Who is scrubbing away the sharrows on Adams Avenue?
Yesterday, I received two reports that the sharrows that were put in last May were being scrubbed off of Adams Avenue. A fellow rider rode over to check it out and sure enough, they definitely look like someone is trying to get rid of these sharrows:
As far as bicycle facilities go, sharrows are at the very bottom of the barrel only slightly above "Bike Route" signs. Bike Route signs are often placed on the side of the road that essentially serve no real purpose to riders navigating busy and dangerous streets. While sharrows are useful in getting cyclists to ride with the direction of traffic, as a bicycle facility they do very little to actually increase ridership[pdf study].
Still, it is very surprising that some rogue sharrow hater would go to the effort of attempting to scrub away the sharrows and then do a fairly bad job at it.
San Diego's bicycle coordinator, Tom Landre, has already been alerted. He rode over to check it out and I just got word that he will make sure that they get re-installed as soon as possible. Landre also mentioned that removal was not done by the city.
UPDATE: Tom Landre was able to clarify what was going on. He said that the City is just resurfacing Adams Avenue and that the sharrows will be re-installed as soon as possible.
More New Sharrows on A Street and on Broadway
San Diego's streets are getting even more new sharrows. Sharrows have been spotted on Broadway starting at 26th Street. A reader, Matt, wrote in this morning that he spotted sharrows on A Street starting at Kettner Boulevard.
Have you spotted any new sharrows? Where have you seen them?
Previous coverage of sharrows: Sharrows in the Lane, Sharrows Spotted on Marlborough Avenue
Another Wrongful CVC 21202 (a) Citation
Unfortunately, despite assurances from the San Diego Police Department, the officers on the beat are still unaware of what the laws are when it comes to cyclists. Nearly two years ago, Andrew Woolley was improperly citied under CVC 21202(a), i.e. for failing to ride on the right-hand side of the road despite the fact that the exceptions to the code applied to him. Woolley eventually appealed and was successful in getting the charges reversed and dismissed. The entire incident was a tremendous waste of time and money both for the City and for Woolley. We wrote to Todd Gloria as the citation had occurred in his District Three, and asked him to speak to the City Attorney's Office to ensure that the officers were trained on the meaning and intention of the laws pertaining to cyclists. In a response from Council Member Gloria's office in August 2009, this was state in part,
The last we heard was the City Attorney's office was working with SDPD to ensure that officers do not wrongly ticket cyclists. This was at the end of June. Has there been any further incidents of citations since the end of June? If so, I would be happy to follow up.
I hadn't heard of any further citations until this year, when Scott Dion contacted me and mentioned that he wanted to meet to talk about his CVC 21202(a) citation. I met up with Dion on Bike to Work Day, a few days prior to his hearing at the Superior Court in Kearny Mesa, to learn more about this citation. The story below was written by Dion, I have edited it for readability.
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Scott Dion is a retired U.S. Navy Master Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician who is a League Certified Instructor with the League of American Bicyclists. He has 25 years of bicycle commuting experience. As part of his training and certification, he is well versed in the DMV driver's handbook along with the writings of John Forester, John Allen and the League of American Bicyclists.
On March 21, 2011 at 9:34 AM, Dion was riding southbound on Park Boulevard as part of his daily commute from La Mesa to City College in downtown San Diego. Since he began this commute last fall, Dion had had ample opportunity to evaluate the traffic norms and learned to eliminate conflicts by being predictable to other road users.
On this particular day, Dion noticed that the San Diego Police Officers who eventually cited him had the opportunity to observe where he was positioned in the lane - it was in accordance with all the literature mentioned above including CVC 21202. Despite the newly striped sharrows and a partial bike lane on the northern part of Park Boulevard, there are no such markings on the part of Park Blvd. where Dion was riding. Thus, he had to position himself the way someone who operates their bicycle with all the rights and responsibilities of a vehicle would. Dion states that someone who has grown up in the U.S. where the bicycle is seen as a toy meant for kids and relegated to bike paths, this can be a shocking sight. Dion stated that he was much safer operating this way as opposed to the way the SDPD Officer directed, “Bicyclists must travel in far right-hand side of road.” On this morning, Dion was positioned to the left of the doorzone in a substandard width lane riding at 15 mph in a 25 mph zone approaching a heavily used crosswalk when he was passed with around 12 inches of clearance by a SDPD Officer operating a marked police car. As the officer passed Dion, the officer was moving to the right. Dion chose to apply his brakes in order to achieve a safe following distance.
Dion then pointed three times at the rearview mirror where he could see the Officer looking at him. The officer stopped his car with lights on and Dion's intention was to talk about the distance he was allowed while the marked police car passed him. Dion then rode to the the right side of the police car while the Officer in the front passenger seat stepped out of the car and began directing Dion to the sidewalk. The officer then issued this citation:
Dion was unable to further discuss the issue of passing within a safe distance with the officer who issued the ticket, and he eventually spoke with the ticketing officer's supervisor where he learned that his only option to file a complaint against the officer, which Dion chose not to do.
