Would 'sharrows' work in Detroit... and what the heck are they?

Before you find out if sharrows would work in Detroit, first you must know what they are. They are the painted lines in the roads that designate bike routes. Sounds great, right? Sounds like they would work in Detroit, right? Well, actually, they'd only work in a few instances. M-bike.org points out that 90 percent of Detroit's streets are primed for bike lanes (in most cities 50 percent is a good number). So, Detroit, skip the sharrows and just make some bike lanes already.

Excerpt from m-bike.org:

Would Sharrows work in Detroit?

Yes, but only in limited instances, primarily when:

• There is not enough road width for bike lanes (even after a Road Diet)
• There is either no on-street parking or high-use on-street parking

Most city of Detroit roads do not meet the above checklist.

There is enough room for bike lanes on a majority of roads. For example, a recent non-motorized planning analysis found that over 90% of the roads in Detroit's near east side would support bike lanes without any widening. The planner said 50% is considered excellent in other cities. He's never seen a street network more readily available for bike lanes.

Read the entire post here.