Originally Posted by
paulypro
This is two prong, both to ensure cars can slip by you safely & to also not aggravate the motorists by holding them back, thus even more gravely endangering your safety. I don't understand how people think the existence of a sharrow entitles them to the entire lane or block traffic.
While I agree that blocking traffic and aggravating them is generally counterproductive, the sharrows are there to allow cyclists to take the lane to stay safe. If cyclist yields to the motorists all the time, even at the detriment of their own safety, the sharrows are simply going to disappear, and the motorists would feel free to buzz by cyclists even when they should not.
They're painted on to indicate that motorists should expect cyclists on the road, and they should consider that there will be eventualities where they'll have to take the road. If the motorists are really that annoyed by cyclists taking the lane when necessary, maybe they should find alternate routes that cyclists do not use.