Can the Least-Loved Bike Infrastructure Be Improved?

Consider, if you will, the lowly sharrow. This awkwardly named symbol, painted in bright white on asphalt, combines a bicycle and an arrow. It’s intended to indicate that a lane should be shared on equal terms by people on bikes and people driving cars.

Accepted as a standard marking by the Federal Highway Administration since 2009, the sharrow is one of the least-loved types of bicycle infrastructure. It can be confusing to drivers who have never encountered it before, and is frequently dismissed by cyclists as an ineffective, cheap fix that allows cities to say they are accommodating bikes without committing much space, money, or political capital to the effort. (Read the comments on this excellent Greater Greater Washington piece about sharrows to get an idea of the most common objections.)