Eyes on the Street: Sad Sharrows in NoHo

Streetsblog is tracking down the bikeways that the L.A. City Transportation Department’s implemented during fiscal year 2019-20; that story should be ready next week. There are some worthwhile new bikeways – from improving Main Street to extending Winnetka – but overall, this year’s output (like last year’s) is pretty underwhelming.

For now, here (above) is one of the saddest bikeway facilities LADOT installed in FY19-20: a half-mile of new sharrows on Tujunga Avenue from Burbank Boulevard to Oxnard Street in North Hollywood. The location is two blocks north of the North Hollywood B and G Line Station – in the North Hollywood Metro Bike Share service area. Read Eric Jaffe’s recent piece on why having safe street design is more important for supporting bicycling, compared to the presence of bike-share.

Sharrows are a weak treatment nearly anywhere, but this one is especially ill-considered, given the large striped off area on the right. Theoretically, sharrow markings tell cyclists where they should safely ride on a street. What LADOT traffic engineer in their right mind expected that a cyclist would ride where that sharrow is?