I just got a call from the FDOT District 6 Secretary Gus Pego. You may recall from previous posts that we have tried on multiple times to reach him and his office so, I was happy to take his call. It turns out that FDOT wanted to put bike lanes in the Sunset Drive project, that our Secretary lives very close by and understands the importance of this corridor for bicyclists and pedestrians, local schools and places of worship. He personally looked into putting in undesignated (4foot lanes, requiring an extra foot of pavement on each side) or designated (5ft) bike lanes, but that would have been prohibitively expensive. According to an email we received from his assistant last Friday, the cost nearly triples the current project budget of $3.5million to $9.9million. Adding a standard bike lane would bring the costs past $10million.
But what about sharrows, I asked. As many of you know, the South Florida Bike Coalition has been preparing to take legal action on this corridor and we feel that additional traffic calming measures, plus sharrows and effective signage could make wide curb lanes on Sunset a safe alternative. Gus Pego said, “Oh, we are planning on putting in sharrows.” What!? He explained that they didn’t mention it because FDOT felt people were not aware what a sharrow was but sure, he assured me, he is ready to say that we should expect sharrows on Sunset Drive.
You read it here first.
UPDATE
So, why do we like sharrows? Full disclosure. I love sharrows. I freely admit that I have a favorite street lane treatment and sharrow it is.
- Sharrows encourage people to ride where it is safest, in the lane.
- Sharrows communicate effectively to motorists where they should expect to see people on bicycles.
- Sharrows reduce the number of people bicycling in the wrong direction (“salmon”).
I could go on and on… So what could be wrong with this miraculous idea?
According to the MUTD guidebook: “Guidance 02 The Shared Lane Marking should not be placed on roadways that have a speed limit above 35 mph.” The portions of Sunset Drive in this project have posted speeds of 40mph and, as we all know, see motorists regularly speeding at greater speeds than this. This is only a ‘guidance’, but it has its place. As Director of the South Florida Bike Coalition, I support the choice of the sharrow, WITH the implementation of the signage you see above and to the left AND increased law enforcement to reduce speeding in the area. This is my position after reviewing this project, after riding in ‘undesignated bike lanes’ on high speed roads in other cities and listening to what members have expressed to me. What is your reaction to this news?
On another note: The City of Miami Bicycle Master Plan calls for the implementation of sharrows throughout the city. You can download the plan and search through for shared use lane markings at www.miamigov.com/bikes.
5 Responses to Gus Pego Called. He Wants Sharrows.
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awesome. thanks for your awesome work Kathryn!!!!!!!
Congratulations! Let the transformation of Florida begin!
My reaction? I think his excuses are lame. This is a matter that has to do more with lack of will than budgetary or space problems. If FDOT is unwilling to implement *their own* “Complete Streets” policy, then they should give up jurisdiction of the road to Dade County, since the county doesn’t have such complicated “standards” to build bicycle lanes.
I only have to look at my neighborhood lanes, on Sunset between 127th and 147th to see that although there was limited space there and the bike lanes are definitely not 5ft wide, *someone* had some sort of political will to put that couple of miles of bike lanes there.
I wish FDOT’s officials were elected… Because if they were, many of us would make sure they’d be at the unemployment line after the next election.
Tallahassee discussed with FHWA why the 35 mph guidance was put in for sharrows. Their response was that there was no research done with higher speeds. FDOT is going to do that research to see if sharrows add benefits at higher speeds.
We want our FDOT District to pursue innovate projects. We want them to embrace the MUTCD that we fought so hard to get. We want to promote road design that reinforces our rights to the road in the minds of motorists.
Compromise doesn’t always mean giving something up – we have their attention and we can use that to our advantage.
Yes, they probably could do extra work, at an additional cost only a fraction of what they are claiming, to give us an undesignated bike lane – like they have along parts of Broward Blvd or even by Crandon Park. But if you have ridden a real bike lane and then a gutter pan ‘undesignated shoulder’ alongside fast moving cars, you begin to see why 5ft is the minimum standard and wonder – why don’t I just take the full lane where people can see me and I’m not focused on debris in front of me?
Will sharrows on Sunset encourage new riding? I don’t hold my breathe on that. But they encourage better riding and give us a stronger reason to argue for bike lanes on intersecting roadways.
Much more to follow- Thanks to you both, E & J.