncan wrote on Spacing Toronto about sharrows<\/a>, or shared road arrows, a new type of cycling-related road marking that is slowly becoming popular across North America. When I saw what they looked like — a bicycle symbol topped by two chevrons — I realized that Montreal has been using sharrows for a couple of years. The first time I saw them was in the McGill Ghetto, where in 2006, city workers painted them on Milton and Prince Arthur Sts., along with a couple of counterflow bike lanes.<\/p>\n

As with any type of cycling infrastructure, cyclists are divided over the benefits and effectiveness of sharrows. Some <\/a>criticize them for lulling cyclists into a false sense of security while doing little to remind drivers that they are legally bound to share the road with people on bikes. (The same argument is used against bike lanes, bike paths and just about every type of initiative that segregates cyclists and motorists.) Others<\/a>, though, think they’re a good way to realign drivers and cyclists, getting bikes out of the dangerous “door zone” while reminding motorists that cyclists are present.<\/p>\n

Sharrows, it seems to me, should be considered just one infrastructural tool among many. In the McGill Ghetto, a neighbourhood just east of the McGill University campus in downtown Montreal, they appear to work very well. Milton and Prince Arthur, parallel one-way streets heading in opposite directions, have long been used as the main east-west link from the Plateau Mont-Royal into the central part of downtown. As such, the number of bikes on these mostly residential streets is consistently high. (At 5pm on a Thursday last year, I counted 24 cyclists passing through the intersection of Milton and University in less than a minute.) Cyclists heading east from McGill have always rode against westbound traffic on Milton before switching over to eastbound Prince Arthur; cyclists heading west from the Plateau would ride against eastbound traffic on Prince Arthur before switching to westbound Milton.<\/p>\n

Naturally, a large mass of cyclists heading against the traffic flow on these two streets was potentially dangerous for cyclists and motorists alike. For once, the city’s response was ingeniously simple: they established counterflow bike lanes on Milton for a few blocks east of McGill, using sharrows to direct cyclists towards Prince Arthur, where a normal bike lane took them east into the Plateau. Further east, at Prince Arthur and St. Laurent, another counterflow bike lane was built to lead cyclists to Clark Street, where sharrows direct them down to Milton Street.<\/p>\n

So far, from what I have observed, the system is working. But that’s only because it is just that: a system. If the sharrows were used in isolation, without the bike lanes, I doubt they would be as successful. They also work because they are prominent — at intersections, four or five densely-packed sharrows are painted in succession, creating a clear path for bikes and making it impossible for drivers to ignore — and positioned in the centre of the road, rather than on the side where cyclists would be vulnerable to car doors. <\/p>\n

Sharrows definitely have a place in our streets — but not in isolation and not as a replacement for bike lanes.<\/p>\n

More photos of the Ghetto’s sharrows and bike lanes after the jump!<\/em><\/p>\n

Crossposted to Urbanphoto<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sharrows on Milton at Hutchison<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bike lanes on Prince Arthur Street<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Counterflow bike lane on Milton Street, near Lorne Avenue A couple of days ago, Dale Duncan wrote on Spacing Toronto about sharrows, or shared road arrows, a new type of cycling-related road marking that is slowly becoming popular across North America. When I saw what they looked like — a bicycle symbol topped by twoContinue reading “Follow the sharrows”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7828,7831,7839],"tags":[374,7,378,6,373,379,50,377,375,125,17,376,372,152],"class_list":["post-27","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bikes","category-community","category-neighbourhoods","tag-arthur-sts","tag-behaviour","tag-car-doors","tag-cycling","tag-dale-duncan","tag-infrastructural-tool","tag-mcgill-ghetto","tag-mcgill-university","tag-mcgill-university-campus","tag-montreal","tag-neighbourhood","tag-north-america","tag-prince","tag-toronto"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFollow the sharrows - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/08\/29\/follow-the-sharrows\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Follow the sharrows - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Counterflow bike lane on Milton Street, near Lorne Avenue A couple of days ago, Dale Duncan wrote on Spacing Toronto about sharrows, or shared road arrows, a new type of cycling-related road marking that is slowly becoming popular across North America. When I saw what they looked like — a bicycle symbol topped by twoContinue reading "Follow the sharrows"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/08\/29\/follow-the-sharrows\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-08-30T00:11:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-21T16:54:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/206\/522481152_1843eb7ab5.jpg?v=0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Christopher DeWolf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Christopher DeWolf\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/08\/29\/follow-the-sharrows\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/08\/29\/follow-the-sharrows\/\",\"name\":\"Follow the sharrows - Spacing Montreal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/08\/29\/follow-the-sharrows\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/08\/29\/follow-the-sharrows\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/206\/522481152_1843eb7ab5.jpg?v=0\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-08-30T00:11:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-21T16:54:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/8d797e2a77c30d58d1f6fe3d915ad3fd\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/08\/29\/follow-the-sharrows\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/08\/29\/follow-the-sharrows\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/08\/29\/follow-the-sharrows\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/206\/522481152_1843eb7ab5.jpg?v=0\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/206\/522481152_1843eb7ab5.jpg?v=0\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/08\/29\/follow-the-sharrows\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Follow the sharrows\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Montreal\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Montreal Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/8d797e2a77c30d58d1f6fe3d915ad3fd\",\"name\":\"Christopher DeWolf\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93c8aca91d7cfbd895846128d058930b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93c8aca91d7cfbd895846128d058930b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Christopher DeWolf\"},\"description\":\"Check out Urbanphoto!\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.urbanphoto.net\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/author\/christopher\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Follow the sharrows - Spacing Montreal","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/08\/29\/follow-the-sharrows\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Follow the sharrows - Spacing Montreal","og_description":"Counterflow bike lane on Milton Street, near Lorne Avenue A couple of days ago, Dale Duncan wrote on Spacing Toronto about sharrows, or shared road arrows, a new type of cycling-related road marking that is slowly becoming popular across North America. When I saw what they looked like — a bicycle symbol topped by twoContinue reading \"Follow the sharrows\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/08\/29\/follow-the-sharrows\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Montreal","article_published_time":"2007-08-30T00:11:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-01-21T16:54:45+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/206\/522481152_1843eb7ab5.jpg?v=0","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Christopher DeWolf","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Christopher DeWolf","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/08\/29\/follow-the-sharrows\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/08\/29\/follow-the-sharrows\/","name":"Follow the sharrows - Spacing Montreal","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/08\/29\/follow-the-sharrows\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/08\/29\/follow-the-sharrows\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/206\/522481152_1843eb7ab5.jpg?v=0","datePublished":"2007-08-30T00:11:52+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-21T16:54:45+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/8d797e2a77c30d58d1f6fe3d915ad3fd"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/08\/29\/follow-the-sharrows\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/08\/29\/follow-the-sharrows\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/08\/29\/follow-the-sharrows\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/206\/522481152_1843eb7ab5.jpg?v=0","contentUrl":"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/206\/522481152_1843eb7ab5.jpg?v=0"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/08\/29\/follow-the-sharrows\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Follow the sharrows"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/","name":"Spacing Montreal","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Montreal Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/8d797e2a77c30d58d1f6fe3d915ad3fd","name":"Christopher DeWolf","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93c8aca91d7cfbd895846128d058930b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93c8aca91d7cfbd895846128d058930b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Christopher DeWolf"},"description":"Check out Urbanphoto!","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.urbanphoto.net"],"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/author\/christopher\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21806,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions\/21806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}