Bike “Sharrows” coming to Richmond

Bike “sharrows” coming to Richmond after the city receives $119 million in transportation funding.

June 24, 2011; 4:29 PM • by RVANews staff

Between 2012-2017, Richmond will have more than $119 million to play with. The recently adopted Six-Year Improvement Program budget from the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) will fund several transportation improvement projects.

Among them will be Bike sharrows, typically a bicycle with arrows atop it spray painted in the center of a travel lane, done as a visual indication to both motorists and cyclists that bicycle travel takes place at that particular location. Designated to installed in fiscal year 2012, the sharrows will run as follows:

West on Westhampton Way at the University of Richmond to the east at Williamsburg Road.
Hermitage Road to South Corporate Limit (SCL) Richmond on Cherokee Road
Hermitage Road to SCL on Iron Bridge Road)

Although unrelated, the announcement of the bike sharrows comes on the heels of Mia Birk’s talk at the Science Museum of Virginia on how to successfully implement bike-friendly initiatives in cities. Birk oversaw the 20 year process in Portland, Oregon that ultimately made the city the most bike-friendly in the U.S.

Other funding in the Six-Year improvement program includes completing Phase 3 of Main Street Station, providing a cobblestone roadbed on the east end of the African Burial Ground, traffic system upgrades in South Richmond, among other projects.

Corrections

Originally we reported that sharrows were painted “within roadside bike lanes” which is misleading. Sharrows are typically painted in the center of a lane without an accompanying bike lane.

photo by richardmasoner