On June 1st, the hearing date, Scott Dion's plan was to to explain why the exceptions (2), (3) and (4) of CVC 21202 applied to the situation where he was cited, thereby giving the judge what he needed to find him not guilty. However, the presiding Judge didn't buy Dion's arguments and found him guilty.
While there are a lot of different riding “styles” when riding the streets, the "door zone" is not a rideable space as it doesn't give the rider enough room to maneuver forward in a safe manner. Because Park Boulevard is also home to hundreds of temporarily parked cars despite the presence of multiple parking lots located along the Boulevard. Thus, it is usually impractical in a far right manner as the SDPD officer had wanted Dion to.
For this reason, many riders, including Dion usually take the lane. If there is enough room Dion would move to the right and continue riding. Whenever there are close calls Dion is diligent about investigating the situation to get an idea of what is going on. Sometimes the driver just doesn’t have the skill to pass slower moving traffic. On occasion, Dion will usually try and engage the passing driver in a dialogue to get a clearer picture as to why they chose to pass so close. In these situations he will state something like, “hey did you see me back there?" Often, these drivers will reveal their real motivation for the way they passed a cyclist by stating that they think bicyclists don’t belong on the road. They don’t like bikes in their way. On March 21st, the driver that Dion chose to converse with happen to be a SDPD officer and the conversation ended when Dion was given a traffic ticket. For his troubles, he was found guilty and ordered to pay a fine of $195.00.
Scott Dion doesn't think he did anything wrong. He will be appealing this decision.
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I thank Scott Dion for taking the time to let me know about this citation and patiently explaining the circumstances leading up to his citation and for taking the time to do a writeup of the encounter. It is much appreciated.
Sharrows in the Lane
There is a buzz in the San Diego bike community. It is bike month and everyone is talking about the new “Sharrows” that are popping up around the city. If you don’t already know, Sharrows are street markings that depict a bicycle below two chevrons. The purpose of the sharrow is to bring awareness to car drivers that bicycles have a right to the road and to educate bicycle riders on proper lane positioning and direction.
This is a new thing for many of us in San Diego, but it is legitimate and has been approved nationally. In 2004, California was the first state to adopted the Sharrow as an official road marking. Many other states followed and in 2009 it was officially included in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices by the Federal Highway Administration.
Sharrows help remind cyclists to stay clear of the opening doors of parked cars (door zone), and to ride in the center of the lane when it is unsafe for other vehicles to pass (take the lane). They also remind everyone that cyclists have the same right to the road as drivers of motor vehicles.
Last Friday, I was fortunate to meet Rose Chavez and Laura Avila who work for the City of San Diego’s Streets Division. These ladies are the workers in the field laying down the thermoplastic sharrows. They came direct with orders from Jim Lundquist, the city’s Bicycle Coordinator. I was impressed by the enthusiasm and pride that Rose and Laura took in their work. They admitted that there was a little bit of a learning curve with setting down these new to San Diego road markings. They explained that they had orders to place Sharrows 3 feet from the road edge in areas without street parking, 11 feet from the edge of the street in areas with parallel parking, and that there was at least one sharrow they would have to remove and replace in order to have proper road placement of all the Sharrows. They also chimed in that they were not on the pot-hole crew, so unfortunately they couldn’t personally help me out with this obvious cycling hazard that seems to plague most of San Diego. I hope the pot-hole crew has workers as dedicated as Rose and Laura. It made me feel good to meet Rose and Laura, because it was apparent that in their jobs with the City of San Diego they strive to improve road conditions for everyone, and that they are conscientious and concerned with the needs of vulnerable road users.
Keep an eye out for Rose and Laura, as they along with Jim and others in the city that help improve road conditions deserve our thanks and praise, as well as feedback on our needs as road users.
Sharrows Spotted on Marlborough Avenue
Earlier today while riding down Marlborough Avenue after crossing the 15 on the Monroe Bicycle and Pedestrian Bridge, I noticed the presence of sharrows.
I suppose that the city of San Diego has learned from its first tentative attempts at sharrow markings. Long time readers will recall that the first sharrows appeared as a sort of Christmas gift to the cyclists in the region on Imperial Avenue over the 805. This is one of the south eastern most edges of the city where I suspect the city is lucky to have three daily riders, if any, in the area.
As far as I am aware, these new sharrows on Marlborough Avenue would be the latest attempts at sharrow markings in the city. I am unclear on where the funding for these sharrows came from as I do not recall reading about them in the details for the current fiscal year's budget. In fact, I do not recall reading much in the way of budgeting for sharrows at all.
Have you seen sharrow markings anywhere else in the City of San Diego or in the County? Please share your findings and other thoughts in the comments.