City gets 'sharrow-minded' when it comes to active transportation

Active transportation advocate Rod Bilz says, although drivers should always be on the lookout for bicyclists, every bit helps when it comes to sharing the road and road safety, in general.

As part of the North Bay's Active Transportation Master Plan, painted road markings featuring a bicycle and two chevrons — or sharrows — and increased signage will be added to several area roads this fall. The purposes of the initiative are to remind cyclists and drivers to share the road and to serve as a reminder to watch for those cyclists.  

"I think the value in a community such as North Bay," offers Bilz, "is that the sharrows introduce motorists to the idea that they are sharing the road with other users."

According to the active transportation plan, "Travel lanes with sharrows do not have a separate white line indicating a dedicated cycling area. Instead, chevrons and a bicycle symbol are used to indicate where cyclists should ride, and where motorists should expect to see cyclists."

The sharrows will be added to Ferguson Street, Front Street, and Marshall Avenue East. The project falls under the now-cancelled Ontario Municipal Commuter Cycling program and will get underway in late September with an expected completion date of Oct. 30.

In other active transportation news, the City recently announced work on sections of bike lanes connecting Gormanville Road to Main Street West and the west end of the Kate Pace Way on Memorial Drive will keep sections of road in the west-end closed until the end of the month.

See related story: New multi-use trail will connect the north and south ends of North Bay

"Bicycle lanes are preferred to sharrows for cycling traffic but not all streets have enough room for bicycle lanes due to high demand for on-street parking and/or the inability to eliminate or narrow regular traffic lanes," reads the Active Transportation Plan. "On streets where bicycle lanes cannot be accommodated, the City will use sharrow markings instead."

Bilz adds, "Ideally we would all love some type of lane separation but in many instances, we simply don't have the corridor width to achieve it."

He says projects on McKeown Avenue and Trout Lake Road are now getting to the design phase and could provide opportunities to create that lane separation.

"One positive is that if we establish higher ridership on the sharrows — when there is a major reconstruction of the road there is a better opportunity to include separated cycling lanes," observes Bilz.

According to active transportation planning, sharrows are:

• placed in lanes that are shared by motorists and cyclists 
• used to indicate to both motorists and cyclists the appropriate line of travel for cyclists
• applied near the curb where shared lanes are wide enough for cyclists to ride alongside motorists
• placed in the centre of the lane where shared lanes are too narrow for cyclists to ride alongside motorists

Sharrows and "Share the Road" signage have already been installed as part of a pilot project on Memorial Drive that introduced advisory bike lanes.

See: Are North Bay drivers ready for bike lanes?

After some confusion surrounding the proper usage of the bicycle lanes, Kate Pace Way, and walking paths this summer, the City of North Bay engaged the public in an active transportation education campaign, then installed a total of 14 Share the Road Signs and 14 sharrows every 400 metres along the roadway to further clarify that cyclists and motorists are sharing the road.